Following our gorilla expedition we decided that Lake Kivu was too close not to visit. It is the largest lake in Rwanda, sandwiched between its western border and the eastern border of DRC. We spent Saturday night in Gisenyi - which sits on the DRC border just next to Goma. We stayed at an amazing waterfront lodge called Paradis (French: Heaven) suggested to us by Mark. This place truly deserves its name - you would never have thought that you would find a spot like this on the edge of a county listed in the top 20 poorest in the world. We almost felt bad paying $2.50 for a 800ml bottle of Belgian/Rwandan top quality beer (Mutzig), served chilled by our own personal Rwandan garcon at our choice of location; at a table or out on the rocks at the lakes edge, they even said they would serve it to us while swimming. We chose the rocks with a view to suit - the sun setting over lake with the mountains of DRC as a backdrop and a dozen or so Rwanda fishing boats setting out for the night shift - see above and below.
Naturally I did my best to add to the excitement of the evening - in true Andrew Hobson style I managed to skilfully leave the car keys in the car...locked. I say skilfully because this car is not just any car - I chose to leave the keys in quite possibly the hardest car to break into - Toyota Hilux 2002 model. I reckon even John Peters' BMW 2008 model would be easier snitch. After our beautiful sunset + boats + beer afternoon, Sean, the concierge, our garcon, a guard and I got cracking on our Fort Knox of cars. A mixture of coathangers, pliers and metal shears were utilised to no avail for nearly two hours. Almost about to give up - we decided to go the extreme option - that's right - I jumped on top of the roof and started levering the top of the front driver-side door open with the metal shears while sticking my finger, then wrist, then forearm down in between the door and car, frantically (I was in some pain at this stage) feeling for the lock nob, hoping the glass wasn't going to break. Now I have never considered myself as buff in any sense of the word, but apparently my muscle mass was a little too much to fit through the gap. Along comes our garcon - traditional Rwandan build - thin, short and paler than the average African. Thanks to him our Hilux was defeated. Now I am never again allowed to be in possession of the keys, unless driving.
During all this commotion we ran into a couple of Mark's Australian friends, Diana and Naomi. We went for a drive with them that evening to see the glow of the volcanoes above us and to visit the Goma border. Too cloudy for the volcanoes so the was a bit of a nonevent. The Goma border control was quite eerie - standing only eighty metres (width of no-man's-land) from a country/town currently in civil unrest is a spooky feeling. Although for what it's worth it didn't sound or look like there were any troubles over there - just a calm lakeside township - unfortunately as we know, this is not at all the case.
Only a week before a rebel Tutsi group had displaced some 300 000 Congolese and threatened to continue all the way to Kinshasa if they weren't granted a discussion with the Congolese President. This posed some threat to Rwanda if its President, Paul Kagame, openly sided with his Rwandan expatriates - this rebel Tutsi group. For a little while it was suggested that this may have been eminent (along with our evacuation) and as such we submitted our emergency contact details to the British and Canadian Embassies in Rwanda (Australia's is in Kenya) in case of an evacuation call-out. Fortunately nothing came of it on the Rwandan side of things and now we are really about as safe here as at home.
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