Lake Kivu Rwanda And Congo

After all is through about the exciting but perhaps also tiring chimpanzee tracking mountain gorilla tracking safari and extensive game driving in Akagera National Park then turn to Lake Kivu Rwanda which will provide you with an ideal place for repose and convalescence.

Lake Kivu is an extraordinarily gorgeous Inland Sea enclosed by steep, green terraced hills along the Congolese border. It’s shores are surrounded by three resort towns that is Gisenyi, Kibuye and Cyangugu and connected by a wild roller-coaster road that somersaults through luxuriant plantain fields and artifact patches of foggy rainforest to offer sweeping views over the blue water.

For Sunbathing, swimming and water sports, the Rwanda Riviera town of Gisenyi is; speedboats, canoe sailing, or just mountain walks and picnics, Kibuye will provide these facilities to your satisfaction. If you opt for complete seclusion for mental and physical relaxation, we recommend the Kibuye Guest House, in the south of Lake Kivu.

There are lovely villas along the tree-lined shore… a beautiful white sandy beach… the lake is crystal clear. This is a spot that deserves a longer stay.”
– Daniel Stiles, writing about Gisenyi on Lake Kivu in Swara magazine

It is one of the classic road journeys in all of Africa with charter boat service on the lake connecting the 3 towns.

Gisenyi, the most developed of these resorts, lies less than an hour’s drive from the Parc des Volcans, and is set on a sandy beach lined with swaying palms and colonial-era hotels that exude an atmosphere of tropical languor.

At Kibuye, to its south, tourist activities are centred on a modem lakeshore guesthouse overlooking pine-covered hills seemingly transplanted from the Alps. Different again is Cyangugu, close to Nyungwe Forest, whose more subdued tourist development is compensated for by a stirring setting of curving inlets winding into narrow valleys.

Lake Kivu is the largest of numerous freshwater bodies that shimmer in the valleys of Rwanda. Lakes Burera and Ruhondo, close to the gorilla-tracking centre of Ruhengeri, are oft-neglected gems, deep blue waters ringed by steep hills and tall waterfalls, with the nearby Virunga Volcanoes providing a spectacular backdrop.

Away from the main resorts, Rwanda’s lakes offer visitors rewarding glimpses into ancient African lifestyles. Here, fishermen ply the water in dugout canoes unchanged in design for centuries, while colourfully dressed ladies smoke traditional wooden pipes and troubadours strum sweetly on stringed” iningire” (traditional ‘guitars’) And.

The birdlife is fantastic; flotillas of pelicans sail ponderously across the open water majestic crowned cranes preen their golden crests in the surrounding swamps, while jewel-like malachite kingfishers hawk silently above the shore.