My Rwandan holiday – Part Two

Gisenyi's sandy beach

As I said at the end of Part One, I was looking forward to a different type of ‘resort’ experience in Gisenyi and I was not to be disappointed. The town of Gisenyi is famous for its sandy beach, colonial history, closeness to the DRC and also to the Virunga National Park with its range of volcanoes famous for the mountain gorillas.

Being in Gisenyi felt like being by the sea – you couldn’t see the opposite side of the lake and there were even waves. A long road with palm trees and old colonial houses runs along the beach and leads to one of two border crossings – Gisenyi has seen some troubles over the years most recently with fighting by M23 rebels in Goma but today there is a sense of peace and calm.  It does have feel of a faded past with some of the old colonial houses having seen better days but like many other places in Rwanda there are new hotels and other buildings going up – I felt it a shame they couldn’t repair and preserve some of the older buildings as it would allow Gisenyi to have something quite unique.

A reminder of Gisenyi's colonial past

I stayed outside Gisenyi in Kigufi at a small Catholic retreat called St Benoit. Beautiful location, right on the lake with lovely gardens, trees, birdlife, flowers and best of all no Wi-Fi or internet access! I was entertained one morning by the sight of the elderly gardener cutting the grass not by a slasher (long bladed tool) used by most people here but by an electric lawn mower – there were a few anxious moments when the electric cable got very close to the blades.  I think he was probably quite happy with his slasher.

St. Benoit's gardens right on the lake

Cutting the grass with the new fangled contraption!

It was a 20-minute ride by moto to/from Gisenyi, along the lake and across a broken bridge that stopped any car getting to Kigufi unless they took a 45-minute detour. Each time I went over the bridge, on the moto, I wondered whether it would give way – my driver, who I used every day, was called Muzungu Jonathan (you couldn’t have made it up) and as it happens all the time here I now have a new friend.

Muzungu Jonathan and Jonathan Muzungu

I was invited by someone I knew, who lives in Gisenyi, to go on Sunday to his church the Zion Temple - I knew I would be in for a long (3 hours) and lively service.  The preacher who had been invited from the DRC, preached for around an hour in French and the leader of the church translated into Kinyarwandan and my friend tried to translate for me into English – not easy!  As are many of the preachers here, he got very animated and excited as did the church leader who I think felt he had not only to translate but do all the actions as well – very entertaining and made up for the fact that I couldn’t really understand the sermon.

The highlight of my stay was to visit “Imbabazi” a bus and moto ride towards the Volcanoes National Park and a noticeable drop in temperature as we climbed quite quickly from Gisenyi. “Imbabazi” was an orphanage, a pyrethrum farm and gardens created by an American lady called Rosamund Carr who spent much of her life in the DRC and Rwanda until she died in 2006.  She created a wonderful English garden in the middle of Africa and she was also known for her friendship with Dian Fossey – her character and her gardens featured in the film ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.

An English country garden in the middle of Africa

For a couple of hours I felt I was back home in England walking around manicured lawns and flowers of all descriptions.  Ros Carr discovered that due to the climate and the fertile volcanic soil, flowers from all over Europe did very well and she also developed a business selling flowers to many of the hotels in Gisenyi and Kigali. I was accompanied on my tour by three very friendly dogs and at times a very playful cat but I was reminded that I was not really in England by the sight of Rwandans walking along the lane by the gardens.

Two of my three four-legged guides

I bought and read her book “A Land of a Thousand Hills” and I certainly recommend it as a really interesting story not only about her life but also the history of the DRC and Rwanda through peaceful and turbulent times.

The figure in the background was a reminder I was in Rwanda

Then it was back on the bus to Kigali for an overnight stay before the six hour drive back to Kamembe made interesting, as these journeys always are, by a German missionary who decided to preach to the bus as we drove through the Nyungwe Forest much to the amusement of the Rwandans who couldn’t understand a word (maybe not a bad thing) and five Italian girls who were going trekking to the forest. These are never quiet journeys as the radio is blaring out music, people are talking very loudly on their phones or listening to music and the usual loud conversions or shouting as we narrowly avoid a truck coming very fast around the corner in the other direction. I have discovered that having a good books provides some distraction as sleep is out of the question.

So now it's back to work and taking my first day easy by writing this post.

My Rwandan holiday – Part One

Kibuye on Lake Kivu

The beauty of Rwanda still amazes me. For such a small country, the landscape is diverse and so very beautiful and this week I’ve discovered the ‘resort’ of Kibuye on Lake Kivu about half-way between Kamembe in the south and Gisenyi in the north where I head to tomorrow.

Some while back, I decided I needed to take a holiday and did the typical muzungu thing and planned and booked my time off.  I felt I needed to escape, clear my head and try and have some R&R – the last few months have been very busy and I’ve not managed a proper day off in the last three weeks.

Since being in Rwanda, I’ve wanted to explore the resorts of Lake Kivu and on Tuesday I took the boat service that operates a couple of times a week to Kibuye and Ginsenyi. To Kibuye it is a journey time of six hours by boat - slightly longer than taking the bus but on a road that for most part is unmade and impassable in the wet season, which we are now approaching.  I thought I’d spoil myself and book a VIP ticket for around £5.00 rather than a standard ticket for £3.50 but boarding the boat I failed to see anything that resembled a VIP section so just paid for a standard ticket and bought a plastic mug of hot, sweet tea and a doughnut including buying some for the two young boys sitting next to me.

The boat to Kibuye

It was a bit disconcerting to board, after first walking up a few planks of wood, to discover all the passengers (surprisingly for Rwanda it was full at 6.30am even though it wasn’t scheduled to leave at 7am) sitting inside wearing their life-jackets – I decided to use mine as a back-rest as the seats were very hard.  After six hours and a few stops on the way, we finally arrived in Kibuye where they checked our passports/identity cards as we disembarked (at the last moment I decided to bring my passport) although no checks were made when we boarded in Kamembe.

Arrived at Kibuye

Although I try and avoid taking motos, I decided these were the easiest and cheapest form of transport and the young driver who asked me if I wanted a lift knew where the guesthouse was. Kibuye has a one-way system so a rather long ride took place to the guesthouse, which, as I later discovered, was just a short walk up the hill from where the boat docked.  I’d booked a small guesthouse run by the Catholic church – main difference from the ones run by the Anglican Church, such as Peace Guest House, is they serve alcohol.  

View of one of the inlets and guesthouse on top of hill on left

Located on a hilltop it offers wonderful panoramic views over various inlets of Lake Kivu and my bedroom, on the top floor, has windows on two sides so as I sit here and type this I’m looking over the lake and the beautiful hills in the distance.  This morning, after a night of heavy rain, I was able to see two of the volcanoes in the north.

Early morning in Kibuye with two volcanoes in the distance

The location of the guesthouse and the friendliness of the staff make up for the fact that:

a) For two days we have had no water (they say “it’s the dry season and water often is a problem” and I say “but we had two hours of very heavy rain last night”) so it arrives in a jerry can and is left outside the door – cold and so heavy that it is almost impossible to lift

b) They are doing building work, just behind my room starting at 7am in the morning

c) Everything from the doors, curtains and bed make a noise so impossible to do anything in the room quietly

d) There are huge Rwandan crows that make a racket on the tin roof and squawk their beaks off

e) I had to wait last night for an hour and a half for some fish brochettes (wanted beef but no delivery of meat) and chips for supper

Despite these minor irritations, Kibuye is very peaceful and beautiful.  More sophisticated (if that’s the right word to use) than Kamembe, it is a popular resort for people living in Kigali and the nearest to get to by road from the city.  There are some lovely, new hotels overlooking the lake and life seems to go at a gentler pace than the frenetic pace of Kamembe.

One of the 'new' hotels in Kibuye

During the genocide, 90% of Tutsi lost their life in Kibuye– the largest amount of anywhere in Rwanda. The area is dotted with genocide memorials and near to the guesthouse, the church was the scene of a large massacre and now a rather macabre memorial has been erected there with what looks like a shop window of skulls looking out.

One of the many genocide memorials

A rather disturbing memorial

Today, I went out on a boat trip taking in many of the islands dotted around including one called ‘Napoleon’s Island’ as it is shaped like his hat.  Stopping there, John the young boatman decided we had to climb to the top and made a rapid ascent meeting on the way a number of cows and disturbing a large bat colony – John asked if I wanted to go and have a closer use but somewhere at the back of my mind I thought about bats and Ebola (there is a connection) so decided to give it a miss.  

Out on the lake

Disturbing the bat colony

As we carried on climbing, the peace was disturbed by John listening to loud music on his phone – I don’t think Rwandans do quiet as they seem oblivious to noise around them whether it is the radio, ghetto blasters or shouting on their mobile phones.  The climb to the top was worth it as we had a wonderful 360-degree panorama of Kibuye, the lake and surrounding islands as well as the new methane plant extracting methane from the lake (which is full of it) and turning it into electricity. I understand that despite the very high level of methane it is safe as long as the water pressure is greater than the methane pressure, which, at the moment, it is.

John celebrating our climb to the top of Napoleon's hat!

Tomorrow, it’s back on the boat for a shorter three-hour trip to Gisenyi in the north of Lake Kivu and on the border with Goma in the DRC.  I understand a different type of ‘resort’ to Kibuye so looking forward to the experience.