Nyungwe Forest, near the southwest corner of Rwanda, is one of the oldest forests in Africa, if not the oldest. For hundreds of thousands of years, minute by minute, day after day, the process of photosynthesis from the Nyungwe has spewed oxygen into the earth’s atmosphere – we should all be thankful. Remarkably, Nyungwe is generally intact, still in pristine condition. There are threats of course, illegal logging, poaching, and the like, as explained by the brilliant modern interpretive center at the main campground. Still this forest has survived any number of climate changes and if Homo Sapiens can be kept at bay, there’s a good chance for continued success. We need the oxygen. At any rate, we came to experience the deep green scenery and the primates. Heavy black cloud unleash great buckets of rain on us as we arrange camping. There are beautifully built teak shelters and we can back the Beagle right up to the shelter for cooking and relaxing. The view is stunning, the horizon full of forest stretching on and on, green and thick and unlike anything we have seen so far in Africa. Rwanda is full of surprises.

To walk anywhere in Nyungwe you must have a guide. Trails are variously strenuous, all are steep and slick with rain. I know I’d have to watch my step on a guided hike – to look up or around is to ensure a fall. We elect to hang around and see what happens instead of hiking. Monkeys visit us every morning, calmly walking around the truck checking for edibles and the bright yellow bananas on the dashboard attract attention. Other than that, we must seem pretty boring to them. They are anything but boring to me. Their colorful fur and big eyes, their little fingers and long toes; I find them endlessly entertaining. L’Hoest monkeys, blue monkeys, black and white colobus, all are found here. Not one of them bares their teeth at me and tries to steal lunch as happened in Botswana – I heaved the box of flatware at that one, I was hungry and not about to share. We don’t share anything with these fine primates either but they don’t care. There is plenty of food in the forest for them. Humans would starve in these woods – the trees keep all the nutrients for themselves and there is little forage for human taste. Could be that is why this place is still so fresh and vital. Chimpanzees live here too and a guide can take you to look for them. No guarantees though, you may or may not see these wonderful creatures. Chimps in the wild are shocking – if you’ve only seen them on TV, you’ll be aghast at how powerful they are as they move about their own environment. We spot two of them on the road as we leave the park; they quietly move off into the trees and I’m glad for that, I would not want a chimp to be hit by a truck.

Nyungwe is the last park we visit in Rwanda. As we leave, I think that Rwanda fits perfectly the pattern I’ve noticed in African countries. That is: nothing is what it seems. Rwanda is practically litter-free, has marvelous roads, beautiful parks, solemn memorials (all over the country), good hospitality service – all the things a tourist would compliment. On the other hand, it is run by a heavy-handed dictator, Paul Kagama, who has been in power for 23 years. Many praise his positive achievements but of course there is a dark side. Opposition leaders tend to disappear. Militias in Congo are armed with Rwandan weaponry and they facilitate the theft of Congo’s resources by Rwanda, who then sell it to the west. To be fair, Uganda (run by another brutal dictator) and other countries are also robbing Congo – there is plenty to go around there for now. Where will it all end? Will Rwandans really recover from the genocide? Have free elections? We cannot know. It is time to enter Uganda and the Katuna border crossing is ahead of us. We’ll see what happens there.