Wildlife the joy of an Africa safari

compete against 200 other people for one of the much desired training contracts. Poachers were a big problem that has since been contained here, he explains.

The further north we go, the sparser the vegetation becomes. The surroundings transform themselves into grasslands with acacia trees.

There we see tope antelopes with their distinctive reddish-brown coats, brownish-black hind quarters and ridged horns. The white fur on their legs makes them appear as if they’re wearing socks.

After two hours travelling along the western border, we reach the park’s highest point at 1 825m, also known as Mutumba Hills.

There are a few camp fire spots, toilets and a small cabin as protection from the elements. There’s also a nearby park rangers station for emergencies.

“European visitors often like to camp up here,” says Bosco. “It’s cool, there’s always a bit of wind, so there are no mosquitoes, and you can reach the animals on the Kilala Plains quickly in the morning.”

On the way down again we see impala as well as oribis, the small, delicate, shy, pale brown antelopes. And one of the highlights: zebras. There are countless numbers of them, each with a striped coat as individual as a fingerprint.

They stand in the bush, under trees, right in the middle of the path, in groups or alone or in pairs, graceful and completely serene.

Past the candelabra cacti and the bushy trees, the tour continues into the open steppes, the grasslands. In the distance we can see giraffes, which weren’t always native to Akagera Park.

“Six Maasai giraffes came here in 1986 as a present from south Kenya,” says Bosco. “It was an experiment to see if they would manage.”

It seems to have worked and there are now 70 in the park.

Then we go on to the south of the park. More antelopes, gazelles, warthogs, banded mongooses, swallows, guinea fowl, birds with greeny-blue iridescent plumage and red wings, yellow and white butterflies, green monkeys.

On this day only the elephants had been missing. But on the way back to Akagera Game Lodge, we make a quick detour down to a lake and there we find the two bull