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.
A one-way ride of 402 km, Kigali to Cyangugu - roughly 6 h 16 in the saddle. On the way it passes Musanze, Gisenyi, Kibuye and Nyungwe. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Rwanda calls itself the land of a thousand hills, and Kigali is draped over a good number of them, at roughly fifteen hundred metres above the sea. The city climbs and drops in short steep pitches, with red-earth lanes running off the tarmac and views across to the next ridge every time you crest a rise. It is clean, notably so, with a monthly community clean-up day and a ban on plastic bags that visitors notice at the airport. The roads are well surfaced, the lane discipline is better than in most capitals in the region, and the air at this altitude is cooler than the equator suggests.
Read the complete Kigali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kigali is where the day begins. Next is Musanze.
Musanze is the town you go through to reach the gorillas. It lies at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes in the north-west of Rwanda, a high, cool town of tidy streets and bustling markets, with the cones of Bisoke, Karisimbi and Sabyinyo rising behind it like props from a film. The mountains are shared with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the border lies not far off. The population is large, more than eighty thousand, so Musanze has fuel stations, banks, supermarkets and a whole industry of guides and drivers.
Read the complete Musanze write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Musanze comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gisenyi.
Two countries share one shoreline here, and the border runs between the beach bars. Gisenyi, now officially Rubavu, is Rwanda's lakeside resort on the northern shore of Lake Kivu, and the Congolese city of Goma starts a few kilometres across the line, under the dark cone of Nyiragongo. The volcano is the dominant fact of the landscape: its 2002 eruption sent lava through Goma, and its crater holds one of the world's largest lava lakes, glowing red at night when the sky is clear. Cross-border crowds, market women with baskets on their heads and boda riders weaving between them give the town a restless energy.
Read the complete Gisenyi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 158 km into the recorded legs you reach Gisenyi. Next is Kibuye.
Kibuye sits on the shore of Lake Kivu in western Rwanda, and the setting is the best argument for coming. The lake is long, deep and hemmed in by steep green hills, with a coast of small bays and peninsulas and islands covered in forest. On a calm morning the water is a sheet of pewter and fishermen paddle out in wooden boats lashed together in threes, their nets draped across long poles. The town, called Karongi in official use, is a quiet place with a small harbour, a few hotels and a handful of lakeside cafes.
Read the complete Kibuye write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kibuye, about halfway. Next is Nyungwe.
Nyungwe is the largest surviving block of montane rainforest in East and Central Africa, and the road that crosses it, running from Rusizi on Lake Kivu toward Huye, is one of the most atmospheric rides in the continent. The forest covers about a thousand square kilometres of steep hills, and it is very old, having survived the ice ages when other forests shrank, which is why it holds such an abundance of life. There are thirteen species of primates here, including chimpanzees and large troops of Angolan colobus monkeys, which often sit by the road, and more than three hundred species of birds.
Read the complete Nyungwe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Nyungwe sits at 338 km, late in the day. Next is Rusizi.
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.
Read the complete Rusizi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 402 km.
Kigali → Musanze is 96 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Musanze → Gisenyi is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gisenyi → Kibuye is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kibuye → Nyungwe is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Nyungwe → Rusizi is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.