Akagera: the birthplace of my safari obsession

 i discovered a new favourite pastime - SAFARIING!! along with Yuhki and Ragner from Germany (Tommy’s friends’ friends), i went on an overnighter to Akagera National Park, which is on the eastern border of Rwanda right beside Tanzania. IT. WAS. THE. BEST. you can hire a guide but we (and when i say we i mean Ragner) rented an SUV and drove ourselves. Akagera has a few dirt roads that you can follow, and the rest is a whole mixed bag of terrains - thick bush, grasslands, flat plains, hills. it would take about 5-6 hours to drive the length but we mostly stuck around the southern part. it’s not a traditional safari but they do have all of the Big Five animals (elephants, lions, rhino, hippo, buffalo) thanks to recent imports of lions and rhinos earlier this year. 30 seconds after entering the park i screamed. an ELEPHANT was like 2 metres from the path. you know, you see people’s safari pics and you’re like oh that’s cool. but being a stone’s throw away from a real live giant elephant is INSANE!!! that wasn’t our only close elephant encounter. later that day, after a behind-the-scenes tour from a park guide named Innocent (very enthusiastic but VERY REPETITIVE AND POINTLESS) we went for another cruise through the bush. we passed a German family who was driving the wrong way down a one way path. they turned around because of elephants on the path. being the Millennials we are, we proceeded towards the elephants. round the bend and bam there is an elephant and her baby!!!! SO CUTE I WAS DYING but we weren’t sure how close we could get, because we are well aware that they could destroy us. those tusks are not messing around. the mom and baby backed into the bush and we crept along the road… only to be surprised with 6-7 more elephants around the next bush. Ragner steps on it and our hearts are PUMPING. first elephant spottings were a huge success. the next day some other guides told us we are CRAZY for being so close and are lucky we made it out alive!! words of wisdom that Innocent forgot to disclose apparently. we made a fire and enjoyed our plain white bread (for 3 consecutive meals). we slept in a campsite that was surrounded by electrical fences so that we don’t get any late night visitors, the boys in the tent and me in the truck. still slightly terrified about sleeping in such close proximity to lions but getting out of my comfort zone is what peace play pash is all about! woke up to a stunning 5am sunrise over the Tanzania, the guys point out that the crazy thing about this view is there is likely not a human soul to be seen. 

following sunrise and some more white bread (day 2, just keeps gettin better) we set off on my fave day. we kicked things off by rounding a bend and running almost directly into an elephant blocking our path. Ragnar goes “HOLD MY COFFEE” and is pedal to the metal in reverse, while Yukhi is snapping photos and i get a maj case of the giggles because when else does this happen?!

 the rest of the day was driving around (tailing a guide so we dont run into any more elephants) and spotting giraffes, buffalo, Pumbas (warthogs), monkeys, baboons and a ton of deer/gazelles/antelope of the plain. a bunch of hippos in the water and a herd of 12 elephants across the lake. it was a thrill like i’ve never felt before and i am seriously considering blowing the rest of my trip budge on safaris. there is nothing more fun. pics are below (cred to Yukhi for sending his real camera shots)!!