There are two types of people in this world: those who set their alarm clock on holiday, and those who do not. Usually, I fall into the latter camp – one of those bleary-eyed lunatics you see darting into the breakfast buffet to load up on mini croissants with a minute to spare. But when you’ve travelled more than 6,000km in the hope of catching a glimpse of some of the world’s rarest animals, being awoken by the shrill ring of a telephone is a fate one must willingly accept.
So, you can imagine my delight when I found myself slowly brought to consciousness at 5am, not by the ring of a receiver or an iPhone’s ungodly vibrations, but the soothing, dulcet tones of Virunga Lodge butler, Ezra, singing a traditional Rwandan folk song outside my cabin door. With him arrived a freshly made pot of bright, citrussy, locally sourced coffee, just one of many surprises which showcased Rwanda’s capacity not just to offer a truly once-in-a-lifetime adventure, but an unprecedented culinary experience.
Volcanoes in Rwanda
No, this is not a journey which revolves around Michelin stars or egocentric chefs, but an immersion into the country’s ancient landscape and culture through the land, the ingredients it produces, and those who cook them. A small, landlocked country, about the size of Wales and Northern Ireland combined, Rwanda is located in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, bordered by Uganda to the north, Tanzania to the east, Burundi to the south, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west.
Since overcoming the trauma and atrocity of the 1994 genocide, its people have cultivated a thriving tourist industry centred around allowing curious adventurers to get up close and personal with mountain gorillas in their natural habitat: the Virunga Mountains.
The Virunga range, which includes Volcanoes National Park in northwestern Rwanda, extends into Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is made up of eight volcanoes, covered in lush, high-altitude rainforest and bamboo forests – ideal habitat for mountain gorillas. Championed by the likes of Naomi Campbell, Idris Elba and Kevin Hart, this experience was made possible in part by the work of the late primatologist Dian Fossey, who, from 1967, spent nearly two decades living in the mountains with the gorillas to facilitate conservation and better understand the apes.
If you’re thinking that sounds like the plot of the 1988 film Gorillas in the Mist starring Sigourney Weaver, that’s because it is. Lesser known is Rwanda’s safari industry, which, despite having fewer large-scale savannah ecosystems than regional rivals like Kenya, Tanzania, or South Africa, offers access to the Big Five of the animal kingdom (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, and buffalo) via Akagera National Park. Needless to say, these two experiences combined go far beyond the phrase ‘out of the ordinary’ – something that I’d realised long before watching daybreak across the vista from my cabin at Virunga Lodge.
The climb to Virunga
Landing 20 hours before at Kigali Airport after an eight-hour red eye with RwandAir direct from London, we met our happy-go-lucky guide for the week, Pacifique, who quickly whisked us through a sea of bright red motorcycle helmets in a jeep kitted out like a limo.
Virunga Lodge
Our first stop? Virunga Lodge. But not before a mandatory post-flight visit to Indabo Café for our first dose of culture: mango, pineapple and banana fruit smoothies and iced coffees served in upcycled glass bottles. A long, lush rattan-covered patio garden-cum-art gallery where serene gaggles of polished, cosmopolitan local women put our crumpled travel gear to shame... here we experienced a taste of what I’d come to understand as Kigali calm.
Winding roads showcase sweeping views of undulating, lush green uplands, and valleys dotted with red-roofed houses and schools
It’s easy to understand why Rwanda is nicknamed ‘the land of a thousand hills.’ Exiting the urban sprawl to begin our three-and-a-half-hour journey north, the terrain is rarely flat. Winding roads showcase sweeping views of undulating, lush green uplands, and valleys dotted with red-roofed houses and schools.
Climbing up, patchworks of banana trees, tea plantations, and crops like cassava, sorghum, and sweet potato emerge alongside locals balancing harvests and jerry cans of home-brewed banana beer (more on that later) on bicycles, shoulders and heads. Approaching Musanze, the terrain becomes more dramatic – higher elevation, cooler air, and dense forests of eucalyptus and bamboo – before the towering Virunga volcanoes begin to hover on the horizon. It’s here that we get what Pacifique calls a ‘Rwandan massage’ over steep, rugged terrain.
Set majestically atop a ridge, when we reach Virunga Lodge, there is no flopping onto beds. A sanctuary built to facilitate gorilla trekking, we’re handed sweet and sour tamarillo (or ‘tree tomato’) bellinis and Amarula-spiked hot chocolate while we take in the view. Commanding a panoramic scene in every direction, lakes Burera and Ruhondo sit side by side directly below, their tranquil waters framed by dense greenery, while the peaks of the Virunga Mountains rise into view.
We wouldn’t see much of the vast, rustic-luxe bandas, it turns out. Lunch on the terrace overlooking the view comes quickly. Warm, freshly baked Parker House rolls and butternut squash salad give way to matooke with sambaza – a wholesome, hearty Rwandan staple of steamed, lightly spiced starchy green bananas with small fried fish from nearby Lake Kivu akin to whitebait. Thunder rolls in, calling for glasses of French pinot noir around the fire in the map room before a communal dinner with the other guests.
Virunga Lodge deluxe room
The team scoff when we request banana beer (“Only locals drink that”), but goat stew with rice, more matooke, and dodo – a green, peppery leaf named amaranth, steamed – offers familiar spoon-fed comfort before a hot water bottle beckons us to bed at 9pm. Following Ezra’s wake-up call, the next day is devoted to gorillas.
Arriving at base camp for briefing, a warming, invigorating blend of espresso, freshly grated ginger, ground cardamom, ground cinnamon and milk named ‘African coffee’ snaps even the most bleary-eyed into focus. It tastes even better knowing it’s Question Coffee, a social enterprise rooted in uplifting women coffee growers through training, fair pricing, and reinvestment in farming communities.
Trekking through bamboo thickets and up damp slopes, we slip and hack through wild green foliage until
Soon, we realise why we’ve been handed hand-carved walking sticks. We’re broken up into groups of eight. The ascent into the gorillas’ habitat feels dizzying as the air thins out. Trekking through bamboo thickets and up damp slopes, we slip and hack through wild green foliage until, suddenly, we’re face to face: a silverback with his harem of mothers, infants clinging to their chests, young males tumbling in play. It’s impossible not to hold your breath.
Several hours later, thighs heavy from the descent, we return to find a gingham-clothed table set up at the jeep. Pacifique beams as he produces handmade cassava crisps and sauvignon blanc, which travelled much farther than us. The wine is warm, but we clink our glasses all the same, salt clinging to our fingers, acidity cutting through fatigue. It is an incongruous, brief picnic – muddy boots, aching limbs, gorillas still crowding our thoughts – and yet here was a celebration.
Dinner that night at Virunga passes in a blur. Gentle lentil and vegetable broth, honey and soy roast chicken with dodo and a not-so-delicate 6.5% Virunga Gold Beer help to fill the energy void. Sleeps follows soon after.
Virunga Lodge
A return to centre
Back in Kigali the next day, lunch at Repub Lounge is nourishing. More crisp, fried sambaza arrives with a coconut curry featuring chunks of tilapia fished from the same Lake Kivu, as well as caramelised sweet plantain (mizuzu) and a rich, decadent stew of tender beef, onions and peppers named a ‘karanga’.
Here, we finally cross paths with banana beer, locally known as urwagwa. A thick, viscous, sludge-coloured liquid with a scent of hyper-ripe banana that lingers in the nostrils, it’s sweet, tangy, slightly earthy, and not like a beer at all. If my description doesn’t give it away: this is an acquired taste, but one that many are destined to find moreish. Made with over-ripe cooking bananas (yes, matooke) that are mashed and filtered to produce a juice base, it’s fermented using locally cultivated sorghum in clay pots or jerry cans.
Similar to the relationship between home-brew mezcaleros in Mexico, most families have their own ever-so-slightly different recipe. If the Repub Lounge offers an insight into the everyday, The Pinnacle hotel does the opposite. Designed as a private residence perched atop the hills of residential Rebero, the exclusive nine-room boutique retreat is hailed as the city’s first hyper-luxury hotel – and for good reason. Unfolding across three floors with terraces dedicated to showcasing an unparalleled view of Kigali, each design detail in the gleaming, cavernous space is an ode to quiet, modern sophistication.
Here, there’s no such thing as a want, with rooms equipped with free champagne, chablis and limitless snacks. Furnished with a (deep breath, please) private spa, cinema, bowling alley and state-of-the-art gym, as well as a rooftop bar, champagne bar, whisky lounge and teppanyaki grill, Mediterranean bistro, Afro-Asian ‘fusion’ eatery, and clay-oven pizza restaurant – if you were unmotivated to explore, you’d never leave.
The Pinnacle Kigali rooftop terrace
Nevertheless, we find ourselves late for an evening at Kozo Kigali, a sprawling Afro-Asian restaurant in the swish Kimihurura district where London-trained chef Sakorn Somboon serves an omakase-style tasting menu to the thrum of a live DJ. Using techniques hailing from France and Japan, much of the Rwandan influence is mitigated to the ingredients – though everything from Somboon’s Vietnamese and Thai-inflected take on a Nigerian chicken suya chapati taco, to fragrant lemongrass tilapia with Ghanaian banku (a fermented corn and cassava dough dumpling with a similar texture to mochi) is undeniably delicious.
Across to Akagera
The following day, a three-hour rumbling Rwandan massage of a drive takes us eastwards through tea plantations, eucalyptus forests, and quiet rural villages to the gate of Akagera National Park, where we meet Assiat, our guide during our stay at Wilderness Magashi. She hands us packed lunches of delicate chicken and avocado chapati wraps and sweet miniature bananas named kamaramasenge to eat on the 45-minute drive to our lodge, where we spot buffalo, waterbuck, ‘bush chickens’ and impala along the way.
A luxurious, eco-conscious, safari retreat perched on stilts at the edge of Lake Rwanyakazinga in the northeastern section of the Park, Magashi is the only private-access area within Akagera. Made up of six plush private tents, the term ‘glamping’ doesn’t do it justice.
Upon arrival we’re treated to tilapia fishcakes and a demonstration of the kunywana amata – a traditional milk-smoking ceremony where a large, dried, hollowed-out gourd is gently smoked with smouldering eucalyptus branches. This infuses the vessel with a delicate, earthy aroma before it’s filled with fresh cow’s milk in need of preservation. The result is creamy and cool with a hint of smoke. However, more than preservation or flavour, this ritual is about intention. A symbol of wealth, status, and affection, cows are sacred in Rwandan culture, and the generations-old lore of offering someone milk from a smoked pot is a gesture of honour and respect.
Later, a boating safari across the lake brings us within feet of hippos and crocodiles, while we eye buffalo, baboons, white rhino, elephants and whimsical impala on the horizon. As the sun dips, we hop onto shore at the other side of the water, met by a duck-egg-blue jeep, feather-light cassava crisps, Virunga beer and gin and tonics to enjoy as the sun dips before us.
The way home is a night game drive where Assiat shines a spotlight with one hand and steers with the other in the hope we’ll spot the reflective eyes of hunters and their prey. The way to tell which is which? “The eyes of prey reflect outwards to the side, while predators’ eyes reflect straight on,” she tells us. More spindly impala and heavyset buffalo cross our path, though all 60 of the savannah’s resident lions elude us.
We enjoy flasks of coffee and flapjacks mere metres from the savannah’s dazzle of zebras and resident giraffes
Back at base camp, bartenders make haste to relax faces strained from the eagerness of seeking out game. My medicine? A Margarita by the fire pit and silky tomato pappardelle so comforting not even the neighbouring hippos can disrupt my descent into sleep.
Preluded by a breakfast spread of avocado, tamarillo juice, mini pancakes and eggs made to order, our final morning drive is punctuated with flasks of coffee and flapjacks mere metres from the savannah’s dazzle of zebras and resident giraffes. And while no, we don’t see lions or get up close to leopards by the end of our nighttime drive, surprise vodka, Aperol and lime Magashi Sunset cocktails in the bush dampen the sting.
Fruit market in Rwanda
A fleeting farewell
On the way to the airport, our final hours are spent in Nyamirambo, one of Kigali’s oldest quarters. An area alive with pastel colours and the fuzz of constant noise, a visit to the Women’s Centre leads to a stop at one of the city’s many milk bars, where glasses of fresh, affordable milk are available on tap. Communal and unpretentious yet brimming with meaning, here lies an urban echo of Rwanda’s pastoral traditions – and the legacy of the kunywana amata we’d witnessed days earlier.
Stepping into the bustle of the main street, smoke from kebab stalls and scent from coffee shops thickens the air, while men crowd around an outdoor pool table, and children kick a football up the street. If the trip began with a butler’s song and a steaming cup at 5am, it ends here in the street’s haze of food and noise – proof that Rwanda has a way of waking you gently and leaving you wide awake to its spirit.
