Nyungwe National Park: Mountain Rainforest

The backpacking trip we went on was so hard. I wouldn’t do it again. To get things started, the park  told us to be there before 10, and we were, but they weren’t ready for us at all. I should have called a few days beforehand, and again the day beforehand; it’s just better to check on things here. Calling only 3 weeks ahead of time was too much. It turns out that the guy I had spoken to was not really the guy in charge, and he essentially did nothing. Once we had arrived at the park I was able to talk to the real guy in charge (whose English was fantastic) and he sorted things out quite quickly. Unfortunately, his office isn’t at the office where we were, so we had to call him with cell phones, which didn’t go through for about an hour and a half. And then they sent someone to be our guide, and that person didn’t show up for about 2 hours either. We ended up starting the hike 4 hours late.

I do have one great thing to say, though, and that is that God answered my prayer: he helped me out of my trouble with my boots. After all the planning I did for that trip, I forgot my hiking boots. So frustrating. I was cussing and hitting things and crying. I just felt like nothing I ever try to do over here works. Even when I try to get away from the stress, to do something to de-stress, I can’t. It was also frustrating because I could have gone back and gotten them if I’d know that the park was going to be so disorganized as to delay 4 hours!

I ended up renting galoshes from the park (just under $4 a day), and switching between them and the trail-sandals (with a toe strap but no back) that I bought in Uvira 8 weeks ago. I walked 26 miles in them, and it was ok! I did get a small blister on one foot, but not bad, and I was able to finish the hike. In fact, Karen had the biggest blister problem, and she was wearing the nicest boots. Although hers are like 8 years old and totally falling apart, so they only look nice. She should throw them away, actually.

But anyway, being able to finish the hike without my boots was a blessing. But man, the hike was so hard. Since we started 4 hours late the first day we had to do like 4-6 extra miles the second day, and it was insane. Most of the hike was between 7500-9500 ft. above sea level, and we felt the elevation. It was all hills, up and down, and up and down. And also there were these HUGE worms all over. Like, picture an earthworm, but an inch thick, and 18 inches long. Completely insane.

We were hiking in for real rainforest (80 inches of rain a year) and, true to form, it rained on us several times. But, thankfully it never really got that cold. Maybe it was in the 50’s, but nothing very serious. Our porters (we had 2, plus a guide) would make a fire, and they’d set up the tarp I brought about 7 feet above the fire, so we could all gather under there and be warm and also not afraid the tarp was going to catch fire. 

But the sleeping bag… man. We borrowed sleeping bags from a friend, and one of them was like, moldy, or something. Karen’s nostrils froze up when she tried to sleep in it the first night, which meant she basically didn’t sleep. Which is NOT how your want your first night on the trail to go. She was warm, she was lying on a soft, flat surface, but she just couldn’t breathe. So we switched on the second night and it kinda happened to me too. We were aware of it though, so I took some anti-histamine and that helped me. But I woke up a lot just breathing through my mouth. 

We didn’t see hardly any wildlife on this trail. That’s basically ok with me though, because this park doesn’t have much that interests me. Lots of kinds of chimps and monkeys, which are just trouble if you ask me. And like a thousand birds, but they’re so hard to see anyway. I did see a small creature that looked like a rat that got run over by a greasy tire and has no tail and no head. The highlight was definitely the giant worms. Completely blew my mind. I had no idea that worms could get that big.

Also, we didn’t get any of the nice views when we hiked over the second highest mountain of the park. It was completely cloudy/rainy. Oh well. The park DID successfully prevent anyone from asking me for money for about 72 hours straight, and that’s a very nice thing here. Maybe the best part of the hike was the wonderfully fresh air. It just smelt so earth and forest-like, and was—wait for it—a breath of fresh air in comparison with Bukavu, or the random village-filled countryside that I traveled through to Uganda. 

But oh my gosh, the hiking was exhausting. Karen summed it up well when she said “I stopped having fun the second day after lunch”. If we hadn’t lost 4 hours the first day it would have made a BIG difference on our enjoyment of the trip. But TIA.