We took an early morning border crossing into ruwanda from Uganda. These crossing are always interesting. The locals seemingly are happy to just stand in front of you to jump the queue, you have to be vigalent and stand your ground to get through. This was Ollys last tricky border crossing on his east Africa visa; when we got into Kenya they incorrectly dated his visa exit date and so when he crosses borders we are always a bit cautious about whether he gets in. He did this time thankfully!

Again as soon as we crossed into Rwanda the scenery changed. The roads are mainly hills connecting villages and this time the roads were smooth and a pleasure to be on!

Our first stop for the day was to our hostel where could pick up a few activities and have dinner before heading into Kigali the capital.

The hostel was actually a surprisingly cool place with lots on offer to do. I managed to persuade Olly to take a hike rather than do the banana beer making on offer that day. Our guide took us into the local hill side village and it wasn't long before we met some children who started to follow us. It started with hellos and then quickly moved onto asking for pens, pencils, money and water. Sadly we hadn't come prepared, but we've been told not to give kids pens and pencils unless they are in their school at the time, otherwise children don't associate school with where they get these things and potentially start skipping school. It's a hard line to tread as you don't feel like either decision is a good one.

As the kids followed we started to ascend a steep hill, now having spent a few hours on the bus we were all exhausted and panting! The kids found this hilarious and were mocking us as they went up the hill with us, either in bare foot or in small plastic flip flops.

When we arrived at the top we realised this was the route the kids took for school, and within a few minutes we were greeted by at least a hundred children. The tables had turned as we were now the attraction ! One of group garnered much more attention than the rest. Rob,6'5 ,Aussie and semi professional body builder. The kids had never seen anyone so big and muscly apart from in films ( neither have most people to be honest!) They stood around staring and whispering and pointing at his arms, when he made any sudden movement they would scatter across the playground.

After a while we attempted to move on but we had just gained a lot more friends who followed us through the hills back down into the village. This was a very hidden village with no road access and a serious walk to the main town where we staying. On the way back we passed women balancing bags of vegetables on their heads with babies tied to their backs, a very common scene across east Africa.

I've spoken to some women who told me that in Ruwanda there is a maximum number of children which is 4. Once you have more you are expected to take the implant. Within Rwandan villages the women meet to talk about their husbands and also be challenged on raising large families on a weekly basis. Rwanda is the first place I've come across this rule on children. In Uganda I met a women who had six children, two of which were born 15 months apart. She told me that she knew of families of 13!! It's hard to know whether this is nation wide, but we do see so many children as we travel across the countries on the roadside, sometimes playing and sometimes he herding cattle or goats.

I spoke more with the guide and asked how tourism was in Rwanda. Sadly in the last year the government has doubled the price of a pass to see gorillas, from $700 to $1400, meaning small hostels are seeing less of the back packing types come through. The walk we took and banana beer making are new ideas they are trying out to attract more people like us. I would recommend this place to anyone. A few photos below show the arty detail and quirkiness of this place, we were sad to leave.

Our second day was spent driving to the capital Kigali to visit the Genocide memorial. It was a very moving and powerful place, with a balance of hope and progression for Rwanda. Being in the city it's difficult to comprehend how only 23 years ago 1 million people were murdered over a very short space of time and how the whole country collapsed into chaos. Today the town is bustling with businesses (and I spotted the kpmg office at the heart of it) hotels, malls and restaurants. This evening we treated ourselves to a night out in a restaurant rather than cooking in the camp site. 28 of us swamped a restaurant all looking for a bit of western food and beer and a night off from cooking and cleaning duties! With bellies full of salads and pizza we headed to bed for an early start to cross into Tanzania.

We both feel like there's so much more to see in Rwanda but time does not permit on this trip!