5-Day Lake Kivu and Rainforest

This itinerary leaves the safari vehicles behind. It pairs the most scenic stretch of Lake Kivu with Nyungwe National Park, the high-altitude rainforest that straddles the Albertine Rift in the south-west of the country.

From Kigali we drive west to Kibuye, chosen for its slow pace and small numbers of tourists, for two days of boat trips, lakeside birdlife, the local market and the Chateau Le Marara. We then follow the lake road south into Nyungwe for two days of forest trails, a chimpanzee or birding trek with an expert local guide, the canopy walkway and — for the adventurous — one of the longest zip lines in Africa.

The photography here is about light, mist and water rather than big animals: fishermen singing as they cast their nets at sunset, tea plantations meeting rainforest, and the birds of the Albertine Rift that are found almost nowhere else on earth.