Northern Province

We had not had wifi or data for a couple of days now, and as such we could not communicate with Caroline (Vic's friend) to discuss what time they would have their driver pick us up. We had been told 8am, but it was a lot easier for him to pick us up first. So the time changed to 7:30am but we had no way of knowing. As such, I was in the shower when the driver arrived, and we ran around trying to make breakfast, organise our belongings, and have a coffee. Although slightly late, we eventually made it, picked up the others, and headed to the twin Lakes. We arrived at a port and participated in some local fishing. I'm not sure exactly what I expected when we decided to do fish, but when they sent us out in little wooden boats with some reeds as fishing poles, I was quite surprised. I did not know what we could expect to catch, but based on the gear, they didn't expect us to catch much. We paddled out to some floating grasses and began to drop lines out just to the side of the boat. At first, there was not much luck, but gradually, we started pulling in tiny fish, which i do not know the species name, unfortunately. Their size ranged from about 1 cm to 5 cm. This was quite strange as they would definitely have been below the legal limit in Aus, but clearly, no such rules exist in Rwanda. So there was no fish turned away, and eventually, the volume started to pick up. Vic secured the most fish of the day, and due to a late increase in performance by me, we probably beat the other boat with Caroline and her 2 friends. The views from the lake made the trip worthwhile, but the fishing was actually a lot of fun. Obviously, there were no big catches, but it was a lot of fun to be fishing and being almost certain to get a bite, at least every couple of minutes. It felt more like a game with the ease in which we caught them. The surrounding areas included mount Bisoke, an active volcano, a few dormant volcano's; Mikeno, Gahinga, and Muhavura. Not to mention, a few very large mountains such as Mount Sabyinyo and Karisimbi. This made for acceptional scenery the whole time we were on the lake, and it was truly a wonderful experience. We were out there for probably 2 hours in very overcast conditions, yet somehow managed to dodge all the rain- which started as soon as we got back to land. When we arrived back to shore, we gave the little fish we caught to the kids to add to their own collection. Our guess is that they cook and sell them to make money, so we were happy to help them out as best we could. We were then ferried across the lake to an island where we sat for a few drinks and lunch. Although this was only supposed to be for a couple of hours, our lunch literally took 2 and a half hours to get out to us. This meant our poor captain sat and waited this whole time, but it was out of our control. We were very frustrated ourselves with how long it took. We had been telling Caroline about our tour and she was very intrigued. So much so that she had decided she would join until Zanzibar. An exciting and sudden prospect. She would be joining us tomorrow in Kigali.

After the low awaited lunch, we eventually got off the island and back to the mainland. We asked our driver to take us to Byiza Lodge. We only wanted to go here for the view, but it ended up being incredibly nice and fancy. The views were even better than we expected. We could see Lake Burera, all the mountains and volcanoes, the beautiful farmland, and even 360 degrees to Lake Ruhondo. Though the views to this lake were slightly obstructed, the rest of the views were incredible and easily made the trip worth it. We stuck around for a while, playing cards and drinking while we admired the view from the restaurant. By the time we got back, dinner was ready, and we basically ate and went straight to bed. Ending a great day.Read more