At the southern tip of Lake Kivu the water squeezes out into the Rusizi river and tumbles down toward Lake Tanganyika, and the Rwandan border town of Rusizi, once and still often called Cyangugu, sits right at the hinge. Across the river is Bukavu, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, close enough that you can see its hillside houses and hear the traffic on a quiet evening. Check the border situation before you plan anything beyond this bank; for most riders, this is the end of the road.
The ride here from the north is a long one, and by the end you know the lake's moods. The Congo Nile Trail follows the shore with a lot of climbing, short sharp hills, and cuts between fishing villages and coffee slopes. Lake Kivu is odd water: deep, calm, with no hippos or crocodiles, but with dissolved methane in the depths that Rwanda now taps to generate electricity. In the evening the fishermen set out in boats lashed together in threes, singing as they paddle.
South of town the road climbs into Nyungwe, one of the oldest rainforests in Africa and home to chimpanzees and a long list of other primates, plus an astonishing number of bird species. The road across the forest toward Huye is among the most beautiful in the country, but it is often damp, misty and cold, with sudden bends and little traffic after dark. Keep your speed down, watch for monkeys at the verge, and carry waterproofs. Fuel is available in Rusizi, which is a town of more than sixty thousand people, but fill up in town before heading into the forest.
Rusizi is also a pleasant place to stop and do very little. The waterfront has small restaurants where you can order grilled tilapia from the lake with fried plantains, and Kamembe, the town up the hill, has the hotels and the airport. The best months are June to September, when the roads are driest and the views clearest.