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One of the fun things about the kind of travelling we’re doing is meeting other travellers and sharing stories and tips. In our case, the tips come mostly from Dillon’s side, but I still like hearing about other people’s plans or past experiences. Mostly it’s fun to meet people who are living the life they want, with money being a means to an end rather than a measure of one’s success.

You don’t have to share the same goals to find these meetings interesting – I quite vividly remember spending time with my dad at the Knysna yacht club, and meeting an American guy who quit his job as a computer programmer to sail around the world on his own (!). He was selling map software to other sailors to earn what he called “beer money”. Enough said

Anyway,  I was getting so carried away talking about the rainforest that I forgot to mention Jock and Kim, an American couple working in Musanze who invited us over for supper after a chance encounter at our hotel. The invitation came literally 2 minutes into the conversation, which is the kind of spontaneous hospitality that I love, and which I hope to dish out to others in the future.

I don’t want to talk too much about the evening itself, since it would be unfair to expose them like that…but I thought it was worth a mention. I’m starting to think one of the best things about travelling via public transport (as opposed to an organised tour/safari) is the fact that a) you get to meet so many people, tourists and travellers alike, and that b) you often have to trust/rely on the help and hospitality of strangers. And you should know that we haven’t been disappointed yet!

So, back to business…

After Musanze, we moved on to Gisenyi, on the shores of Lake Kivu in the west of Rwanda. We stayed in town rather than on the shore, since this would save a substantial amount of money. We did, however pay to use the swimming pool at the Lake Kivu Serena Hotel (very fancy shmancy), but swimming in the lake itself turned out to be even better.

We used the town as a base to visit Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just across the border. As you can imagine, tourism isn’t exactly booming (yet) in the DRC, but the Nyiragongo volcano in Goma (also towering above Gisenyi) has become an attraction in itself. The last time it erupted in 2002, it left a large  river of volcanic rock running through the heart of the town, most of which has now been broken up (although it’s still clearly visible, often being ground up to make bricks by the side of the road).

Now tourists can hike up the volcano and sleep by the lava lake at the top for a night – eerie but thoroughly amazing, according to the one Chinese traveller we met who had done it.

I found it a little jarring to be a tourist in what is quite obviously a (barely) post-conflict country. UN peacekeepers, planes and trucks are all clearly visible throughout the town, as are pretty much any global NGO you can think of. The streets are covered in an ash-like dust, and deeply rutted. And then, when we popped into a hotel for a drink, we were plunged into a colonial oasis, with a cruise ship moored at the lakeside and someone singing karaoke at the bar. Weird and obscene at the same time.

Needless to say, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Goma.

To end of a surreal day in a surreal way, we got caught in a rainstorm on the way back through the border and huddled in a stranger’sdoorway with a group of locals for about 10 minutes or so, watching steam rising from the hot tar road. Once again the 4×4′s drove past without stopping…

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