Last week I was a pioneer! Myself and another volunteer went well and truly off the beaten track, in fact sometimes we were off the track entirely! Despite my complaints about endless rain and the isolation, something I’ve never lost track of is the beauty of the area I live in. Who could fail to appreciate two island dotted lakes, a back drop of four volcanoes, deep fertile valleys and layers of multi-hued hills? The only problem for me has been getting out into it. Burera district may be stunning but getting round it is hard when public transport amounts to two matatu a day and not much else. This area is totally undeveloped, no tourist infrastructure exists and there is very little information to be found on the area surrounding the lakes on the internet or in the Bradt guide. This was unchartered territory that we were entering. We didn’t know the names of villages, where we might find water or food, what type of paths we would find, what kind of distances we might cover or even where we stay for the night. For me, this just added to the adventure but did make for quite heavy back packs!

So on Friday morning, armed with blind optimism, 6 litres of water, a tent, samosas, bread, beans, tea bags (but no cups!) a packet of biscuits, some peanuts and a determination to be open to opportunities we set off, clean, full of energy and intrepid!

We took motos to the point where the road divided and immediately chose the road less travelled, heading off the red dirt track that would skirt around the top of the lake, and descended into the valley below. We soon picked up some boys who leapt down the dusty tracks through plots of carefully farmed land with an impressive light footedness that completely alluded myself and Abigail with our cumbersome packs and less than nimble progress. They lead us to the shores of the lake and then cleverly left us when the path disappeared and only a steep scramble up loose scree and through eucalyptus woods was the only option.