After 25 days on the road, some of them exhilarating and some simply exhausting, the intrepid travellers and adventurers Bridget Hilton-Barber and her friend Hugh Fraser have finally reached Kigali in Rwanda. They discover a booming, litter-free city that is under tight control of the authorities, as well as ever-present reminders of the genocide that tragically claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens.

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‘We’ve driven all the way from South Africa through Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Burundi to get here,” I said to the charming woman at the hotel reception desk. “That’s a long day,” she replied, deadpan. “You must be very tired.”

We were exhausted. It had taken us 25 days and 5,500km to reach Rwanda’s capital city from South Africa. What a joy to be hosted at the upmarket Kigali Serena Hotel after a long stretch of self-catering, camping and relentless driving.

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The security was tight. All cars entering the hotel are checked with a bomb detector, and all guests must put their belongings through an X-ray machine at the entrance.

Set off a boulevard in the CBD, Kigali Serena is the preferred haunt of businesspeople, dignitaries, ministers, politicians, wealthy American tourists and the city’s elite. It’s an international hotel, famed for its extravagant breakfast buffets, designer restaurants and prime location, a few hills away from President Paul Kagame’s sprawling presidential palace. The rooms are gracious and spacious with beds the size of small meadows, and we briefly felt like pop stars.