Description: I have described the room and the welcome in a previous review

THE GROUNDS
The view from our large picture window was of the mountain that was the border of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. If you climbed to the top you could stand in each of the countries but it would have been some climb as I think it is about 5,000 feet but through rainforest jungle terrain.

The grounds were lovely with plants flowering, a lot of blue hydrangeas and many others that I didn’t recognise. An ibis was sitting in front of our ‘house’ on the grass and the next morning with had two large heron sitting on our roof. The sounds of animals calling in the distance plus the birds singing and sounds from a local village along with the smell of wood smoke created a very atmospheric feeling.

DANCERS TO ENTERTAIN
In the evening at about 4.30 a group of local children and young people come and dance on the grass, again this was just in front of our room so we didn’t even really have to go outside to watch. They were just brilliant, so full of energy and enthusiasm with lovely happy, rather cheeky faces. They danced pretty well non stop for half an hour. They did have a box for tips and I went back to get some money for this, when I popped it in the pot the young lady gave me a hug and a kiss which was rather sweet and thanked me profusely – we put $8 US equivalent in Rwandan francs so not huge amount really.

THE BAR
The bar served a vast array of drinks considering we were in the middle of nowhere along a couple of miles of rock road. We tried a couple of local beers but there were South African wines and all kinds of spirits. The beers were reasonable Primus was cheaper than Mutzik and was a lot lighter in alcohol, our guide told my husband that Primus was for ladies so that slightly put him off! They were about $5 US each for a litre bottle so not a bad price at all. We did leave the barman a tip each night too as he very kindly soaked off the labels for my husband who collects them as souvenirs wherever we go.

THE RESTAURANT
All the food was included in the price. As we booked the trip though an Africa Travel company and paid the lot all together I am not sure what the price of this hotel is.
Breakfast and all the meals in fact, were buffet style. Breakfast offered tea or coffee, fresh fruit, bananas, pawpaw, passion fruit and pineapple. Two types of yogurt and some chopped fruit, as before but no passion fruit was next to a choice of about three cereals. The hot food included warn croissants and ready made toast, sausages , local bean mix, bacon, omelettes, tomatoes and potatoes. It wasn’t a huge buffet but perfectly adequate and well cooked.

Lunch was a buffet again. Lovely freshly made soup with warm rolls, a choice of three salads then hot stuff offered a choice of eggplant curry, stir fried vegetables, a stew and potatoes and rice. There was also a selection of about half a dozen desserts and fresh fruit.

The evening meal was pretty similar to lunch with three different salads, another fresh soup then selection of vegetable including really tasty local creamed spinach, fish and roast beef and another goulash stew.
Before we came we read some pretty harsh reviews of this place and so were not expecting great things. People said the food was poor and the service a bit strange. We found the food to be fresh, tasty and well cooked; it wasn’t posh cordon bleu cuisine but good fresh home style cooking. As for the service we can’t complain at all. I think people sometimes expect the staff to understand everything they say and think they are at fault when they can’t. English is not Rwanda’s second language, that is French but it is changing and in schools English is being taught as they realise that English is now the main language spoken throughout the world for tourism.

So in summary:

We loved the place as the setting could not have been more perfect. The room was lovely, very relaxing with a view to die for. The room was cool but the fire kept the chill off it and had you wanted more warmth there was an electric radiator that you could have used in the evening. The water took a while to fill the bath but it worked and was hot. As soon as we arrived we made up sterilised water for teeth cleaning and kept that in a bottle in the bathroom. Two bottles of drinking water were in the room daily so all in all we were very happy. The people were lovely and friendly and we found they couldn’t do enough to please us.
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