Rwanda

I have a work trip to Rwanda this week, and I have found out that one of the areas I am going to (Musanze/Ruhengeri) is known for amazing mountain bike trails through a national park with volcanos and gorillas. It is also the place where the Rwandan national team trains, which you might have heard of from this film

Anyone have any experience cycling in Rwanda (or nearby), or know of a good company to hire bikes from out there?

in 1992 i went into zaire ( just on the other side of the border, rutshuru ) for about 3 weeks, visited the gorillas, chimps and volcanoes in that area, really stunning pre historic feel to it
if it's anything like that in the ruhengeri area it'll be stunning, the whole uganda rwanda zaire border area is rife with wildlife and rainforests volcanoes

as far as the cycling i would say the capital might be your only bet, the rest of the country relies on bikes like this

Not sure that's exactly fair! Musanze is where the Rwandan national team (as well as several other riders from neighbouring countries) trains... They seem pretty legit, though the don't have the best website. I guess the "Team Africa Rising" thing is related as well: https://www.teamafricarising.org/

have you're been to africa before?

this might help...

http://www.rwandan-adventures.com/links.html

Now over here in Rwanda and managed to figure things out a bit more... It looks like it is more worthwhile to do road cycling, rather than mountain biking, as the Congo - nile trail is a little further away from where I am, and the trail which is being prepared for the Rio 2016 regional mountain biking qualifications (being held in may 2015) is not yet finished.

Anyways, I will likely do Musanze to Gisenyi and back with a bit of a break on the beach (the shores of Lake Kivu) in the middle of the day. I am tempted to add another leg onto it, but I am told the hills are quite brutal, so I will see how I fare. Pics (and vids?) to come!

So, a few more details - haven't found the time to transfer over all the pics and edit any GoPro footage (scant as it was, due to power/battery failure grrr), but this is the route to start:
https://www.strava.com/routes/1405355
(I wasn't actually tracking with Strava - needless to say, my fat ass did not finish the route in under 6 hours :(

The trip over to Gisenyi was alright, but heading back we started up a 30km HC climb with some stretches up to 12% grade at midday (>35 degrees) - that pretty much broke me!
https://www.strava.com/segments/630382

I'll split the pics into a couple posts, so the internet doesn't flake on me here.

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This is amazing. Read that book on the Rwandan team over summer last year, dreamt of a trip there. What's it like?

yeah its amazing - really beautiful. a couple more shots:

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cooling off in lake Gisenyi (halfway point)

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this was the bike I rode - Ridley compact frame with campy groupset - took me a bit of time to get used to the Campag shifters, which led to a few mishaps on the hills!

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Team Rwanda's impressive stable...

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there's actually a lot more road bike pron, but couldn't get pics of all of it! You can see on the back wall their motto is "Team is Team" - it is what it is...

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