What to do at Lake Kivu in Rwanda?
What to do at Lake Kivu in Rwanda? Lake Kivu is a freshwater lake known to have undergone limbic eruptions found between the border of the democratic republic of Congo and Rwanda in the Albert Nile rift valley in the western part of the East African rift valley arm.
Lake Kivu pours its water into the Ruzizi River which flows into Lake Tanganyika. It’s estimated to be covering an area of 2700 km2 making it the 8th of Africa’s largest lake. The lake bed is on a rift valley making it slowly being pulled apart leading to volcanicity in the area
Lake Kivu has got the tenth largest island in the world on its lake that’s Idjwi within the boundaries of Virunga national park. People around the lake settle at Buvaku, Kalehe, Sake, and Goma in Congo, and in Rwanda people stay on shores in Gisenyi, Kibuye, and Cyangugu.
Lake Kivu is a source of income for people and the government because of different activities in the area.
Boat cruise. It’s one of the most done activities at Lake Kivu, which rewards you with attractions that can be seen while cruising on the fresh waters of the lake. The boat cruise comes with having lunch seeing the sunset while reading books or taking your drinks. The boat cruise helps you also to visit different islands on the lake i.e. Amahoro island, Napoleon island, and Idjwi the tenth world’s island.
Spot fishing. It’s among the best activities at Lake Kivu the freshwater lake is an habitant of so many fish species like Red-breasted Tilapia, blue-spotted tilapia, Nile Tilapia, Amphilius, Astatorechromis, Barbus, Clarias, Cyprinus, Gnathonemus, Haplochromis, Limnothrissa, Marcusenius, Mormyrus, Nile Tilapia, Synodontis, Tanganyika Sardine, and Varicorthinus among others. Different species can be caught in the lake is fishing is commercially done in this lake. Sportfishing allows the winner to take home fish for participating.
Birding. Birding at the shores of Lake Kivu helps you see several bird species like ones catching prey from the lake that’s the African kingfisher, the African woodpecker, knobs billed duck, Yellow-billed stork, but other bird species can be seen during walks around the shores or boat cruise flotillas of pelicans, crowned crested crane, hornbills, malachite kingfishers, African fish eagles, Herons, and other water-loving birds.
Cultural encounters. While at Lake Kivu you may use bikes to move around the right valley have fun see how they display their canoes, Fly-fish among others you may visit the ways of traditional living visit the orphanages e.g. the Imbabazi orphanage which was established to act as a home to children whose parents were killed in the Rwanda genocide in 1994. You may give them emotional support.
Visiting islands. If you have time at the lake you may visit islands like Nyamirundi which has the largest coffee plantation which helps you learn the whole process of coffee making from harvesting to drying to roasting then grinding and coffee consumption you can also visit Idjwi and napoleon where you find bats in trees
You may also decide to visit interesting areas near Lake Kivu like the Gisenyi the largest town spread over several hills, Kibuye the prettiest of Lake Kivu’s town surrounded by hills covered with pines, and lastly Cyangugu at the southern end of Lake Kivu.