Mon 20 Oct
Up at 0700 for an early morning drive back to Kigali; a roller coaster ride crossing hills and valleys, beautiful tree lined route, distant hazy views as we ran along ridges, football pitches and brick making in the flat river valleys. Eggs wrapped in banana leaf baskets for sale by the side of the road.

Back in Kigali checked in to the same guesthouse as before, a bit more confident of speaking French this time, and ordered breakfast. Got my coach ticket for the next day, bought an old-looking carved wooden head stool and settled into an internet cafe to catch up with my diary, copy photos to CD, and start the website. I bought a whole cheese and baguettes (both previously unseen luxuries) for a late lunch, reviewed the website text and then popped back to the internet café to publish.

At the hotel was a French lady called Martine had kindly agreed to post my CD of photos back in the UK. She works as a social worker in Maidstone (Kent) and takes a month off every year to do charity work in the eastern part of Congo (DRC). I had bought a bottle of French wine as a "thank you" gift but she generously insisted we opened and enjoyed it there and then.