Night driving, Rwandan style

 

… is not for the faint hearted.

I’ve been in Kigali all week, working on putting together protocols for all the hospitals around the country to use in managing their medical patients (sort of like a big recipe book for doctors!). It’s been a useful but tiring exercise, and I was glad to be finally heading home to Catherine and the kids this afternoon. We’ve had lots of rain this week, and it was pouring steadily most of the afternoon.

After a quick shopping trip (foods and spices, small presents for the kids and a gift from a lovely Indian spice-seller of a curry leaf tree!) it was time to hit the road for Butare. It’s about 150km, usually a 2-2.5 hour trip as the road, while good, is very windy. Unfortunately time had slipped away and it was after 5 when I left and the sun sets at 5.45 year-round here.

It’s hard to describe the road to Butare. Perhaps the closest I can come is to suggest you imagine the Great Ocean Road, on a day when the Great Ocean Marathon is being run along it (so there’s people all over the place), and then pretend there’s also a simultaneous bike race along it, with prizes for who can carry the most stuff while they race their bike (placegetters on my trip – man in blue top with 35 deck chairs stacked on the back, man in Arsenal singlet with 6 50 litre jerry cans and 15 broomsticks etc etc.). It’s also the main overland truck route to Burundi, so add that in and you’re starting to build up the picture.

Now, after dusk the bikes and pedestrians don’t go away. But the real hazard is the buses. They are quite literally lethal. There are really only three main problems with them:

• They drive at 90km/hr down the aforementioned windy road
• They think the dividing line down the middle is  irrelevant and, in any case, they’re travelling too fast to be able to corner on their own side
• They rarely dip their headlights, so you’re often blinded by their high beams

This in turn poses three slight issues for your night-time motorist:

• Any contact with a bus at a combined speed of 160km/hr (their 90 plus your 70) is almost certainly fatal
• You can’t see the bus, road or any other bikes and travellers on the roadside because of the blinding highbeams
• You thus have to chose how far to swerve (always necessary because they’re on your side of the road) for each bus based on a combination of luck, instinct and sheer panic, hoping you don’t hit anyone on the verge in the process

I said a lot of prayers on the way, and survived several near misses. Thankyou God. I think I’ll be avoiding inter-city night driving at all costs in the future.