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Overlanding across Afica in our Land Rover Defender: Rwanda

Andy Lees
2006-05-16 13:20:37

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bikes. of course, neither did it have the luxurious villas, boutiques or fine restaurants. but sitting at a parasoled table, eating fresh fish and drinking cold beer whilst the gentle waves lapped the beach in front of us, we dined far more stylishly than we'd been able to afford in italy.

kigali - kibungu

from kibuye, we drove back to kigale then east to the tanzanian border the next day. for the last two days the skies had been increasingly black and the rain more frequent. being at such altitude, sometimes we were almost cold. we wanted to get down to the low, hot plains of tanzania. our plan had always been to drive straight down the eastern shore of lake tanganyika, the most direct route into malawi. we'd heard it was a bad road but hadn't worried about that too much - we'd crossed the sudan for god's sake.

we still wanted to do some last minute research though, particularly as we'd heard some reports of banditry in the area. we did some internet searches, reading the accounts of the few other overlanders that had travelled that way. it sounded atrocious; particularly in the wet season, when the roads are listed as impassable. well the wet season had certainly started and that coupled with the complete lack of accommodation, infestations of tetze fly and prevalant banditry was enough for us to change our plans. we would instead follow tanzania's narrow network of good roads. this was a little frusting as in order to get from north to south we would have zigzag via dar es salam on the coast; traversing the width of the country twice. and tanzania is a wide country (about 1,000kms). the compensation was that we'd get to visit the serengeti and ngorongoro crater again (we'd been there on our honeymoon), which we weren't going to do because of the expense, but oh well, if you're in the area ...

the land rover was still squeaking. all the symptoms pointed towards the universal joints - we'd had to change one in ethiopia. with a long drive ahead of us, i decided to remove the propeller shafts and check the joints. we were at a small guest house, not far from the border. as i removed the shafts, i was reminded that i'd done exactly the same thing at the ethiopian border prior to crossing into kenya. the west of tanzania is as notorious for its lawlessness as northern kenya and i marvelled at the timing of these things. and as on that occasion it appeared that the uv joints weren't the problem. at least it's always good to know what it isn't.

we only spent a short time in rwanda but we're glad we made the decision to visit. with its mountains, lakes and forests rwanda is a lovely country and in the main it's hassle-free. outside of kigali no-one tries to sell you anything, children wave excitably at the side of the road, and you can get out of the car without becoming an attraction yourself. you won't find a backpacker hostel or camping facilites but the hotels are good value, driving is easy on good roads and then of course, there's the beer.