At around 1:30 pm, we set off to gisenyi in the western province of Rwanda for the Congo Nile hike, from the RDB offices in Gishushu in Kigali. we were a group of 28 tour operators who for some wasn’t the first time to travel to the western province especially our driver guides and to the majority of us, it was going to be our first time to experience the hiking trail across lake kivu.
We drove from Kigali the capital of Rwanda to the north passing via Musanze district which is home to the famous mountain gorillas, after our brief stopover we continued to rubavu district with panoramic views of the volcanic mountains and the green vegetation in the rolling hills.as we approached gisenyi we got another view of the active volcano mountain nyirangongo located in goma in the democratic republic of Congo not so far away from gisenyi.
We arrived in gisenyi at about 6:00pm, this town is a beautiful choice for a vacation from the noisy and congested Kigali city and it’s surrounded by Lake Kivu which is the largest lake in Rwanda and one of the deepest in Africa. Upon arrival at our respective hotels we had a short briefing about the hotel and the Congo Nile trail activities which includes biking aside from the hiking, after this we checked in our rooms came out for dinner served on wooded plates with a glass of soda just by the fire place.
For starters we had the popular sambaz (small fish) which is deep fried in the cooking oil, later on we each enjoyed a whole tilapia with French fries so delicious. After dinner we all reached out to our rooms for a night rest. (Palm resort beach hotel and nirvana heights) respectively.
I was woken up by the singing birds just near the tree next to my bedroom by 5:00am and I had to wake up prepare for the trek as I wait for breakfast, our trek was supposed to start at 8:00am but it was delayed as our hotel served us breakfast a little late than expected so we ended up leaving the hotel at 8am instead, we were served fruits, mango juice, coffee and food (matooke and chicken) for breakfast.
We then set off to the starting point where we met with our guide who briefed us about the trail which is in rubavu 36km until the next stopover. We started off with a few steep hills, with green vegetation which included banana plantations, coffee, beans & cow peas and Lake Kivu.at our first stopover we rested for a few minutes those who couldn’t continue to the next trail left for the car as the rest of us continued with the hike.
On the second trail the hills where so steep and there it needed a lot of strength to continue which we all managed and had a rest before we got another rest before reaching the first stopover in kinunu main trail. We had some bananas and continued for another 2 hours to a much flat but longer trail which involved passing through coffee plantations and bushes filled with bamboo sticks and guava trees and by the lake banks which looked like a beach that could need intervention.
We finally reached our second stopover which was at cymbiri, here we relaxed had our lunch and then had a 1 hour boat ride to our lodge where we were to have our dinner and overnight at Rushel kivu lodge hotel. We were welcomed with juice and led to our rooms to refresh up before coming out for dinner.
The lodge is sited on a big arch of land and the rooms are cosy too with warm water, dinner was served hot at 8:00pm, early in the morning we had a community activity locally called ‘Umuganda’ its practiced every last Saturday of the month from 7:00am to 12:00pm,in this activity were lucky to join the locals, the army, police and the Rubavu Guvnor in constructing a bridge that will connect the hikers to the karongi and also easy transportation for the locals. After this activities we went back to the lodge where the governor and the army personals had some message for the locals and the RDB officials had something to tell the locals who were later given boiled maize and soda after the speeches.
At 1:00 pm,we went for our lunch with the invited guests before we checked out the hotel at 3:00 pm for Kigali, on our way back we didn’t pass gisenyi this time we connected to Musanze passing via the yet to be opened Gishwati national park. We arrived Kigali at 7:00 pm.
