Day 1
D included
After meeting at Kigali airport in the early evening, we have a short road transfer (30 mins) to our small hotel (with a swimming pool) on a quiet side street close to the city centre, with its own excellent restaurant.
Day 2
B, L, D included
On a walking tour of the Nyamirambo neighbourhood, we learn about the every-day life of different cultural and religious groups living in this lively area of Kigali. This community tourism project is run by the Nyamirambo Women’s Centre and helps to provide education and training for disadvantaged women. Our lunch gives us an opportunity to taste traditional Rwandan dishes such as dodo, cooked with small green aubergines, amaranth leaves and peanut flower.
Day 3
B, L, D included
We travel (3 hrs) east to one of Africa’s oldest parks, the Akagera National Park, on the border with Tanzania. In contrast with the rest of Rwanda, Akagera is a low-lying undulating woodland and savannah with an extensive wetland area fed by the Akagera River in the east. The park is known for its scenic beauty, extensive bird list and recovering numbers of game (lion, elephant, buffalo and hippo). We have lunch in our small tented camp, with walk-in tents and private bathrooms, set along a raised boardwalk on the shore of Lake Ihema. In the afternoon, we take a boat trip on the lake and hope to observe water birds such as fish eagle, pied kingfisher, African darter, openbill or jacana.
Day 4
B, L, D included
We spend the day exploring the wide variety of Akagera’s habitats on foot and by 4WD. Our goal will be the Mutumba Hills, one of most rewarding parts of the park, where dense woodland transforms into open grassland. 11 species of antelope occur in the park and we have a good chance that, in the course of the day, we will see impala, Defassa waterbuck, tsessebe, roan, eland, Bohor reedbuck, oribi, klipspringer, common duiker and bushbuck. Only the semi-aquatic sitatunga is elusive and largely restricted to inaccessible areas of papyrus swamps.
Day 5
B, L, D included
We take a short game drive, perhaps in the Giraffe area frequented by the introduced Masai Giraffe or along the Rwisirabo Loop. In the late morning, we depart for Kigali where we visit the Kigali Genocide Memorial, a must for every visitor to Rwanda.
Day 6
B, L, D included
From Kigali in the centre of Rwanda, we head south west for the Nyungwe Forest National Park, the largest area of montane rainforest in Eastern Africa and the source of Africa’s two great rivers – the Congo and the Nile. We break the day’s drive in Huye (Butare), the country’s intellectual centre and former colonial capital, to visit the National Ethnographic Museum, which presents a collection of exhibits on Rwandan history and culture in seven spacious rooms. Our 3-star lodge (3 nights) is set on a hill top in the Park and offers extensive forest views.
Day 7
B, L, D included
A 2.5 km forest trail takes us to the Canopy Walkway, a metal bridge 50 m above the forest floor. From here we observe the crowns of trees of the upper canopy such as Syzygium guineense (Waterberry), Macaranga kilimandscharica or Entandrophragma excelsum (African mahogany). There are 13 primate species recorded in Nyungwe Forest and this afternoon we concentrate on the Ruwenzori colobus. The colobus is an arboreal and acrobatic herbivore and the Nyugwe troops are unique in their size (up to 400 individuals).
Day 8
B, L, D included
A very early start is necessary to maximise our chances of observing chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives. Chimpanzees are shy and, unlike other primates, do not live in troops. Sightings are not guaranteed and the walk may be strenuous, but we are likely to hear their intriguing communication calls.
Day 9
B, L, D included
Lake Kivu is the smallest of the Albertine Rift Great Lakes and today we drive north along its eastern shore to Karongi, arguably the prettiest of the three major ports. In the afternoon, we enjoy a scenic boat ride on the lake (1 hr). We stay in a simple hotel on the lake front.
Day 10
B, L, D included
We transfer (3 hrs) to Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, where we base ourselves comfortably and stylishly for 3 nights. The lodge, owned by a community trust, is situated in the foothills of the Virungas (a chain of isolated freestanding volcanic cones reaching up to 4,500 m) and within easy reach of the Volcanoes National Park headquarters, the meeting point for activities in the park. In Ibyiwacu Cultural Village, an initiative set up by a former park warden, we learn what it took to provide an alternative livelihood for gorilla poachers.
Day 11
B, L, D included
We are up early to meet our allocated guide and trackers and soon we are heading towards the gorilla encounter. Typically, we would drive to the beginning of the trail (30 – 45 mins) and walk for up to 2 hrs before we meet our troop. We are permitted to spend no more than 1 hour with the gorillas.
Day 12
B, L, D included
A full day’s walk through Hagenia – Hypericum forest allows us to visit Dian Fossey’s grave and the remains of the scientific research base she set up in the saddle (3,000 m) between the Karisimbi and Bisoke volcanoes.
Day 13
B, L included
Today, we turn our attention to the often overlooked golden monkeys, characterised by a bright orange body and black limbs and tail. Once relatively widespread in the forests of southwest Uganda and northwest Rwanda, their range is now virtually restricted to the Virungas. After lunch, we transfer to Kigali airport (3 hrs), pausing in Musanze to visit the informative exhibition in the modern Dian Fossey Research Centre.