Mid-July is birthday week for Susan and me – and in keeping with the theme of “bet you never thought you’d be living in Rwanda due to politically related violence in Burundi” we decided to go as a family on a “bet you never thought you’d be hiking in an African rainforest” hike for fun. So we headed up into the hills for a family hike in the Nyungwe rainforest
![tea fields](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01651-500x334.jpg?resize=500%2C334&quality=89)
![DSC01641](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01641-500x334.jpg?resize=500%2C334&quality=89)
Now, bear in mind – my birthday is Juy 14 – and while I must say I REALLY miss living in France where my birthday is a national holiday, filled with parades, festivals, fireworks – and usually the Tour de France is in full swing somewhere close – this year we drove to the Congolese border to get our car documents updated – and then went out for family lunch. Last year – the weekend of my 40th birthday we were in Val d’Isere where I ran a trail race – this year Susan the kids and I had lunch overlooking Lake Kivu towards Bukavu in the D.R. Congo after we got our documents sorted out with the Rwandan customs agents. It’s a beautiful place to sit and watch the fishermen pull their nets into their small wooden boats.
![road-side monkeys](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01631-500x333.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=89)
Two days later for Susan’s birthday we drove about an hour up into Nyungwe National Forrest – one of the last remaining rainforests in this part of Africa.
![Igishigishigi](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01623-500x334.jpg?resize=500%2C334&quality=89)
All hikes in the national park MUST be accompanied by a guide – so the 6 of us and our ranger-in-military-fatigues headed out on a hike that was easy enough for a 3 year old – yet interesting enough for everyone – the Igishigishigi Trail – the canopy walk that has a series of three suspended bridges that allow you to walk along way up in the canopy of the rainforest and get to see what things look like from up there.
![the descent](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01500-500x334.jpg?resize=500%2C334&quality=89)
When you reach the first tower our guide did try to reassure us that the whole thing is safe by pointing out that it was all built by a Canadian company, and funded by the Americans. I guess they figure that’s what westerners want to hear before they are walk across what looks like a glorified rope bridge suspended a few hundred feet above the forest floor below.
One of the amazing things is that you are face-to-face with the creatures who live up there in the canopy of the rainforest. It’s shocking to be up that high to start with- but also very strange that animals live way up there. Our guide told us that earlier in the morning there had been a snake sitting up on a tree right next to one of the platforms. A snake – just sitting there 60m above the forest floor!
We were fortunate to have found a group of monkeys hanging out in the trees right next to the first platform. Apparently you don’t always see monkeys or chimps on the canopy walk- so we were pretty glad that we did – and stayed there and watched them jump and clime and eat and be all monkey-ish for quite a while.
It’s apparently the second highest canopy walk in the world (tallest is in Brazil somewhere) – some 60m up and the longest span is 90m across. Well – I think those stats are true – the whole national park is absolutely devoid of any useful information online – you have to guess when the hikes are and what they might cost. For us – the answer to ‘when’ was 15min before we got there – so we waited another 3 hours. And the answer to ‘cost’ is: spend probably 20min arguing that our kids should get the East Africa resident child rate (like the other three Burundi resident family’s had a few weeks prior).
![back up](https://i0.wp.com/www.pardonourfrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/DSC01622-334x500.jpg?resize=334%2C500&quality=89)
It made for a great outing that everyone could keep up with – and also allowed us to all see something that we had never seen before. The rainforest is really a magnificent place -and to be able to stand and stare at monkeys as they pick fruit out of trees right in front of you is pretty great.