Day 5 - Gisakura and Nyungwe National Park (27/9)

The road due south of Kibuye, running through the hills close-ish to Lake Kivu,

has long been due an overhaul, and Chinese money is certainly now being spent.  We started with a rock-studded, pot-holed dirt track...

and progressed, along with the road, through all its phases...

until, eventually (and not before time - we heard thunder just as we smelled the bitumen!), we were onto smooth tarmac, bordered by freshly-built walls, just as the rain started.

And so we arrived at Gisakura, a tea plantation on the edge of the Nyungwe National Park

Tomorrow, we'll drive through the park to Huye, university town and site of the National Museum, but for today amusement with the local bird-life

and other inhabitants 

(some of whom were a wee bit too keen to make us welcome)

Meanwhile a minor domestic crisis: Lieven has toothache and a mercy-dash for molar extraction is apparently in order. Hopefully he'll rejoin us on Monday but his colleague Patrick has jumped on a bus to take over.