Volcanoes National Park
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This 6 Day Rwanda Safari Gorillas & Chimps Vacation is a tailor-made tour that can be customized in your own style of travel.
This Rwanda safari will take you into the misty bamboo jungles of the Virungas, in Volcanoes National Park, on an excursion to track and locate a family of mountain gorillas led by a patriarch silverback. You’ll be allowed to spend one hour with the gentle giants under strict guidelines not to make contact. In the jungle not far away, you’ll be challenged to keep up with a troop of chimpanzees for another hour, an intense fulfilling moment you’ll never forge.
Arrival at Kigali International Airport, after processing your visa, you’ll be required to follow through with Covid-19 Rwanda entry guidelines, show your Covid negative test and then your private Rwanda Safari Gorillas & Chimps Vacation driver will be waiting for you on the other side to transfer you to the hotel.
Meet and greet by your private tour driver/guide and after a briefing session, drive through Kigali capital and catch the city’s cultural display before you check into your hotel in Kigali.
Depending on your arrival time, enjoy a take a Kigali city tour, visit the genocide memorial site and art and craft center or relax at your hotel and nurse that jet-lag. You’ll be heading into the jungle side the next day.
Wake up the African sounds of Kigali city and have your breakfast, your private driver will be waiting to take you through Rwanda’s most beautiful countryside dotted with calming nature scenery and color.
This part of the tailored Rwanda Safari Gorillas & Chimps Vacation is a 5-hour lazy drive that will see you take stops at local markets, the traditional palace in Nyanza, and continue to Butare, visit the Botanical Gardens and the cultural museum. Pass through stunning green fields of tea scattered across the hillsides and the small unique wooden houses surrounding Nyungwe Forest just before you arrive at the lodge and check-in.
For the rest of the, make yourself comfortable with nature’s own ambiance around the lodge, chill out in the lounge and meet new people.
Have an early breakfast and transfer to the park headquarters for the chimpanzee tracking activity briefing. Escorted by a park ranger and a guide, jump onto the jungle trails to another rainforest experience. In a short while, you’ll find your designated chimpanzee troop which you follow and stick with for the next one hour.
The chimpanzee bands keep moving, making noise, grooming, stopping for snack or nap and your challenge is to keep up with them with the guidance of the park guide.
After your unforgettable experience with the chimpanzees in their nature setup, you’ll take an aerial view of Nyungwe forest and beyond on the 160 meters (525 ft) high canopy walkway. The canopy walkway has been named the world’s best forest canopy walkway, according to the latest report by Lonely Planet.
Suspend your emotions and let loose, shout at the top of your voice and free yourself, spread your arms and your eyes as far as you can see, and re-invent your emotional self: this is the place you want to be at. Return to the lodge for the rest of the evening.
While chimps tend to garner most of the spotlight here, this part of the Nyungwe forest chimpanzee safari gives you the simple pleasure of hiking along well-maintained trails over the lush, green valleys of the equatorial rainforest.; just what you need after the Covid pandemic forced vacation at home.
You’ll find that quite simply, Nyungwe Forest National Park is Rwanda’s most important area of biodiversity, with no fewer than 1000 plant species, 13 species of primates, 75 species of other African mammals, at least 275 species of birds, and an astounding 120 species of butterflies. It has been rated the highest priority for forest conservation in Africa and its protected area covers one of the oldest rainforests in Africa. Despite its huge biodiversity, Nyungwe is little known outside of East Africa.
In the middle of the forest, you’ll set up a picnic lunch and take in the friendly service of this beautiful African jungle. Later return to the lodge, check out and set off northwards to Volcanoes National Park where you’ll take on your next jungle experience to find the mountain gorilla. It’ll take about 5 hours +/- to get there.
With an early breakfast, drive to the park headquarters for gorilla briefing (45 minutes). This is the Rwanda Safari Gorillas & Chimps Vacation major highlight that brought you to these jungles, so take a breath, collect all your intrinsic emotions and excitement and get ready to be wowed. Make sure your expectations are floating, we don’t wanna drown in too much of less or more than we bargained for.
When venturing into this gigantic forest, a packed lunch, comfortable clothes, shoes, and a walking stick is a must before. The time spent gorilla tracking is unpredictable, It varies from 2-8 hours before an encounter with the family of these gentle creatures. The location of each gorilla family depends on temperature, their feeding range, and movement of the previous day with the trackers ahead of your tracking group. Strict guidelines will be issued at the trailhead briefing point, make sure you remember the most important ones.
Enjoy the one hour allotted, (only time allowed in the company of each gorilla family a day) watch and capture this memorable experience as they go about their day to day activities; the young ones playing around the old ones, feeding each other, and eating foliage. The sight of these outstanding creatures is the climax of this entire safari. Later retire for an overnight at the lodge.
After breakfast, lazily checkout and drive to Kigali, taking in the vibrant views of Rwanda’s countryside. The ride can take approximately 3 hours.
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