I think I said Snoozecube was the best thing ever. Boy, was I wrong. Yotel (at the Amsterdam airport) kicks snoozecube’s butt! For roughly the same price, Yotel has a comforter instead of kinda icky blanket, a toilet, TV, sink, shower, a key card like a regular hotel room, and room service! Of course, I used very little of the above except the comforter, since I passed out for 3 hours shortly after I checked in. But soooooooooooo great!
One wouldn’t call me an experienced camper. Or even a good camper. Or really a camper of any kind. When I was 7, my Brownie troop “camped” in our troop leader’s backyard, I was in one of those play tents with my friend, which is most definitely not made for actual camping. There was a gap at the entrance flap, which we plugged with our clothes “to keep out the bugs”. It downpoured all night, meaning my mother had to run home and get me a change of clothes since all of mine were soaked. I don’t remember any bugs, though, so technically our plan worked.
In college when I worked at a rich kids camp one summer, we had to spend one night with our campers away from our cabins and mattresses and in the “wilderness” a few feet away from camp, in the woods, where there was a lean-to. I let my kids sneak back into camp to use the bathroom instead of making them go in the woods, and used bug spray to get the fire going. 18-year-old me was a great role model.
So my history of camping is not something I take pride in. But when it was suggested that we go camping in Akagera National Park, about a 2-hour drive from Kigali on the border of Tanzania, I figured what the hell. You only live once, plus there are cool African animals there. Also there were plenty of actual campers with extra tents, sleeping bags, etc to share with me. So 7 of us loaded up 2 SUVs with aforementioned tents & sleeping bags as well as headlamps, cameras, folding chairs, hot dogs, marshmallows, nuts, beef brochettes (meat skewers), cups, plates, cutlery, wine and beer, and got going.
Day one consisted of driving through the southern end of the park, keeping our eyes peeled for fun safari beasts. For most of the day, all we saw was this:
Sure we saw a baboon or two, and a couple of antelope, but nothing too crazy. Actually, the most wildlife we encountered were the zillions of tsetse flies that would swarm the car from time to time, and if we opened the window to take a picture, would sneak in and hide. Then, when we thought we had gotten rid of them, they would launch a sneak attack, setting off several moments of hysteria while we went on the warpath. This happened so often throughout the trip that the floor of the car became a virtual tsetse fly graveyard. Serves the suckers rights. Their bites HURT. Still, it was pretty cool to be bouncing through a national park in Rwanda.
At about 4pm, we finally made it to the camp site, at which time it became clear the trip was completely worth it. (Also we were at a high enough altitude that the tsetse flies were no longer with us).The camp site was on top of a big hill, overlooking a lake:
The weather was perfect, and later we would have a full moon. If the ground wasn’t so hard, I might have actually slept. But before trying to sleep, we did the campfire thing. My hearty camping compatriots did not do a good job lighting a fire. They had been working on it for about 10 minutes when a hearty German family who lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo drove up. The mother started their campfire in about 3 minutes, while our firestarters were still frantically blowing on tiny embers. In the end, our friendly German neighbors gave us one of their burning logs. I think our team was embarrassed, but hey, we had a fire.
Our campfire. Our German saviors are sitting in the background.
Things looked up from there. We ate, we drank, we chatted, we were in our tents by 10, and up by 6 the next morning to continue our mini safari. Fortunately no hyenas surrounded our campsite overnight (that I knew of), but in the morning, there were zebras and topi (type of antelope) within feet of us. They were just minding their own business. It was super cool.
Plus, safari day 2 proved to be much more fruitful. We were in the northern part of the park at this point, and although the roads were much much worse, the animal sightings were much much better. Giraffes (completely fearless; you can drive right up to them), warthogs (total scaredy cats), water buffalo (mean; apparently the park guides are even afraid of them), tons of zebra, a bunch of kinds of antelope, more baboons and, unfortunately, more tsetse flies.
Mean water buffalo glowering at us
Giraffe!
Zebra family!
All in all, I had a great time. Although one night of camping at a time is more than enough. You can take the girl out of the city, but…
46 days, 7 flights, 7 airports plus 2 additional tarmac stops*, 2 embassies, 1 mini-safari, and 0 lost bags (!) later, I made it back to DC.
The flights home went just as smoothly as all the rest of the flights on this trip; the travel gods have truly smiled on me for the entirety of the last 6 weeks! The first leg began with what one might call a ‘puddle jumper’; a quick, 37 minute flight from Kigali to Entebbe, Uganda, where 90% of the plane got off while I and a handful of my fellow travelers stayed on board, watching as about 20 cleaning people whizzed through the plane, replacing blankets, pillows, and head rest covers in preparation for the new crop of travelers who joined us for the onward flight to Amsterdam. Here’s where the amazing part comes in: I SLEPT. For a couple of hours. While sitting in a middle seat. This is a true testament to how tired I was. I also watched “The DaVinci Code”.
Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport is fantastic. Super clean, super modern, and it has a Yotel. (Same concept as the Snoozecube, but far superior. More on that, plus pictures here). I slept for a few more hours, then began the final leg of my trip.
Taking off from Amsterdam
It was again, blissfully uneventful. My entertainment consisted of “JFK” (too long and sorta boring, but it’s fun to think about conspiracies), “The Devil Wears Prada” (one of my faves), and “Queen of Versailles” (actually a good documentary – more depth to it than I thought).
So that was that. I’m safely back in DC for a few weeks, so I can get over jet lag just in time to fly back to Africa!
*In case anyone’s interested, the 7 airports were: Washington Dulles, Paris’ Charles DeGaulle, Nouakchott International, Casablanca’s Mohammed V, Dubai International, Kigali International, and Amsterdam’s Schiphol. The 2 tarmacs were in Mombasa, Kenya and Entebbe, Uganda, en route to and from Kigali.
Toto...We're Not In NYC Anymore 