Love is an amazing thing and makes people get out of their shells to do equally awesome things. But a proposal in the wild was one thing I never imagined.

A group of Rwandan friends decided to take a tour away from the city and have fun, said Eddie Tushabe the man behind the idea. “One of my friends, Eddie, came up with the idea and I planned and mobilised my friends asking them to bring friends along too,” said Ms Naturinda who arranged the entire trip.

Eddie’s friend, Andrew Tushabe also joined the tour. Prior to the travel day he consulted Eddie and his wife Gikundiro on how to propose to his girlfriend Cecilia Mutesi and they supported his idea to propose to her in the wild. Specifically in the Akagera National Park.

Akagera National Park is one of the famous parks in Rwanda. Its vast plains away from the hustle and bustle of modern civilisation are deemed an escape for many a tourist.

The reason why most people prefer to go to Akagera is because of its proximity to Kigali compared with other major parks in Rwanda pointed out Belise Kariza, the chief tourism officer of RDB on the varying numbers of local tourism in the park visits.

It is normal for tourists from other countries to visit the place but local tourists are teaming up to explore Akagera plains.

“Rwandans generally go in numbers for companionship and that’s why you will see a group of friends take a weekend off to visit various sites around the country,” said Wilson Habimana owner of Wilson Tours Rwanda.

“I loved the fact that she didn’t see it coming and the only thing I could hear her say was, ‘You’re terrible’ and to me that made it a perfect idea,” said Mr Tushabe.

Perfect plan

Habimana said Andrew asked the tour guide to stop for him to relieve himself only to go on bended knee and ask his now fiancée out, ring out and a group of giraffes brightening the background.

Andrew had previously wanted to propose to Cecilia by a pool that had a group of hippos around it but an adamant Cissy declined to go to the washroom in the picnic area, “I had this perfect plan of her going to the washroom and coming back to find all the girls lining up with roses and me on my bended knee but as fate would have it the hippos were too ugly for a great proposal like this.”

The trip planned in just under a fortnight was a success because those contacted jumped wholeheartedly in, “I met Andrew the previous night to the travel day and when he invited me I literally couldn’t resist,” exclaimed Livingstone Karamage a travel enthusiast who was in the group.

Each person paid Rwf25,000 ($31) which was the bus fare, entrance to the park, a tour guide, access to the park for the bus and its driver and food after the drive through the park.