We paddled our way on a glass lake to visit luscious uninhabited islands on Lake Kivu. A self-powered overnight adventure.
I’ve just been out to visit Hannis for the first time in Rwanda and we did a super little two-day one-night adventure that I call “Kibuye, Kivu, Kayaks and a Kingdom of Bliss” (ok, am I overdoing it with the alliteration?). We had a long weekend for adventuring in the middle of my trip and decided that after climbing a volcano on the Saturday we might need a sitting-down type adventure to rest my poor injured knee. Kayaking seemed like an excellent option. Not only this, but Hannis is super into throwing himself maniacally down waterfalls and rapids in his white water kayak and apparently it’s essential I one day learn. Sea kayaking is a start I suppose.
We started out in Kibuye, which is a town on the edge of the vast and beautiful Lake Kivu, whose Western shore lies within the Democratic Republic of Congo. We hired a guide and some kayaks through Kingfisher Journeys (a wonderful little company who organise kayaking and mountain biking adventures in Rwanda) and settled on an overnight escapade, camping on a little island on the lake. We arrived at the Cormoran Lodge and met our lovely guide Gratien, checked our equipment, packed (shoved) it into some attractive lime green sea kayaks and cast off. Sea shanties and all (kidding, I’m banned from singing in public, it scares people apparently). The lake was so calm and it was sunny but not too hot, kind of ideal weather. We’d not been paddling long when we came across a curious sight; a cow was swimming in the lake followed by 5 goats. Even our guide was nonplussed. As we got closer we saw a cow-herder ushering them across the lake onto a grassy knoll of a small island and exchanged excited “hello”s and “how are you”s in my very-best newly-learnt Kinyarwandan.
We carried on towards the middle of the lake for about 5km and headed into a throng of small islands, aiming for an island that supposedly looks like Nelson’s hat where we were stopping for lunch. This island is locally famous as it is covered in bats! They’re deceptively cute with their squeaky noises and propensity to snuggle upside down in trees (doctor warning- bat guano carries some real nasties so they’re cute but not THAT cute). Once we’d had enough of admiring the bats and me asking how long it’d take to become batwoman and Hannis rolling his eyes, we hiked the short way up to the top of the island. We were rewarded with a 360 panoramic view which was pretty incredible and we drank in the glass lake, blue skies, and fresh air. Luckiest beans ever! Lunch was a burger that had been transported with us from Kibuye which we ate back down by the lake-side with Gratien with the lake lapping at our toes (could this day get any better?!).
I’m not very used to relaxing so shortly after lunch we were off on the water again and powering our way towards the island where we’d stay for the night, another 6ish km away. There’s something about kayaking, it’s so rhythmic and methodical and, in the kind of conditions we were party to, it’s not exactly an adrenaline-fuelled sweatfest. I was surprised to find myself really, really enjoying it. The last two months had been ridiculously stressful at work, and at home with a limiting knee injury and Hannis moving halfway across the world. Actually I found a kind of stillness in the whole sea kayaking experience that was a real tonic after the fraught last two months. As we were kayaking I asked Gratien why they chose this particular island as the overnight stop and he just smiled. All would become clear.
As we drew up to the overnight island several pied kingfishers and herons treated us to low fly-bys and the beauty of this little paradise started to show with its bright red trees, colourful flowers and luscious green plants. There was a little landing with a rustic dugout wooden canoe where we pulled up and we found the caretaker of this little private island building us a fire ready for the evening. It became clear later that the island is owned privately but Kingfisher Journeys have permission to use it for their overnight camping. This lovely chap building us a fire lives on the shore close by and boats over to tend to it.
We’d again arrived a little early (speed machines you see) so we pulled up the kayaks, relaxed, hung our hammock and set up camp. It was still delightfully warm and the water was inviting so I persuaded Hannis to accompany me in his kayak so I could open water swim (he was not tempted enough to swim too. I swum out across to another nearby island which was quite a rewarding swim.
As I said before, Hannis is pretty into his white water kayaking and this had become apparent to the guide who asked Hannis if he could show him how to roll his kayak. Cue much upside down fun in the lake for Hannis and Gratien while I cruised about in the wooden dugout laughing.
We dried off, sorted out our wet kit and decided it was time to explore the island and do some acroyoga for our monthly broadener (what better backdrop?!). The island is covered in trees with the most beautiful leaves and flowers – fuchsia pink, parma violet lilac, burning red, almost metallic silver and deep green – and is teeming with big, bright butterflies and dragonflies, noisy birds and very buzzy wasps who lived high in the trees out of harm’s way. We walked the circumference of the island admiring the wildlife then popped right up to the top and spent half an hour messing about doing acroyoga and falling about (blog post on broadener number 3 coming soon). We started to lose the light and felt it was probably time to descend to camp.
Emmanuel (the caretaker) had set the fire going and whipped up a most delicious campfire meal which we happily scoffed as the clouds started to roll in. This was luxury as usually we’re in charge of campfire meals! We were in for a real treat next, the weather started to turn and there was that pre-storm chill and rumbling which I tend to get really excited about. We put on our waterproofs and sat cuddled on an upturned kayak for the show. There was a dramatic 360 degree storm with rolling clouds, huge forks of lightning and crashing thunder that you can feel in your chest and we got the lightest of drizzles. I’m not possibly eloquent enough to describe how fantastic this was, like nature was putting on a crazy spectacle just for us. As the thunder and lightning died away we watched a firefly flit it’s way along the reeds at the shore (is this a film story?). As we retreated to our tent to get cosy, the rain started to patter on the tent. Perfection. (I will gloss over the caveat to perfection where I had forgotten Hannis’ sleeping bag which we then actually found still in the kayak in the morning, classic. It was all part of my grand plan for Hannis to require body heat of course).
We woke up after a great night’s sleep (we both sleep best in a tent) scoffed some porridge with pineapple and banana and then relaxed in the hammock together with a coffee. Yep, we’ve found not one but two ways to share a hammock comfortably, if somewhat unelegently. We reluctantly packed up our tent and bags and readied ourselves for the return paddle. I had a little moment of wondering how long we could hide on paradise island for before real life had to take over.
The kayak back across the lake was almost as clear and calm as the previous day and we set into a rhythm with us all deviating on slightly different but reconvening courses. Hannis gave me some pointers on getting some more power out of my stroke and I came to realise that kayaking is a lot more whole-body than I had anticipated. The feeling of the kayak as it glides forward when you hit the sweet spot of the paddle is really satisfying. Maybe I could be persuaded into a white water kayak after all. We had been due to stop for an early lunch at an island on the way back after about 7km. As we approached it seemed that the island was teeming with people doing all sorts of manual labour, digging and clearing and moving stones. Rwanda has a very interesting community activity that everyone must partake in once a month “Umuganda” which means coming together in common purpose to achieve an outcome. Every month, usually on a saturday morning, people will do something to better their community or the country like clean a local area or contribute to the building of a primary school. The islands are difficult to get to so the clean up of this island was happening when people with boats could get people over there. Umuganda is a really interesting concept that was initially not well received and seen as enforced labour but has gradually won great favour in the country, not to mention achieved a lot in terms of improvement of the country. Anyway, I digress. Since we had arrived early and it wouldn’t be polite to sit and stuff our faces while these people worked we carried on and headed straight for Cormoran Lodge which we reached far too quickly. I even tried to dawdle on the home straight, taking in every last inch of the surroundings and soaking in the feeling of gliding on the water.
We pulled up at the shore at Cormoran Lodge, unloaded the kayaks, and sat eating some lunch reflecting on the trip before we said so long to Gratien. Hannis and I proceeded to the balcony of the lodge and ordered a well-deserved coke looking out over the lake and marvelling at how fortunate we are to be able to take these sorts of trips and how lucky to have had such perfect conditions. Don’t worry, our smugness was rewarded with it starting to rain on the moto rides back to our hotel.
It’s difficult to pick a best bit. Highlights for me were realising I can do relaxing (perhaps that’s middle age settling in) and our personal light and fireworks display by nature. It’s certainly not an adventure I would think to do and I’m glad we did something a bit different. Give it a go!
Been on a kayak adventure? Any recommendations for kayak trips elsewhere? Loved our trip and want to know more so you can do it too? Comment below!
Lots of lake Kivu love,
Fern x
Fabulous. Sounds amazing, lucky you !!