Bisesero is a place where the story is carried by the hills themselves. In April 1994, in the first weeks of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, thousands of people from the surrounding area fled to the steep, wooded ridges of Bisesero, above Lake Kivu, and held out for weeks against armed attackers with sticks, stones and whatever they could find. They were eventually overwhelmed, and tens of thousands were killed in the area, in one of the worst massacres of the genocide. Today a memorial site stands on the hillside, with mass graves and a small museum, and survivors and guides are on hand to explain what happened.
It is a place that asks for quiet and a sober attitude. Visitors should come with respect, dress modestly, avoid taking photographs of human remains and follow the guidance of the staff. It is not a stop to fit in between two other things.
The road to it is among the finest in Africa. The route along Lake Kivu, from Gisenyi in the north to Kibuye, now called Karongi, and on to Cyangugu in the south, follows the shore with steep forested slopes above it, and the road clings to the hillsides in constant bends. Lake Kivu lies at about 1,460 metres, so the climate is mild, and the water, which is one of the African Great Lakes, is deep and calm. The surface of the main roads in Rwanda is notably good, with clear markings and few potholes, and traffic is light, though motorbike taxis, buses and trucks are common. Rain is heavy from March to May and in the autumn, and the mud on side tracks can be treacherous.
Rwanda enforces helmet laws strictly, speed limits are monitored, and plastic bags are banned, a policy that has made the country remarkably clean. Fuel is available in Karongi, a town of nearly fifty thousand people, and the main towns along the route, but is sparse in the countryside. The road onward leads south to Nyungwe National Park, one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, where chimpanzees and colobus monkeys live in the canopy.
Eat simply in Karongi, at a lakeside restaurant with a fish brochette, a local speciality, and take a moment to think.