Driving in Rwanda

If you are a confident driver, a car can take you all over the country easily and quickly because most places are within a 3 hour drive from Kigali. Renting a car is a decent third option for travel: it helps you avoid having to use public transportation or be overcharged by a safari company.

But the decision to drive in Africa always comes with a set of obstacles. In Rwanda, the primary challenge is passing with low visibility on steep mountain roads. Also, caution is required on stretches near villages and towns that can quickly become crowded with bicycles, playing children, and pedestrians.

Roads are paved, which is a big positive. They are predominantly twisty, however, and all of them are single lane. Being confident at passing (overtaking) is necessary if you want to prevent long stretches of creeping uphill behind heavy trucks or weak minibuses. Passing can be a sweaty-palmed ordeal because stretches of acceptable visibility are limited.

To make matters more complex, Rwanda's road system is right hand drive, but half of the cars are also right hand drive. You may find that, as a driver, you are completely blind when you are behind big trucks. Take a passenger if at all possible because a second set of eyes can help make safer snap judgments.

The speed of driving is mildly schizophrenic: uphill stretches are achingly slow and downhill slaloms are quick. Minibuses and trucks that you pass going uphill may careen around you at top speed on the next downhill slope. It's a zen kind of ebb and flow, so be patient with the turns of the tide.

Above all, avoid hitting anything alive and slow down when roadside numbers get thick. I noticed a lot of children playing in the road, and some of them pretended to jump (or push a playmate) in front of the car when we passed. Honk your horn early to warn them, other pedestrians, and bicycles to clear the way. Some roads have wide shoulders or sidewalks, though; so crowding the road is not as much of a problem in Rwanda as it is in other countries.

Renting a Car in Rwanda

Renting a car in Kigali is very informal because there are no rental car companies. This is either a nail biter or a relief for Westerners who are used to signing their lives away at the end of a three page corporate epic.

Asking around at local travel agencies will yield scraps of paper with the names of friends who rent out cars. Keep searching for a better deal and bargain until you are happy with the rate, which should be around 20,000 francs per day for a normal car and 25,000 for a 4WD. Make sure you have the proper car for the roads on your trip. If you will be driving on a dirt road for any length of time, rent a 4WD.

You may have to sign a simple contract. Find a person who speaks your language: it is crucial to sign a contract that you can read. Don't feel pressured to sign anything that sounds unreasonable. We refused to sign a contract with a clause in it that held us responsible for replacing any items stolen from the car - that would have included pricey things like, for example, the engine. Instead, we agreed to file a police report if anything went missing.

Finally, I recommend driving during daylight hours outside of Kigali. Have a map on hand, and plan your routes so you arrive at your destinations before dark.

Gorilla Treks Rocket Ever Upward

You now have to shell out 350 USD to spend one hour with the gorillas. That is almost a 50% increase from 2004.