03 February, 2006

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.