Lake Kivu


Day 49 – 27th July 2019

Rubavu (previously Gisenyi)

Immediately after our Gorilla Trek we left for Rubavu where we had planned to camp at Discover Rwanda Gisenyi Beach Hostel.  We inspected the campsite and ablutions upon arrival, and decided that we were definitely not staying there.  As it was a weekend, they had no rooms available and, over a beer, we decided that we would treat ourselves again to a hotel room.  Quite frankly, we were all exhausted - not only physically from the hike, but also mentally from the excitement leading up to and including the time spent with the gorillas.

We chose the Peace View Hotel which apparently had the best view over Lake Kivu.  We absolutely collapsed laughing when we saw the number of steps we had to climb to the rooms and the restaurant on the very top floor!  A walk in the park though, compared to this morning’s trek 😊.

What a great decision and good choice of hotel.  The rooms were excellent and the restaurant very good.  During dinner a Pennant-winged Nightjar flew by!  We had seen one in the Serengeti, but perched on the floor.  Unfortunately we did not have our cameras at dinner – we would have loved to have caught it in flight!
Pennant-winged nightjar in the Serengeti
Day 51 & 52 - 28th & 29th July 2019

After breakfast we drove south along Lake Kivu to Kirongo (previously Kibuye) to spend two nights camping at Bethany B Hotel, right on the lake shore.  We visited the Environmental Museum which was relatively interesting, and booked a boat to three of the five islands around Kirongo for the next day.  We met Magnus, an investigative journalist from Kigali, who was doing a road trip with his crew.  He requested an interview for his tabloid about our experience thus far in Rwanda.  A vibrant personality as only one would expect to meet in the media industry.

Our boat captain, Suliman (telephone +250 782 137007), was a superb guide and took us to Napoleon Island, Peace Island and Girl Island.  On Napoleon we walked to find the bats, the men swam at Peace Island and we merely floated around Girl Island – apparently many years ago, young women who fell pregnant before they were married were sent to this Island where they were picked up by Congolese people and taken to the DRC as slaves.


Over dinner the discussions centred purely on Rwanda, and particularly Lake Kivu, one of the most clean and beautiful lakes we have encountered.  While on the boat we were saying that we could be anywhere in the world other than Africa – we never expected to find this beauty in Rwanda.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tarangire National Park

Image
Day 30 & 31 – 8 th & 9 th Jully 2019 The trip from Arusha to Tarangire was absolutely facinating.  Being Masaai territory, you expected only to see the Masaai tending their herds.  But our journey co-incided with a special cattle market in the Mgagau area.  It is here where people come and buy and sell cattle, goats and sheep for either for butcheries, milking and farming. Mgagau Cattle Market  And, of course, some Masaai are too lazy to walk their goat to the market! A Masaai taking his goat to market Tarangire National Park thus far has been the best National Park we have ever visited.   Not a large variety of game, but massive herds of zebra, buffalo, elephant and giraffe.   Also, huge prides of lion. Upon arrival at the gate, the large number of tour operated vehicles was overwhelming.  This is possibly forerunner of what we can expect in the Serengeti earlier next week. Tour Operator's vehicles for Tarangire We wanted special camps
Read more

Serengeti National Park

Image
Days 37 to 42 - 15th to 20th July 2019 We passed a few Masaai villages on route to Serengeti.  The Serengeti proved to be everything we dreamed it would be - other than the VERY bad roads, cold showers and atrocious ablution blocks in the public campsites. Because we could only get 2 nights in Kogatende special campsite number 7 and the rest would be public campsites, we decided that we would have one night in Dik Dik , one night in Lobo and then push north to Kogatende which is on the Mara River, then back to Dik Dik for a night, before the last night at Ndabaka. Between the Gate and Dik Dik there were huge herds of Thompson's and Grant's Gazelle, the occasional elephant, some resident wildebeest and zebra, and quite a few lion. A highlight on our way north to Kogatende was a cheetah sat on an anthill, and just hundreds and thousands of wildebeest. We met the ranger at the Kogatende Air Strip - a very friendly guy.  We asked him where we find SCS 7.  He sai
Read more

Ruaha National Park

Image
Day 19 & 20 – 27 th & 28 th June 2019 Our first taste of a Tanzanian National Park: We weren’t expecting to see much game with Ruaha being the biggest Park in Tanzania, but were proven wrong!    We saw all the usual animals, including Thompson’s gazelle and the Waterbuck without the ring around its bum (we don’t know the name of it) – both which were firsts for us – and a pride of lion who had just finished devouring their morning meal and had given it over to the Lappet-faced Vultures.  There was also a large concentration of giraffe, which certainly look different to the giraffe we get back home. Giraffe Thompson's Gazelle The bird life was much more prolific than in Zambia and we got to see 4 newbies -Tanzanian Red-Billed Hornbill, Superb Starling, White Crowned Lapwing and the Bare-faced Go Away bird.    Bare-Faced Go-Away-Bird Tanzanian Red-Billed Hornbill  Superb Starling We ha
Read more