Mount Karisimbi
Mount Karisimbi
Mountain Karisimbi is the tallest of all the eight volcano chains in Virunga. It is an inactive volcano and it’s on the boarder of Rwanda and the democratic republic of Congo. It stands at 4507 meters high. It is located in the Albertine Rift valley.
This mountain can be viewed from Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC, thus serving as a tourist attraction for all the three countries.
In Uganda it can viewed from Mountain Mgahinga and you have high chances of seeing it if you track the gorillas in Mgahinga, in Rwanda you can see it from Volcanoes national Park and in the DRC from Virunga National Park.
Like what our simple science taught us, Mountain Karisimbi is a source of relief rainfall in the area. This makes it a grazing area for the cattle, sheep and goats among others.
The grass on it slopes helps feed both these domestic animals and the wild animals thus promoting tourism.
There are several other study task that are carried out on this mountain, given that its an inactive volcano, volcanic research is made possible and therefore anyone who is coming to the DRC for the same purpose should think Mountain karisimbi.
Being the tallest of all, it is also the toughest to hike compared to other shorter mountains like Mikeno and Mgahinga. The Name Karisimbi si derived from the word “Amasimbi” which means snow. Because it is snowcapped the locals decided to name it so.
Karisimbi is the 5th tallest mountain range in Africa and hiking it will take you about two days. Like any other hike, you need to be physically and psychologically prepared for this task.
Physical preparedness would require you to have no problem with heights and related things like altitude.
Hikers will climb from the edge of Volcanoes National Park to the ridge of the huge caldera that extends at the base of the actual cone of Mt Karisimbi, crossing first the bamboo forests and then the Hagenia – Hypericum forests.
The hike then continues through the caldera, across a bush of giant Lobelia and Senecio which has another worldly fee about it.
