CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Nzega it runs 427 km to Nzega; allow about 8 h 08 of riding. On the way it passes Gisakura Natural Forest, Kahuzi-Biega National Park and back through Gisakura Natural Forest. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Rwanda into Congo - Kinshasa - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 72 km this is Rwanda Congo Nile Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Murambi sits on a green hill in southern Rwanda, and the buildings on it were meant to be a technical school. In April 1994, tens of thousands of Tutsi from the surrounding area gathered here, told that they would be protected, and instead the school became a place of mass killing. The number who died in a few days is estimated at around fifty thousand, though the exact toll is not known. After the genocide, bodies were exhumed and preserved with lime, and some are displayed in the school's classrooms, as a stark testimony that no visitor forgets. It is one of the most harrowing places in Africa, and it is now a national memorial and, since 2023, a World Heritage site along with Nyamata, Bisesero and the memorial in Kigali.
Read the complete Murambi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Murambi 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 105 km in. Next is Kahuzi-Biega National Park.
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.
209 km in you reach Kahuzi-Biega 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 Murambi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Murambi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Murambi. That is the ride.
Murambi → Gisakura Natural Forest is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Gisakura Natural Forest → Kahuzi-Biega National Park is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park → back through Gisakura Natural Forest is 137 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Gisakura Natural Forest → Murambi is 72 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.