An 04:30 start is never nice, but after the last few days of early starts, late finishes, and plenty of activity, it wasn’t great. I was ready, checked in for tomorrow’s flight, and checked out of Grazia Apartments Hotel thirty minutes later, with the driver arriving to take me to Nyungwe shortly after.

The streets of Kigali are dead at this time of the morning, so getting out of there was quick. After an hour I ate the breakfast I’d packed so I could take today's Malarone tablet. Darius, the driver, stopped almost an hour later to get his own breakfast, so was unsure why he’d said to get a packed breakfast from the hotel. I could have had one there. Whilst he ate, I wandered around Nyanza until he was done twenty minutes later.

On the journey there he told me how he’s the managing director of the company but thought he’d handle my tour personally as his guides were all busy. He also talked about his ambitions for TV, though not being on it, I think he meant creating more channels. I did find out though that he’d met a runner from Greece who’d done an ultra marathon in Musanze back in January. He then thought he should be involved in organising marathons.

We made one more stop on the way so he could buy some snacks, and kindly got me a Coca Cola. Once through Huye he pointed out the Ethnographic museum, and told me a little about this area. As we got closer to the forest the road got windier, and hillier. We started to see mountain monkeys on the road, and a couple of families of baboons. Soldiers patrolled this road by foot, armed with all manner of guns. Darius told me this was due to being so close to Burundi and wanting to protect tourists. He’d pre-warned me we’d see them walking around to make sure I wouldn’t be alarmed. To be honest, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it if he hadn’t mentioned it.

At Nyungwe I had to go through a metal detector before then going up the stairs to the reception. I filled out a couple of forms and then had to wait for the briefing. Whilst we waited, Darius led me over to where some Colobus monkeys had been spotted this morning. There were so many of them, and I could watch them play, and jump, all for free instead of going on the hike you’d normally do to find them. I learnt that the canopy walk here is 140 USD, and for every hike you do after that it’s 15 USD. The driver also got me to pre-order lunch whilst waiting.

At 10:20, the local guide, Oliver, briefed myself and one other on the hike ahead and offered us wooden walking poles. Neither of us wanted one, so the hike down into the rainforest began. Other than seeing the colobus monkeys again, one of the first signs of wildlife was a Great blue turaco in a distant tree. I didn’t get a very good photo before it flew off.

One fork in the road later, and upon reaching the lowest point of the trail, we reached a metal bridge that led out to a metal tower amongst the treetops. If you’ve seen Go Ape, then you’ll get a rough picture of what it’s like, except there’s no harness, and eventually you’re considerably higher. I stepped out onto the metal sheet that was the floor, and could see it was plenty secure with all the interwoven ropes that are suspended from metal cables. The only problem was that once there’s more than one person on it, it really does start to bounce. On that first bridge I took my time, holding tightly to my cameras whilst also trying to maintain balance.

We spent some time on that tower, looking out for monkeys and any other wildlife we might see, and then crossed the next bridge to the next tower. This bridge was much longer, and the bouncing more pronounced. I used both hands to try and steady myself whilst crossing, hoping that would keep my cameras safer. When we stopped half way the bridge settled, and all was good, so I could use my cameras to get a couple of photographs from there before continuing on.

From the second tower we saw a silver monkey, and a mountain monkey which I managed to photograph as it leapt from a tree. We saw a couple more turacos, but again they were too difficult to photograph. The final bridge had its supports around waist height in places which was a little concerning. It was then a hike back up to where we’d started, not seeing any further wildlife. I felt that for seeing wildlife, the regular hikes were likely far better to do.

It was about lunchtime now, so after a chat with some Australians, I ate the chicken burger I’d pre-ordered. The Australians did tell me about where they were camping here though, and I think that’s what I’d recommend for anyone wanting to see multiple species of monkeys so you can cover more ground and spend more time there. They’ve also opened a zip line to the other side of the forest just two days ago, so a quick way of getting to the farthest point on one of the hiking routes.

Once I’d eaten I went looking for the driver, to find he’d fallen asleep in the car and hadn’t eaten yet. I walked around whilst he ate. Once he’d finished it’d started raining and he didn’t want to get wet, so suggested we wait, but then he found some paperwork needed correcting so had to wait for that anyway. When the rain eased off I was finally able to photograph a (L'Hoest's) mountain monkey and a Great blue turaco, so it was worth the wait. The monkey was a cheeky one though, and at first seemed like it was going to try to take the Australian’s lunch, but then it ran across the courtyard to a bin, opened it, and then ran off.

On the drive back down the mountain, steam rose from the road wherever the light from the sun touched it, drying it out quickly. We didn’t stop until we reached Kigali five hours later. It was uncomfortable staying seated for that long, but it seems Darius really wanted to get back. I thought he might suggest stopping at the museum in Huye, or a toilet break, but no. We were stationary twice though as he got pulled over by the police. On the first occasion he knew the person from previous drives, and on the second time he was accused of using the car for public transportation without a permit. I did wonder if maybe things weren’t completely legitimate.

In Kigali he thought Hotel le Garni must be new or near the hotel. I told him a few times it was near the city hall, but I don’t think he understood. Eventually he used Google Maps to find it as I suggested originally. I still tipped him 20 USD as I’d forgotten it was half that for drivers - I’d gone with the recommended rate for a guide.

The hotel is hidden out the way, so understandable why Darius didn’t know where to find it. It cost 120 USD for one night with a buffet breakfast, so more expensive than Grazia Apartments Hotel! The card machine didn’t work due to a connection issue, so I dropped my bags in my room then went back to pay. If only I’d looked around the room properly. The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, so I took the receptionist's advice of where to walk to find something. There was a Simba supermarket and mall, and inside were two cafes. I decided on a Croque Monsieur, and a mango juice. This with a 20% tip came to 10,000 RWF so was still a cheap meal.

I found the way back to the hotel easy enough, but when I got inside I noticed numerous black lines on the walls and ceilings, in addition to a beetle crawling across the floor. I took a closer look, and found the ‘lines’ had many legs. They were likely Portuguese millipedes, which don’t bite or sting, but can release a fluid that can cause irritation. I got rid of those I could find, and one more crawled out of a hole in the wooden skirting board before turning back to where it had come from. I then noticed an opened bottle of water that said ‘pure water’ with a homemade label. I wasn’t going to trust that it wasn't tap water.

I did start to feel that maybe I should have cancelled this booking and had another night in Grazia, but it was too late now. I rearranged my luggage to make the final pack tomorrow quicker, and then got some much needed sleep.