Nyungwe is one of the oldest rainforests in Africa, a mountain forest spread over the ridges of south-western Rwanda between Lake Kivu and the Burundi border. It is high, wet and green in a way that makes the rest of the world feel dry: tree ferns taller than a house, orchids on the branches, mist pouring through the valleys in the morning, and the sound of water everywhere. The ridges here form part of the great divide between the Congo and Nile basins, and Rwanda proudly claims one of the remotest sources of the Nile in these hills.
For a rider, the gift is the road. The main highway from Huye in the east to Rusizi on Lake Kivu crosses the whole park, and it is well paved, beautifully engineered and absolutely full of bends, climbing and falling through the forest for the best part of an hour. There are few villages, little traffic beyond buses and trucks, and baboons and monkeys sitting at the verge. The weather is the main challenge: rain can arrive any afternoon, the road gets slippery under leaf litter, and fog can drop visibility to a few metres. Drive on the right, keep speeds sensible, and expect speed checks on the approaches.
The park is home to chimpanzees and a dozen or so other primate species, including the acrobatic L'Hoest's monkeys and large troops of Angola colobus. A canopy walkway near Uwinka lets you walk out over the treetops. On the western edge the forest gives way to the tea estates of Gisakura, emerald terraces cut into the hillsides, a striking frontier between wild and cultivated.
Rwanda's history is impossible to ignore, and one of these rides connects Nyungwe with the genocide memorial at Nyamata, one of the most harrowing places you will ever visit. Seeing the country's calm, clean and orderly present afterwards puts the scale of what was rebuilt into perspective.
Fuel is the thing to plan. There is nothing inside the park, so fill up in Huye or in Rusizi, Cyangugu as it used to be called, on the lake, about forty kilometres from here, before you enter. Bring warm and waterproof layers even on a hot day, because the higher sections of the road are surprisingly cold. Park entry and activities require permits arranged in advance.