Virunga Lodge near Ruhengeri

Marie Claire, Rahkee, Enoch, David and I went on a road trip on Saturday to Ruhengeri (Musanze). David drove us 94 kilometers north of Kigali (2 hour drive) close to the border of both Uganda and the Congo. The town is situated near two lakes and the Volcanoes National Park (where the gorilla trekking takes place).

Driving outside of Kigali, on windy roads, navigating the thousands of hills is truly stunning.

We traveled to Virunga Lodge (an eco lodge). After traveling for 2 hours on the main road, there is a dirt road turn-off which takes another 30 minutes to navigate mostly up steep hills. This lodge is located on a 2,175 meter hilltop which overlooks two lakes and has incredible views of the Volcanoes. These are stairs leading up to the highest part of the hilltop where they said small planes and helicopters land can land if guests arrive in private aircraft. The landing strip looked awfully small- even if I had a private helicopter, I am not sure I would want to land here!

Here is a photo of the lodge at the top of the hill. There are 8 "chalets" each facing different sides of the hill. This lodge is very expensive ($500 per night) not because it is luxurious, but instead because the focus is eco-friendly for those organic chic travellers!

It was a very hazy day, so unfortunately the view of the tops of the volcanoes was limited.
Here is a view from the other side facing Lake Burera.
And yet another view from another side of the hill facing Lake Ruhondo.


The entire lodge is surrounded by a veranda so you can sit and enjoy whichever view you like best.

We were able to go inside one of the chalets. This is the shower which has a bag of water overhead, heated by the solar power.
These are biodegradable toilets which have signs posted nearby with instructions on how and when to use the sand/ash. I won't go into the detail, but it is an interesting system!

We enjoyed a yummy (although pricey!) lunch on the veranda. Most of us ordered fish or goat. I was glad they had enough food for us because the location is very remote and if the lodge had been full of guests that day they may not have had enough for "extra" visitors!


There was a pretty mix of clouds and sun as we hiked around.

David works at the CDC as a laboratory program manager, MC is also on the CDC team, and Enoch is a Professor at the Kigali Health Institute. Rahkee (not pictured below) is a visiting physician from Baltimore providing technical assistance to avian/flu and malaria programs.