The Wall of Pipes | Rwanda's Best Kept Tourism Secret
morning guys I've just got out the shower having a bit of a day of it today we've had water shortages um which are a bit difficult uh but I managed to get my hair washed I'm waiting for my lovely cleaner to arrive cuz it's cleaning day and I thought I would get out of her hair today uh because Rudy has lent me the bike for the weekend and I thought I would take it out on a bit of a run um I'm just looking at the sky though it's it's looking pretty overcast but we'll see how it goes it's a bit unpredictable with the weather in Rwanda even when the weather forecast on your phone says that it's going to pee it down often it won't uh or if it says that it's bright Sunshine then you'll suddenly hit a massive thunderstorm so it's not always easy to tell but hopefully we know by the time I'm ready to go out and I found a couple of places that intrigued me so we're going to go and see if we can find them okay so it's still a little bit overcast but it has stopped raining um the weather forecast on my phone is uncertain uh so I'm going to give it give it a little bit longer uh it's still morning well just so we still got a bit of time if it clears up in the afternoon we can head out it did indeed clear up [Music] we're heading out of town through nyabugogo these big lores with all of the crates are delivering beer keep that in mind for later this road is always a bit busy with traffic as it's one of the main routes in and out of Kigali most people pass through it going to the northern and western provinces it's a very well-traveled Road there used to be a factory or a storage place along here for indig which are those small dried fish like white bait they've got a really strong smell and we used to wind up the windows and switch on the AC as we passed through but I haven't smelted it for a while so maybe they moved this road might also be familiar from the time we drove up to gasi it's the same route out of Kigali I'm just going to swing into this petrol station to check that I am going where I think I'm [Music] going hi guys so I've just pulled up in a petrol station and I'm quite glad that I did because the road I I've just passed is the one that I need it's the nr2 going up through the hills towards I think M um but the thing is like the signpost the Letter's been taken off so it says nr1 and then it just says NR beneath so I needed to check that this is definitely the right Road um so I'm going to head up there and we're going to go and see if we can find a place called uh the wall of pipes it's it's got one review one review on Google and it have me fascinated so I've never heard of this before we're going to go and try and find it I was going to head for um I think it's cania canopy walk but the weather's really bad and it looks like it's Offroad to get there so I don't know if I feel I want to try that today um maybe we'll give that a going dry weather [Music] so time to head up the hill this is a really nice Road as you climb up into the mountains I always get a sense that I'm starting an adventure when I head up this [Music] way you remember how I mentioned those beer lores well here's one in not such good condition all the beer on the floor that's a pretty common sight in Rwanda you see Lor's in every position you can imagine I had a friend who used to drive these and I asked him why it kept happening he said sometimes it's just inexperienced drivers a lot of young Lads looking for work and not understanding that Lor behaved very differently to smaller vehicles but he said a lot of the time it was the Hydraulics you'd go to hit the brakes and discover there weren't any or all along the side of the roads you have really deep drainage ditches it rains pretty heavily here and those help to channel the water down towards the rivers there aren't any Escape lanes for runaway trucks and there's a steep drop on the other side of the road because we're in the mountains so many of the lorries end up in those drainage ditches it completely buggers the Lorry but better that than hurtling downhill with no brakes [Music] [Applause] anyway time for another quick pit stop and here we see the wild Enfield in its natural habitat grazing on the open for courts of Africa hi guys so I've just pulled over again um there's a little side road down there which apparently goes to the wall of pipes um so I'm just going to head down there I'm definitely in need of a phone holder I'm getting a bit fed off of sort of pulling over and looking at my phone every 5 minutes uh so definitely if I am buying a bike I need to get a phone holder but um yeah thankfully I know the area kind of a little bit so it's not too crazy uh but yeah let's go [Music] [Music] so somewhere along here there should be a turning that we need to take here we go time for a little light off-roading it'll be nice to see how the bike handles on mud keep your eyes open guys let me know if you see anything that resembles a wall of pipes [Music] I feel like it's supposed to be around here somewhere close to the road but let's continue for a bit and see what else we can find [Music] [Music] me do so we've just done a little bit of off-roading um I cannot find this war pipes apparently it was back there but I was kind of keeping an eye out couldn't see anything there's a couple of little tourist lodges here but the entrance into them doesn't seem to be too easy not too bad but not too easy so um I'm not too sure what to do now I think I'm just going to go back to the main road and carry on for a bit I'm going to keep an eye out on the way back down see if I can see it but um if not we might just head back to Kari it was a really nice little road lots of people waving but not a single pipe to be seen it's only when I got home that I realized I should probably have taken this turn off here so I opened up Google Maps and dropped in for a closer look I think Maps is several years out of date now I can only see one pipe but there are holes where others might go the review was from several months ago so perhaps they've added more that's the only thing I can find on that stretch hi guys editing me here so that little side road that I saw was indeed the one that I should have taken and it was bugging me so much that I couldn't find it that a week and a half later I borrowed the bike again I got on it I drove back out there and I found the wall of pipes so if you want to know what the magical mystical mythical wall of pipes looks like hang around until the end of the video anyway I got back to the main road and I decided I wasn't quite ready to go back to Kigali yet so I headed north you might think it's a bit strange heading into the middle of nowhere in search of pipes but I grew up with these Shenanigans seeking out strange tourism attractions is a national Pastime in the UK the weirder the better you'll find Brown tourism signs in the most remote places there's even a website called follow the brown signs that tells you all about the weird and wonderful symbols you might encounter and a Blog explaining what happens when you follow them I'll link to that below so seeking out silly sights is somewhat of a compulsion for me as I was heading up the road I noticed a little cafe with some tourists outside I decided to swing past on my way back [Music] I felt a little bad for these attendants they looked kind of excited as I pulled in but I didn't need any petrol I was just turning around seems like a pretty quiet place [Music] and here's the cafe [Music] just having a little walk down here because it looks like there could be quite a nice view uh from the back of the petrol station come have a [Music] look okay so once I'm here I'm going to have some lunch cuz I'm feeling a bit peckish so here's my road Resto lunch I've got coffee I've got a cappuccino a Snickers uh I've got some chicken and I've got a Rolex so if you don't know what a Rolex is uh it's a kind of a Ugandan favorite I think it's a chipati with an omelette rolled up inside of it it's um quite common quite good street food uh so yeah doesn't go around your wrist doesn't tell the time but it does fill you up okay let's give it a go so try the real looks first so it's literally just um an egg omelette wrapped up in a chapati if you want to try this there's a place called now now Rolex um near kimihurura in town and they just do the most phenomenal Rox like they I think they put bacon in it they have like an English breakfast one they have have um a spicy one a sausage one so you can try all sorts of different Rolex but at it's most basic a Rolex is literally just egg omelette wrapped up in a chapati it's pretty good let's try the chicken oo chicken's got a lot of sauce on it going to need to wash my hands after this it's not very hot so I think it's been there for a while but M just kind of a tomatoey sauce I was going to say tiny bit spicy but not really kind of a tomatoey sauce M pretty good mhm you can see how much sauce There is there turning everything orange M Coffee is good I got a cappuccino and a pretty nice view of the hills as well whilst we're eating going to save my Snickers till I get home that's going to be my congratulations for getting through Kari traffic prize just going to go and find the bathroom um seems to be quite a nice bathroom oh it's a lovely bathroom proper sit down one toilet paper nicely decorated smells nice that's good let's take a little look in the gift [Music] shop Lally make GE and honey [Music] I love this hill here with all of the houses on [Music] it I'm not sure if it still is but the national Union of the blind used to be in that building over the road my friend Martin worked there and I worked for the national Union of the deaf which was at randex [Music] Road hi guys it's about a week and a half later and I just borrowed the bike again I couldn't help it I couldn't get it out of my head I felt like I was so close um so I came back to that turning that I felt I should have taken and I took it and two seconds later look what I found I found the wall of pipes this is it this is what we came to see let's go and have a look look at all of these pipes look at them there's hundreds hundreds of pipes well maybe about 20 or 30 it is just magnificent I've I've never seen anything quite like it there's some pipes there and there's some pipes there anyway how a oh yeah and there's somebody already asking me for money and there's some more pipes here I mean it's just pipes Galore have you ever seen such a glorious piping sight in your life H and have you ever seen such a glorious bike in your life and there's a really nice view from here as well you could bring yourself a little seat little table some sandwiches sit look at the view and the pipes I mean it's got it all really got it all so there we go guys it doesn't disappoint we found it we found the wall of pipes um Rwanda needs more like this it needs more Folly more frivolity uh so oh we've got a child in the background I think it's time to leave but we've had a great time I found it I can sleep again at night so I've just stopped off at the cafe again for some more food so there you go guys I found it um I I got a really good look at it but then I kind of had to pack up and leave because uh couple of people had already come and asked me for money and there was a group of small children really small children and they were trying to climb on the bike um and I thought they were going to tip it over but also the tailpipe gets really hot you know when you're driving that bike it heats up really hot along the back so it really wasn't safe having a lot of children trying to touch it uh so had to kind of high tail it out of there but it was cool I'm glad that I saw it and I recommend if you're on the Misan road going from Kali to Manan drop by take a picture uh leave a review it's cool
2025-04-10 01:07
