CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
190 km from Cyangugu to Cyangugu, about 4 h 51 of riding. It goes by way of Gisakura Natural Forest, Nyungwe National Park and back through Gisakura Natural Forest. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,200 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 34 km this is Rwanda Congo Nile Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
In the far southwest corner of Rwanda, the land drops toward Lake Kivu and the Ruzizi river, and the green hills here are mostly tea, banana and small farms. Cyamudongo is the exception: a patch of natural forest, a few hundred hectares at most, standing as an island of tall trees in the middle of cultivation. It is separated from the great Nyungwe forest by a belt of farmland, yet it still shelters a small population of chimpanzees, along with other primates and a remarkable range of birds and butterflies.
Read the complete Cyamudongo Natural Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cyamudongo Natural Forest is where the day begins. Next is Gisakura Natural Forest.
In the far southwest of Rwanda, a small patch of forest surrounded by tea plantations is home to one of the most charming wildlife encounters in Africa. Gisakura forest lies on the western edge of Nyungwe National Park, near the tea estate that shares its name, and a large troop of Ruwenzori colobus monkeys lives there, black and white with long tails and flowing capes of fur. Watching them leap through the canopy, sometimes in groups of dozens, is a joy. The forest is a remnant of the great montane rainforest that once covered these mountains, isolated now by the tea fields.
Read the complete Gisakura Natural Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gisakura Natural Forest comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Nyungwe National Park.
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.
Read the complete Nyungwe National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Nyungwe National Park. Next is back through Gisakura Natural Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gisakura Natural Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gisakura Natural Forest, late in the day. Next is Cyamudongo Natural Forest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cyamudongo Natural Forest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Cyamudongo Natural Forest. That is the ride.
Cyamudongo Natural Forest → Gisakura Natural Forest is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gisakura Natural Forest → Nyungwe National Park is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Nyungwe National Park → back through Gisakura Natural Forest is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gisakura Natural Forest → Cyamudongo Natural Forest is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.