Bigogwe: milking cows on Rwanda's greenest hills

Bigogwe is a highland area in Nyabihu District, in Rwanda's Western Province, on the main road between Musanze and Rubavu. Its rolling hills are covered in pasture so green it hardly looks real, dotted with herds of cows and the cattle keepers who look after them.

Cows have been at the heart of Rwandan culture for centuries: a measure of wealth, a gift that seals friendships and the subject of songs and poems. Bigogwe is one of the best places to see that way of life up close.

How cow tourism began

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ngabo Karegeya, who grew up herding cows on these hills, started posting photos of his home online. The pictures went viral, and travellers began asking if they could visit.

That grew into Ibere rya Bigogwe, a small community tourism company named after the area's best-known landmark. It employs local people, buys from neighbouring businesses and has put Bigogwe on many travellers' maps.

A day with the cattle keepers

The full-day experience lasts around seven hours. You'll be given a colourful shuka to wear and an inkoni, the stick every herder carries, then head up into the farms to meet the cows and the people who care for them.

The cowboys teach you to milk by hand into traditional wooden and bamboo pots, and you can drink the milk straight afterwards — the guides call it the "Bigogwe cappuccino". You'll help walk the herd down to the river to drink, try traditional games like high jump, stick fighting and igisoro (a board game played with seeds), and hear kwivugira inka, the songs herders sing to their cows, naming each one.

Before leaving, you can watch women make ikimuri, traditional ghee, by rocking a large calabash back and forth, and have a go yourself. Lunch is served outdoors on the hillside.

Hiking to Ibere rya Bigogwe

Ibere rya Bigogwe is a huge rock formation rising above the villages. The full-day experience usually starts with a guided hike to the top: about 20 minutes to the base, then roughly an hour more, steeper, through forest.

On a clear day the view from the summit takes in Mount Karisimbi in Volcanoes National Park, Nyiragongo and Mikeno across the border in Congo, and all the way to Rubavu on Lake Kivu. Locals come up here to pray, and your guide will tell you the legend behind the rock's name.

Photo: TheJackNation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fitting it into your trip

Bigogwe sits between the gorilla trekking area around Musanze and the beaches of Rubavu, so it slots neatly into a northern loop: gorillas one day, cows the next, then a couple of nights on Lake Kivu.

If one day isn't enough, overnight stays with camping on the farm can be arranged. Evenings are spent around the fire with stories, songs, roasted maize and fresh milk, and you wake up to the herds grazing on the hills at dawn.