Camping at Akagera National Park
- kenyagirlforever
- Apr 18
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 7
By Naserian Ferguson
Camping at Akagera National Park is one of the best ways to spend a weekend in Rwanda. The park boasts a variety of beautiful landscapes: lush, rolling hills; tall, wavy, “The Ghost and The Darkness”-esq grass; glassy lakes filled with crocodiles and hippopotamuses; vast plains that hold herds of impala and buffalo; and dense, bushy vegetation. Akagera also has the ‘big five’: namely, lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, elephants, and buffalos. Camping here makes for a fun getaway from the city, where you can drive around and search for animals, sleep in a tent, and be in nature. And recently, we did just that.
The distance from Kigali to the South Gate at Akagera is roughly 2 ½ to 3 hours. This time might be increased depending on how often you stop for breaks or bathrooms. One notable stop is Imigongo Cafe. They sell coffee, tea, juice, and even items to take on the road for lunch. Their veggie samosas are especially delicious: with a brown, crispy triangle shell that’s stuffed with carrots, peas, potatoes, and delicious, flavorful seasonings; they make a wonderful roadtrip meal.
After we stopped at the cafe, we settled back to our chess tournament. One very convenient advantage to having sideways seats, (we have two long rows placed vertically instead of horizontally), is that it makes for easier car ride games. We placed a plastic bin filled with camping items in the middle of the rows, and set the chess board on top of it. Having a magnetic chess set is extremely helpful. Even if the board and pieces are magnetic, the car will inevitably swerve or hit a bump, and all the pieces will go flying. That noted, chess tournaments are fun ways to pass the time during the car ride.
Once you arrive to the gate, you check-in and drive down the red dirt road to the reception. Aside from all of the necessary things to do, this is the place where you can stretch your legs, check out bones and fossils of animals, take a look at the gift shop, and scan the blackboard for information about recent animal sightings. This specific trip, there had been recent sightings of a group of three lions. They had killed an animal and for days had been in roughly the same spot. And it turned out that they were not far from the reception building.
The lioness sprawled under the tree in contented, lazy sleep. One male laid next to her, and the other rested, somewhat hidden, in the brush beside the tree. Their bulging stomachs were evidence of the nearby kill. They had been napping in the same spot for three days, unwilling- perhaps even unable- to move because of their huge bellies, filled to the brim with fresh meat. The rotting, decaying smell of the animal carcass was thick in the air nearby them. But it was worth it. These lions were definitely not about to run away anywhere, which offered the perfect opportunity to snatch some photos of them.
We had been waiting for around an hour, hopeful that they would get up and move to a better position. The brushy grass around them made it difficult to get a clear picture. We snacked while we waited in the car; it was worthwhile to hang around the lions for awhile. Even though they were sleepy, this could be the best encounter with animals. They stirred in their sleep, and we got out our cameras. The lioness obligingly sat up, and we all waited still, our fingers hovering over the buttons on our phones or cameras, ready to click whenever it made a sudden movement. Then the lioness yawned, opening wide its toothy mouth. Then it almost- grinned! As if amused at our glee at witnessing this feat.
Depending on how often you stop for animals, it can take around half a day to drive from the South up to the North of the park. Our favorite camping spot, Mutumba Hills, is in the Northern section of the park. Mutumba Hills is a very special campsite in Akagera. The air is crisp and cool, there are almost no tsetse flies, and you get a stunning, scenic view of the rolling hills, glassy lakes, and even a bit of Tanzania! There’s a round gazebo with a circular table, where you can have lunch or hang up hammocks. They have a building with toilets, and even working showers! After a hot, sweaty day in the car, a cold shower feels amazingly refreshing. Then you can set up your tent next to one of the three campfire spots, and sit next to the fire in the evening while you eat, relax, play games, or tell stories.
Speaking of eating, we’ve experimented with several camping meals over the years at Akagera. Oftentimes we do frozen stews, which we then heat up over the fire in a dutch oven. But this year we decided to try something different: burgers.
And I must say, they were perhaps one of the best burgers of my life. My parents grilled the burger patties and a very special (rare!) treat of bacon in the cast iron skillet over the white, smoldering coals. They tossed a couple of onions in the coals as well for added flavor. The smokey flavor was incredible. By the time they were finished, it was dark, and we sat around the fire to get warm. Somehow, I think this makes a camping meal even better. After dinner, we had tea. We boiled water over the fire, and then poured it in our camping mugs with a tea bag, sugar, and powdered milk. We sat around the fire while we held our camping mugs in our hands, and read a few chapters from a book.
This trip to Akagera was a fun and memorable. From chess games in the car, to spotting a trio of lions, to eating food cooked over the fire and reading around the campfire in the dark, I will remember this trip as being one of the best ones I can think of.
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