Lake Kivu: The Part of the Trip Where You Stop

A Rwandan itinerary is a sequence of early starts. Gorilla briefings at seven, chimp briefings at five, game drives at first light. By day four most people are running on adrenaline and coffee.

Lake Kivu is the answer to that, and it is why we put it in the middle rather than at the end.

You can actually swim in it

Lake Kivu has no crocodiles and no hippos, which makes it one of very few large African lakes where getting in the water is simply part of the day rather than a calculated risk. Swimming from the lakeside hotels and beaches is entirely normal.

It is one of the African Great Lakes, sitting in a deep trough on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, with hills dropping straight into the water and a shoreline broken into bays and islands.

Rubavu or Karongi?

Rubavu, still widely called Gisenyi, is the northern town. It has a proper waterfront, the most hotels, and the shortest transfer from Volcanoes National Park at around ninety minutes. If you are coming straight off a gorilla trek and want the least driving, go here.

Karongi, still widely called Kibuye, is halfway down the lake and is the prettier stop. The shoreline there breaks into deep bays studded with islands, and it is closer to Nyungwe if that is where you are heading next.

Rusizi in the south is the least visited and sits closest to Nyungwe.

The singing fishermen

Wooden trimarans go out at dusk and come back at dawn, and the crews sing to keep the paddles in time. You can hear them from the shore on a still evening, and you can go out with them if you are willing to lose a night's sleep.

Manage your expectations about the fishing itself. You are going for the singing and for being on the water in the dark, not for the catch.

What else there is to do

• Boat trips out to the islands, including a colony of fruit bats that leaves at dusk
• Kayaking along the shoreline, into bays you cannot reach by road
• Cycling or walking sections of the Congo Nile Trail, which runs 227 km along the lake
• Coffee washing stations on the hills above the water, best between March and July
• Hot springs near Rubavu
• Absolutely nothing, which is a legitimate and underrated choice

How long, and when

Two nights. One night means arriving in the afternoon and leaving after breakfast, which is not a stop at all — it is a slightly nicer place to sleep. Two gives you a full day on the water and an evening that is not spent packing.

Good all year. In the wet months take boat trips in the morning, because afternoon storms are common and will move or cancel them.

Of everything on a Rwandan itinerary, Lake Kivu is the place people most often tell us afterwards they should have given another night.