Finding Zen in Kibuye

I took a weekend trip to Kibuye with a group of friends to celebrate birthdays and, for the woefully overworked among us, to enjoy some much needed R&R.

And oh the view on the way to Kibuye – every bit as lovely as the one to Gisenyi.

(photo to come)

We had the company of James and Maniza on the drive there, and with an iPod in the stereo, we sang songs at the top of our lungs and sipped some Belgian beer (spoils from Brussels) as we wound through the hills. A particularly raucous rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – complete with Wayne’s World-esque head banging – turned several villagers’ heads.

A close call with an errant goat and we had arrived. The hotel was nestled into a hillside in a small cove of the glassy Lake Kivu.

We had a few good moments for swimming, boating, and for the more intrepid of us, water skiing. Unlike Gisenyi, the lake around Kibuye is free of asphyxiating volcanic gases, so swimming in the lake is no longer extreme sport. The waters were remarkably clean and calm. Such sweet serenity: to swim out, lulled by the sound of lapping water, and face the open water, mist, and somewhere over there, the Congo.

But mostly, it rained. Rain that pelts the lake in a rhythmic staccato, deluges down staircases, and coolly sloshes over your flip-flops.

In the rainier moments, some of us retreated for yoga sessions by candlelight.

Dinner on the hotel restaurant’s terrace was a lovely affair, surrounded by complete blackness broken every few moments by a flash of lightning, illuminating the sky in a strange warm mauve and striking somewhere on the lake’s horizon.

Fat dragonflies swarmed the lights and occasionally dropped onto the table. Everyone except me seemed to take this quite well. The white wall behind our table became the gecko lizard’s playground: they scurried up and down catching dragonflies in their mouths, casually munching on them so that their wings spread out of their mouths like mini oriental fans.

Sometimes I wonder what I did in my past life to deserve the treasures I find in this one......