Spelunking in Musanze Cave

December 5^th, 2023 

One of the big attractions in this area of northern Rwanda is to see the mountain gorillas.  American Dian Fossey, who studied the gorillas for 19 years here.  She wrote the famous book “Gorillas in the Mist” which I have just finished reading.  Since I already saw the gorillas in Uganda, at a cheaper rate than in Rwanda ($700 USD vs $1300 USD), I wasn’t going to do it again, but I contemplated the 4-5 hour hike to the Karisoke Research Center, which Dian established in 1967.  However, after a late night last night, plus a lot of rain overnight, I opted to check out Musanze Cave.  I had read about them online and you can explore 2 kilometers of the cave.  I mentioned the plan to my new South African friends, and they were interested in joining.

 

Peace, a lady who works at Red Rocks Rwanda, called a taxi for us.  Right from the get go, our driver had a bad vibe about him, which all of us picked up.  We drove the 7 km north to Musanze and then went another 10-12 kilometers towards the base of one of the volcanos in the area.  Just before arriving at the Volcano National Park Headquarters, there was a lodge with some huge wooden statues of animals.  The biggest was a mountain gorilla and her baby but there was also an elephant, giraffe and some other ones.  We asked our taxi driver if we could stop to take pictures.  His English wasn’t very good but it was obvious that he understood the request.  He conveyed that we would pass by this on the way back from the headquarters and we could stop then.  There were some big dark storm clouds over the volcano and I wondered if it wouldn’t be raining soon.

 

We entered the headquarters and were the only tourists there.  In the main office, a ranger named Isaiah helped us to get our permits for caving.  He took our passports and then we had to pay the $50 park entrance fee by credit card.  This proved to be a problem with the South Africans due to the type of credit card that they have.  While we were in the building, the heavens opened up and it poured the hardest I’ve seen in my month in Africa…it was torrential.  Eventually Beyers’ card worked but we must have been there for an hour.  After paying, we still had to wait for a guide to show up along with equipment for spelunking:  a helmet and a flashlight. 

The view of a nearby volcano from the headquarters:

I had to take a pic of this:  individual electrical sockets above each urinal...just in case you need to charge your phone.  Huh, how long of a pee do you have to take?

A pickup truck finally showed with 4-5 guys and after we were able to corral Koster and Beyers from some extracurricular activities, we were off.  We had to follow the truck in our taxi, so of course we were unable to stop to take photos of the amazing wooden statues…thanks Mr. Taxi Driver.

I stole these from online...what we had hoped to stop and photograph. 

I had read online that the entrance to the caves was actually on some university grounds, and that proved to be true.  It seemed odd that we had to pay the hefty Volcanoes National Park fees and yet we were in the outskirts of Musanze…a bit of a cash grab me thinks.  Since we were on a main road, we knew that we would be able to find another taxi after spelunking so we happily dismissed our grumpy driver.  As we were talking to our guide, the taxi guy came back with an empty beer bottle that Koster had left in the car…he wanted Koster to take it.  What was he going to do with it?!?  Carry it through the caves?  C’mon dude.

Our guide, Kovit, was the complete opposite to the taxi driver, smiling, jovial and just exuding positive energy.  Along with Kovit, we were joined by a man carrying an AK-47 named Neto.  We had to ask why a machine gun was required in a cave.  Well, I guess occasionally there can be a jackal or feral dogs underground…seemed unlikely to us, but hey, why not go spelunking with a gun?!?

From left to right: me, Beyers, Koster, Neto with his AK-47 and Stefan:

Ready to go:

During a pre-cave briefing, Kovit told us that there were three sections that we would walk through.  The cave system was actually a big lava tube and extended about 17-18 kilometers but only the first 2 have been made suitable for tourists. 

Kovit answering a question from Koster:

It was time to enter the first section of the cave.  There was a nice 10-15 foot wide stone footpath throughout the cave.  A few of us remarked about how much work it must have been to make it.  The roof of the cave ranged from 15-40 feet above us.  It was a pretty impressive cave.  I mentioned to Stefan that at some point we should all turn off our lights to see how dark it really was in this cave…and about ten minutes later, without any prompting from me, Kovit suggested that we extinguish our flashlights.  Wow, it was super dark.

Heading towards the entrance:

Entering the cave:

Kovit mentioned that during the genocide in 1994, some Tutsis were hiding in the cave.  What a crazy thought.  It would have been cold, damp and complete darkness…but I guess that’s still a lot better than getting hacked up by a machete.

Getting deeper into the cave:

I suggested to the guys that we try to recreate the album cover from Queen's "Queen II" album.  Here's the original:

And here's our attempt:

As we exited the first, and longest section of our tour, it was raining but thankfully we only had to walk about 100 meters to descend back into the cave.  This section was not as cavernous as the first.  We were hoping to see bats but didn’t find any.

Reaching the exit:

At the start of the third and final part of the cave, there was a side entrance that was about 5 feet high into a room about 40 feet in diameter.  As we looked at it, Kovit explained that in the past, up until the 1950s-1960s, people sick with contagious diseases were brought here to isolate them from the general population.  Imagine that, you’re sick and feel terrible, and you’re made to stay in a dank cave?!?  Nasty.  Although it wasn’t the normal way that tours were taken, Koster asked if we could go inside, and Kovit said yes as it actually met back up with the main section of the cave.  What I thought was astounding in this part of the cave were the roots that hung down about 6-8 feet from the ceiling.  Incredible that the vegetation in the forest above could find its way through the rock…only to be disappointed and not finding any nutritious soil!

I tried to make the roots look like dreadlocks...but I look like I'm from the Exorcist and the devil is coming out of my mouth!

Luckily our little deviation sent us into a part of the cave where we did find two bats sleeping.  They were tiny little guys.

We ended up spending about an hour in the cave and although it was pricy, everyone one was glad that we did it.  Kovit ordered four motorcycle taxis for us to head into the town center of Musanze. 

The cafe at the exit of the caves:

Our motorcycle taxi convoy:

The South African boys attempted to get money at ATMs and all of us got a sim card.  I picked the wrong person behind the counter as somehow it took an hour for me to get a sim card and a data package.  By this time, we were all ready to head back to Red Rocks Rwanda for some beers and dinner…it had been a full, but fun spelunking of an afternoon!