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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
The stops in between: Cyamudongo Natural Forest, Bisesero and back through Cyamudongo Natural Forest. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Congo - Kinshasa into Rwanda - carry ID and check the toll rules. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 76 km this is Rwanda Congo Nile Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Kahuzi-Biega is the place in the world to meet an eastern lowland gorilla, the largest of all the great apes. The park lies in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in South Kivu province, west of Bukavu and Lake Kivu, and it covers a mix of lowland rainforest and the high forested slopes of two extinct volcanoes, Kahuzi at 3,308 metres and Biega at 2,790. Bamboo forest grows on the upper slopes, and the whole mass rises abruptly from the Albertine Rift, one of the richest areas for wildlife in Africa.
Read the complete Kahuzi-Biega National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park is where the day begins. Next is Cyamudongo Natural Forest.
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 comes up about 126 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bisesero.
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.
Read the complete Bisesero write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 202 km into the recorded legs you reach Bisesero. Next is back through 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 through Cyamudongo Natural Forest, late in the day. Next is Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kahuzi-Biega National Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kahuzi-Biega National Park. That is the ride.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park → Cyamudongo Natural Forest is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Cyamudongo Natural Forest → Bisesero is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bisesero → back through Cyamudongo Natural Forest is 76 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Cyamudongo Natural Forest → Kahuzi-Biega National Park is 126 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.