Burundi or Bust

The day after visiting the gorillas, Dave and I headed west in a packed minibus to the town of Gisenyi, on the north end of Lake Kivu. Kivu splits Rwanda from the Congo (aka Zaire, aka Democratic Republic of Congo) and is exceptionally beautiful. We had heard from a couple of other travellers in Rwanda that the Congo made for an interesting day trip. Just over the Congo border lies the town of Goma, which was half covered in hot liquid magma during a volcanic eruption in 2002. So we decided to cross over and check it out.


Lunch spot, beside Lake Kivu, Rwanda.
(Looks nice, right? A few minutes after this photo was taken a prostitute came over to our table and stole a french fry off Dave's plate, apparently upset after we rather directly declined her services.)


Lake Kivu, Rwanda.


Local transport. Goma, Congo.


Our transport. Goma, Congo.

The sights around Goma were refugee camps, Asian UN peacekeepers in APCs and Land Cruisers and hoards of shifty taxi drivers around a busy airport. A 20 minute ride out to the lava should cost $5, our lowest offer was $40, and the highest was $100, all bargaining done in French. Thus we took the motorcycles which were $5.


Lava flow covering village, Congo.


Crowned Crane, lunch spot, Congo. Best burger in Africa.


Local Beer. Delicious.


Another view of Lake Kivu, Rwanda. A nice lakeside stroll to and from the Congo border.

Rwanda to Burundi:
Burundi is a beautiful small country south of Rwanda which is currently enjoying peace after a 13 year civil war. We were planning to head to Lake Tanganyika, in Tanzania with a stop for a few days in Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi. Up until a few months ago, Burundi was considered off limits to travellers (see linked travel warning above) We had met a few travellers that had just come through with great success and reported a calm country with friendly people. I had been planning to go around the country through Tanzania, but that was pretty far out of the way, and transport would have been a combination of minibuses, pickup trucks, if anything. Not exactly ideal options. We found a direct bus from Kigali, Rwanda to Bujumbura, Burundi (Yahoo! Express) and had a tip on a good budget hotel there. So, we went for it. It was a superb journey through the most stunning country I've in Africa.


Typical road scene, Burundi.


Village near the Rwanda-Burundi border. I couldn't take too many pictures because the police are still a little weary of people with cameras.

While in Buj, we were trying to find a cargo ship to take us down the lake to Kigoma, where we'd get another ferry further south. However, we never found a boat that was willing to take us on the 16 hour journey, and really weren't all that enthused to spend 16 hours on a cargo ship either. While walking around the port we came across the Medicine San Frotiers (Doctors Without Borders) Logistics base and spoke to Stella, the manager there. She gave us to best quote of the trip: "You guys are brave, I think you're the first tourists I've seen." But she had no idea of cargo ships we could hitch on to Kigoma, so we took a minibus (as per usual) to the nearest town to the border, then a taxi, then had a couple mile stroll to the Tanzanian border post. Its not the "most popular" way to go, but it was really fun to do it.


Lets Go O's. Burundi kids near the Tanzanian border.


The crew crossing the Burundi-Tanzania border. It was a 1 or 2 miles from the gate on the Burundi side on a dirt road to the Immigration building on the Tanzanian side, a gorgeous walk through the woods.




Cross border commerce, Burundi-Tanzania.


The landscape between the two borders, looking into the Congo. Awesome.


Safe and sound in Tanzania. We've been in Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika for 4 days now, and were getting a little bored.


Dave and I going over the options for the day in Kigoma, there is a nice Internet cafe...

Ah, it's not that bad, it's a beautiful small town with a port. We're getting on the MV Liemba ferry boat today at 4pm for a two and a half day trip down the lake (which is the second deepest in the world, and the second largest in Africa) to Southern Tanzania and then onto Malawi. The MV Liemba is a 93 year old ferry, we hold first class tickets, we're bringing 12 liters of drinking water and some fruit. It should be very interesting... We've met up with the only other tourist in Kigoma, an Frenchman named Pierre, who will also be coming with us.