Sim Centre Opening: weekend adventures

Jill and Keith had a fabulous weekend of gorilla trekking to the Susa group – where they saw twin babies and a baby gorilla only three weeks old. A silverback sat down next to Keith and rubbed up against him. They spent today cycling part way down the Congo Nile Trail and around the hills near Gisenyi.

On Saturday morning, Michelle and I met our friend Tom, who runs Rwanda Adventures, his wife, Natacha, and porter, Twisiere, a former member of the Rwandan cycling team. The plan was to cycle to a lodge just the other side of a forest we would be visiting on Sunday. The ride followed the Congo Nile Trail for a bit then turned inland. It hasn’t rained in a long time in Rwanda; it is the middle of the long dry season. The whole country is parched, which is very different from the lush greenery I’m used to when visiting in January. Tom had sturdy mountain bikes for us and we set out along the dirt roads that pass near Lake Kivu. We passed by farms and small villages where they are growing bananas and coffee. Tom speaks Kinyarwanda and has done a lot of work with the local villages to create an environment that is respectful and sustainable for ecotourism. He arranges stops for snacks in the villages to support the locals.

We stopped for lunch in a field. Tom had brought a picnic lunch with avocados from his garden, local cheese, tomatoes and chapattis. The ride was uphill for over half the day. It was a hard slog! We expected to stay at a lodge just the other side of the forest but it turned out to be far more elusive. After all our hard work up hill we had a two-hour downhill ride looking for this lodge. It got a bit scary because it was getting close to 6:00 PM and we still hadn’t found the lodge. It gets dark rapidly in Rwanda; the country is very close the equator. I had visions of us huddling together for warmth and sleeping the forest without blankets or food. Fortunately the mysterious lodge was found in the nick of time. We had African tea and began to think about the options for the next day. Ten hours of cycling plus the three-hour road trip back to Kigali did not seem possible, or enticing. Tom said it would be possible to get towed uphill with one hand on a moto and the other on the bike. I figured a helicopter rescue would be worth it but finally we settled on arranging a pick up truck to get us the next morning bright and early. Our team settled down to a few Turbo King beers and some good Rwanda food.

We woke up this morning at 5:30, when it was still dark. After omelettes and tea we loaded up the pick up truck with the bikes. Michelle, Tom and Twisiere road in the back of the truck holding the bikes to keep the pedals from damaging the spokes. We hiked in the forest for four hours then had a ripping fast decent to Gisenyi for several hours. We met Jill, Keith and Emmy at Paradis Malahide and heard about their great gorilla adventure.