We took a wrong turn as we approached Rubona. Tired after a long day negotiating the glorious mountain roads of Rwanda, we simply forgot our own rule of always using both app and map, and so we followed the former’s suggested shortcut down a ridiculously rocky, steep and slightly perilous track to Lake Kivu, without checking the roadmap first.
Yet that evening, sitting on the terrace at El Classico 1, a cold bottle of Mützig to hand, we were glad of the detour, remembering the excited band of kids who guided us down, inch by inch, us and them laughing all the way. Right then a swanky new Land Cruiser passed by, taking its guided tour occupants – partially obscured by smoked glass – to who knows where, but almost certainly not up the road we had come down. It reminded us that we were free. Free to drink beer in local bars, to take a wrong turn, and to get stuck in the mud.