Akagera National Park

Akagera National Park is one of the national parks and game reserves managed by African Parks and Vince and I visited during our stay in Rwanda. It is a conservation success story!

The park celebrated its 80th birthday last year. When it was gazetted in 1934, Akagera was three times the size it is now. But after the refugees started returning to Rwanda from across the river in Tanzania after the genocide, the country needed somewhere to put them. So they took 2/3 of Akagera in order to provide land for the refugees to live, farm and graze. Unfortunately, they didn't stop there. Game poaching became rampant. That and the increased encroachment into the national park pretty much devastated the game and landscape there.

But now that Akagera is managed by African Parks in partnership with the Rwandan Development Board, the park is slowly returning to its former glory. Commercial fishing has been halted. Giraffes which had previously been wiped out were re-introduced. The buffalo, elephant and leopard populations are increasing. And this year, lions and rhinos will be re-introduced making Akagera a Big 5 game reserve once again!

We stayed at Ruzizi Tented Lodge which was built to blend harmoniously with nature.

The architecture is truly part of the landscape!

They built the main observation deck around this stand of trees.

The Akagera River feeds into a series of lakes, marshes and papyrus swamps that constitute central and eastern Africa’s largest protected wetlands. It is teeming with hippos, crocodiles, fish and birds.

Water is collected from rain and electricity is solar-produced.

Our private patio ...

... overlooking ...

... the lake.

This hippo came to our beach for breakfast. We had vervet monkeys too!