Two Belgium, a Norwegian and two Americans

We went camping and hiking with part of the Belgium and Norwegian group. They were the five twenty-somethings that traveled around Rwanda showing films to rural Rwandans. They invited us to go along with them to Lake Burera and to climb Bisoke volcano. We left on Sunday and drove to Ruhengeri to camp at the Fatima Hotel. Monday we drove up to Lake Butera and parked in the yard of a friend of our guide, Innocent. We then hired bicycles to take us 6 kilometers to the road that encircles Lake Butera.

Lake Burera sits in the foothills of Volcano National Park. There are three active volcanos and six extinct ones. The view was so beautiful I felt like we were part of a postcard.
As we hiked along the gravel road we met some very interesting people. Children especially enjoyed following us. Two young girls walked with us for 4 hours. They were on their weekly trip to their grandparent's house carrying supplies for them. When we stopped to rest they stopped. We even bought them sodas! Tone and Andria felt so bad for them that they carried their supplies for part of the trip.
At one point it started to rain. We considered setting up a tent but decided to see if we could find a house to wait out the rain. Without knowing us a family opened up their home. It was probably a good 30 minutes before it stopped raining. During that time we witnessed:a chicken being carried out from the back room, the 1 year old waking up and being breast fed, the children all singing Sunday school songs and other songs....This families hospitality was so incredible. Our guide, Innocent, translated for us even thought the father new English.

As we neared the waterfall our crowd grew!

Rusumo Falls was breathtaking. We received permission to camp at the base of the falls. The tremendous sound of water rushing brought a good night sleep!
The next morning Innocent was able to contact a restaurant that had a motor boat. After a 40 minute nail-bitting, steep hike down the river we came to Lake Burera. Within an hour we had our boat and headed back toward our vehicle.

I took a motorcycle taxi back to our vehicle.