The Swimming Cows Experience

Activity Description

The farmers around Karongi use the islands as grazing pastures for their cattle. They do not transport the cows there by boat but rather let the cows swim there. In this experience, you will join the cattle and their herdsmen as they herd their swimming cows from one island to another in a dugout canoe.

Those who have visited Rwanda’s Royal Palace in Nyanza will know of Rwanda’s history and special bond with cows. The swimming cows experience is a very unique experience which you are unlikely to encounter elsewhere but is sure to put a smile on anyone’s face.

You will start the day by being picked up in one of the cooperatives tour boats and head out into the archipelago outside Karongi. The landscape is breathtaking and the many green islands outside Karongi give the area a very beautiful and tropical feeling. Once you reach the island where the cows are kept at the moment, the herdsmen will start to usher the cows into the water. From the comfort of the boat you watch as the herdsmen herd the swimming cows in their dugout canoes towards another island. The tour ends once the cows have safely reached the destined island.