Hi everyone. Continuing on from last week’s posts on Amsterdam, you may have noted that I was next due to hit Africa. For those who are new here or only read very occasionally, last year I travelled around the world, taking in six of the world’s seven continents (including Australia where I live as my departure and finishing point).

For me, Africa is still the continent with the greatest possibilities in terms of travel. 54 countries including some island nations, so many different languages and cultures. Even though I’ve visited a number of times and visited around 20 African nations, there still remains for me so many undiscovered parts of the continent from Namibia to Congo to Tunisia, along with a few I’d really like to get back to one day such as Ghana, South Africa and Ethiopia for example.

Last year I took the opportunity to hit a new region in Africa – East Africa. I wanted to fly in on Business Class as I had the points saved up, but the points game often means compromise to find the flight that best suits your needs, so it was KLM from Amsterdam to Kigali in Rwanda that I went with in the end.

And it was a good flight, the service was on point even if the aircraft was a little aged I was comfortable. I was lucky, they changed the aircraft to a different A330 before the flight and this meant it had a larger Business Class section. I didn’t have a window seat available originally, and I wasn’t going to pay for seat selection if I couldn’t get a window seat and it was a pretty outrageous $200AUD ish to select a seat, which seems pretty typical now when you book a points seat, which I think is a bit wrong frankly.

Anyways, I touched down in Kigali where I had to get my visa on arrival at the airport. I was down in Africa, Rwanda and I was able to get the East African Tourist Visa, which was another reason to fly into Rwanda because it’s available on arrival for $100USD, a very simple process at the airport, didn’t take more than about twenty minutes and this is good for Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda all of which I was visiting. In addition to the ease and simplicity of getting at Kigali Airport, it was an easier and clearer option than getting it online where you need to put in the address of where you’re staying and the like, which I had originally tried to do through the Ugandan website. I also tried through the Rwandan one but couldn’t find the option for the East African Visa.

So happy with where I was at, I got through immigration to find that my luggage had not made it to Kigali. It was a straight forward direct flight, no connections, so I have no idea how it happened but it was later confirmed it was still in Amsterdam. I took a taxi to my budget digs, which were basic but did the job. It was night time, but I was in Rwanda, regarded today as one of the more prosperous and safest countries on the continent. I would return to the airport the next night and my luggage was there for me, thankfully it didn’t take longer as I had to move on after three nights.

I was looking forward to discovering Kigali, learning about the Tutsi Genocide (well not looking forward but this was something I would do there), then crossing Uganda to get close to a family of gorillas, to safari in Kenya and from there fly south to Zimbabwe for 8 – 9 days jam packed in that country. And I would say, this would be my best adventure in Africa of all the times I visited.

 Anyways, a quick bridging post today, next I will be delving into Kigali and my experiences and learnings in the Rwandan capital. Thanks for reading today! Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!