Chapter Twenty-One: Exploding Lake? Got Milk? Six Stars?
Seven Hours for the Muzungu in the Nissan?
12.17.2021 - 12.17.2021 66 °F
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Sam calls for me at 8:30. I have my two backpacks and my negative COVID-19 test in hand; I'm ready to make the long drive to my next and final stop: The One & Only Nyungwe House Lodge, a 22-room/suite facility housed in six separate wooden villas set within a tea plantation. (This property is a sister resort to the One&Only Palmilla in Cabo) There is, I am told, a heated pool. They are very proud of their property. I checked their web site to see what it would cost me to stay these three nights without going through NWS and the quote is $5,700 for one person.
At first, I wonder if we have a car problem; we don't.
The only problem is that the trip south will take seven hours to complete in our Nissan. The lunchtime milepost is Kibuye where the waters of Lake Kivu adjoin. The drive is like the others you've been with me for. Except for one thing. I decided to make a list of the things the bicycles were transporting from seller to buyer. Here it is: Sorghum, Potatoes, Sugar Cane, Charcoal, Bricks, Firewood, Water, Local Beer, Carrots, Bananas, Coca-Cola, Cabbages, Milk, Pepsi-Cola, Chickens in Cages, Chickens Already Slaughtered, Cement, Grass For Livestock Feed, Sheep, Goats, Logs, Mats, Rugs, Eggplant and, maybe not from seller to buyer, People (either straddled or sidesaddle). Uphill, there is a process of dismounting and pushing sometimes alone and sometimes with assistance from another person--rented assistance I think. Downhill, the issue is one of breaking. Sam tells me that most of these guys wear sandals with soles of bicycle tires to assist them in stopping. The slopes here are killers. At one point, we saw a car carrier (It was loaded with pickup trucks marked "UN") that had lost control and slammed into a tree. I don't see any way the driver would have survived.
A couple of times i saw bicyclists grabbing onto the back of a slow moving truck making its uphill climb essentially hitching a peddle-free trip. The road across the Rusiro Ridge is of wonderful quality; it really is a great road with street lights and pavement markings and enough space on the side for pedestrians--and there are hundreds of them--to get where they are going. Nobody in Rwanda needs or wants a step counter because they would overachieve each and every day. Everybody walks. And walks. And walks. Old people. Tiny kids. Everybody is on the side of the road. Sometimes we offer up a beep of the horn so they will budge from the actual driving part of the road but mostly they are alert and get out of the way.
Then it begins to rain. Heavily. The pedestrians either keep on going grabbing a nearby banana leaf to use as an umbrella or take a break beneath a tree. But mostly, they just get wet, soaked to the skin, and keep on keeping on.
We arrive at Karongi District and stop at Moriah Hill Lodge for lunch.
We overlook, just feet away, the shoreline of Lake Kivu, scene of regular fishing and fish farming. Sam tells me that, many years ago the custom was that if a young woman became pregnant out of wedlock, the family would hire a boat and exile her to one of the islands we see. "Why wouldn't she just swim home to shore," I ask. "Swimming is not in our culture," he replied.
Men from the Democratic Republic of the Congo--the international border bisects the lake--would, Sam says, bring a boat to the island and "steal" the woman, thereby getting a wife without having to pay a dowry. He did get a baby with the deal, however.
Seven months ago, across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (you can see it through the fog), Nyiragongo Volcano erupted killing 32 people and sending hot magma down its slopes in the direction of Lake Kivu. The lake's surface is at 4,790 feet; Nyiragongo's peak is at 11,385 feet above sea level.
That creates a problem unique to Lake Kivu and only two other lakes in the world. Lake Kivu is an "Exploding Lake." A scientist could better explain this but here it is as I, layman, understand it. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane rest at the bottom of this lake. If hot magma enters the lake, there is a risk of an "overturn," releasing a deadly fog that can and does kill by suffocating everyone in the surrounding area. This has happened twice at "exploding lakes" in Cameroon, first at Lake Monoun in 1984, causing asphyxiation and death of 37 people and again in 1986 at Lake Nyos killing 1,800 people. Since these two "lake explosions" engineers have come up with a way to remove the gas through pipes.
But Lake Kivu is 2,000 times larger than either of those Cameroon lakes and "presents a disaster threat of monstrous proportions," according to Tarrifa, a Rwandan news outlet. I'm having lunch on the quiet shores of Lake Kivu. I had the option to book a helicopter to Nyungwe ($2,500.00) but then I would have missed lunch next to an "exploding lake." Who would want to miss that?
From Kibuye it is another long drive to the One&Only. We go through Ryanyirakabano and I think of the ej4 crew as we pass. Along the road, we see hundreds of goat tethered so that they have enough room to eat grass but not enough room to fall under the wheels of a passing vehicle. It appears to be an art form.
Children see me in the Nissan and yell, "Hello, Muzungu! Hello" Muzungu means "white person." I'm unique along this roadway in that regard.
Finally, we arrive at the One&Only Nyungwe which is billed as "five-star." I have very much enjoyed all the lodges where I have been housed with Natural World Safaris placing me in wonderful places.
This one is the pièce de résistance unlike the wonderful lodges up to this point. Set in the Nyungwe National Forest, it is a high altitude mountainous rainforest containing 9,583 foot Mount Bigugu. The lodge is down a bumpy road in the middle of a very large tea plantation. It is six star. Three drummers greet me upon arrival. Ryan and Dee, managers, come to the car. A very hot mysterious tea drink is given to me in a copper cup, made and presented by Gaston. The beverage is too hot for the copper, I can not touch my lip to the rim. The drink goes undrunk.
The lobby is amazing, the grounds are amazing, my room is amazing but it seems all a bit out of place here. The other lodges feel like Rwanda. This facility feels like, well, a six star hotel which could be set in Switzerland or India or Japan or Cabo but maybe not here. I'm not disappointed in any way. Its just a bit of culture shock. There's a TV, for crying out loud. Oh, and heat and air conditioning. I mean...
Interesting tidbit however: Since there is an Nespresso Machine in my room, I can't get room service coffee in the morning Weird.
I had been told that milk bars abound; there are hundreds of them across Rwanda. I had yet to see one until today. They play, I understand, an important social role here. Everyone, young men, old women and all types in between sit and imbibe and chat and connect with one another at these ubiquitous milk bars. You can opt for plain old milk—hot or cold—or for Ikivuguto, a fermented concoction similar to yogurt. For the locals, it goes well with cakes, bananas or even chapatis—an unleavened flat bread that is quite popular here.
For time immemorial, cows have been a symbol and source of Rwandan prosperity. The “last king” of Rwanda, Kigell V Ndahindurwa, was, by referendum, dethroned in 1961, and left behind wooden bottles of cow’s milk behind his thatched palace. The 1994 genocide even involved milk. The targeted Tutsis were traditionally herdsmen, some wealthy by virtue of their ownership of cattle.
In 2006, Rwandan president Paul Kagame began a “Girinka” initiative awarding one cow to every poor family here; 300,000 have been so far distributed. (Speaking of President Kagame, he has been a guest here at One&Only Nyungwe)
Coronavirus has recently closed over half of Rwanda’s dairy business which resulted in the closing of many independent milk bars. Corporate chains filled that vacuum. Draught has played a role in thinning herds. Inflation has driven milk prices up—a liter now costs about 70 cents, a 40% rise in only a few months. (The price of milk in the U.S. averages just under $1 per liter)
Enough. I am leaving One&Only at 4:45 tomorrow morning. That's Chapter 22; something completely different.
