Mountain Retreat

Last weekend we took a 3 1/2 hour drive up through the mountains to Lake Kivu on the northwestern border of Rwanda. We stayed at a beautiful little lakeside retreat in the town of Gisenyi. What incredible scenery! The drive was amazing. We saw countless hills farmed in beautiful terraces and patchwork. In a country the size of the state of Maryland, Rwandans have made wonderful use of every bit of available land. You would not believe the steepness of some of these hills they are farming on! Westerners would not survive the strenuous work these people engage in every day: walking long ways to haul water, climbing incredibly steep hillsides, cultivating gardens and fields by hand. That's only some of it!


Most of the mountains in Rwanda are volcanoes. I believe Lake Kivu itself is part of a volcanic crater. We drove up to quite a height in the mountains and then descended a good way into the valley. We were able to get a decent view of the two tallest volcanoes on the way.



More beautiful scenery from the drive. My shots could have been better. But then pictures never do justice anyway.



I love waterfalls!


Heavy traffic on the way up!


A shot of the lake. Kivu is the second largest of the African great lakes.


The name of the retreat center was something about paradise. Fitting! It is a lovely little place with a tropical feel. These little grass huts were all over the place for dining, and others were shading lounge chairs on the beach. Don't you want to be here?


Another view of the lake. It was too hazy to get a clear view of the mountains on the other side, but they are in the Congo.


Here's a partial view of the little beach.


Homemade canoe


We took a boat out to this little island not far from shore. We walked around for a few minutes just to see it. Nice little place if you want to get alone!


Fishing boats. You can't get the full impact of these vessels in the picture. They are the most fascinating things. These three are attached to each other and they have these really long curved poles stretching out in front and behind the boats. I have no idea what they are for. We watched dozens of these going out on the lake and coming back in.


After visiting the island we rode the boat to a narrow strip of land that connects the lakeshore to a hill out in the water. On this strip are some natural hot springs that we went to see. It was weird to watch it bubbling up out of the mud. There were pools of the water scattered here and there, burning hot to the touch, but the Africans were sitting in them! I went wading where the hot water runs into the lake; that part was comfortable.

Some of the exotic wildlife of Rwanda.




Chuck and Debby call this bird their alarm clock. It has an extremely loud song which it starts singing between 5:00 and 5:30 every morning right outside their window. Well, that would be this particular bird's cousin, because he lives in Gisenyi, not Kigali.






This is the largest lizard in Rwanda. Beautiful, isn't he?


We enjoyed a lovely weekend, despite waiting three hours for our dinner. Long story. We had some entertainment, though. I wish I could show you a picture but I didn't have my camera on me. It was some sort of African dance... repetitive but highly energetic. I wanted to have a headdress like these guys were wearing! They were decked out with jewelry, spears, and bells on their ankles. They kept going and going and going... like the Energizer bunny! It was a long evening, but fun. You have to expect the unexpected in Africa! Good times. And the weather was great! God was really good to us.

So, if you want adventure and the unexpected and natural magical beauty... come to Rwanda!