Steep Hills, Quiet Bays and Night Fishermen on Lake Kivu

Steep shores and night fishermen

The Rwandan shore of Lake Kivu rises steeply from the water in hills farmed almost to their tops, with banana groves, small fields and coffee on the slopes and eucalyptus along the ridges. The coast is cut into deep bays and narrow headlands, and small islands, many of them wooded, lie close offshore, most thickly around Karongi.

At dusk the fishing boats go out in threes: three wooden canoes lashed side by side with long eucalyptus poles that reach far out beyond the bows and sterns and carry the nets. The fishermen often sing as they row out, and through the night the lamps they hang to draw in the fish dot the dark water. They come back in the early morning with sambaza, small sardine-like fish that the lakeside bars fry whole and serve as a snack.

Rubavu, the beach town of the north

Rubavu, still widely known by its old name Gisenyi, lies at the northern end of the lake, where the road from Musanze and the volcanoes, an hour or so away, comes down to the water. For a visitor the lakefront is the heart of the town: a long avenue shaded by palms and old trees, lined with villas and the gardens of hotels, above a public beach of sand. The centre of the town, with its market, lies a little back from the water, and the fishing harbour, where the boats unload their catch in the morning, lies south of it along the shore.

Karongi and the islands of the middle shore

Karongi, the old Kibuye, lies halfway down Rwanda's shore of the lake, on a hillside above a coast of bays, inlets and wooded headlands, and the road west from Kigali by Muhanga reaches it directly. It is smaller and quieter than Rubavu, and many of its hotels sit on the headlands, with gardens running down to the water. Its draw is the islands offshore, visited by boat in a morning or an afternoon: Napoleon Island, named for an outline like Napoleon's hat, has a large colony of fruit bats in its trees, and the trips usually take in one or two other islands on the way.

The lakeshore road

A road follows the lake from Rubavu south to Karongi and on towards Nyungwe Forest, never far from the water but rarely level. It climbs over the ridges and drops into the bays, bend after bend, through villages, banana groves and coffee country, past the washing stations where the coffee cherries are pulped and dried. The views are the reason to take it and the bends set its pace, so the drive is a slow one, timed to arrive by daylight like every journey between towns in Rwanda.

The Congo Nile Trail

The Congo Nile Trail follows the same shore south from Rubavu, on foot or by mountain bike. It takes its name from the ridge above the lake that divides the waters flowing to the Congo from those flowing to the Nile, and it runs mostly on dirt roads and footpaths through farmland and villages, climbing and descending all the way. The whole route is walked or ridden in stages over several days, and a single stretch makes a day's outing from Rubavu or Karongi.

Boats and kayaks

Boat trips are arranged at the lakeside hotels or with boatmen on the beaches, from Karongi out to the islands and from Rubavu along the coast; the fare is agreed before setting off. Guided kayak trips also set out from both towns, following the shore past fishing villages and terraced slopes.