4 Days Wildlife Safari, Gorilla and Golden Monkey Trek

Activity Note: The transfer to Akagera national park includes stop overs at Imigongo art centre and Kayonza town.
05:30am: We’ll depart Kigali for our overland journey to Akagera National Park, situated along Rwanda’s north-eastern border with Tanzania. Our drive will be about three to four hours, but we’ll break it up with a stop along the way in the small town of Kayonza, for morning coffee and getting our picnic lunch.

Proceed to the park gate, finalise and enter the park searching for the big five that include: Elephants, Lions, Rhinos, Buffalos and leopards plus numerous herbivores found in the park. At about midday will break for picnic lunch and later proceed to the giraffe valley in search of animals. Later in the afternoon leave the park through the northern gate and travel back to Kigali arriving early evening One of Africa’s oldest national parks, Akagera is a 348-square-mile scenic game reserve of savannah, woodlands, and wetlands featuring a dozen lakes linked by channels and papyrus swamps teeming with crocodiles and hippos.

Considered one of the safari world’s best kept secrets, the scenery, wildlife, birdlife, and one-on-one experience with nature doesn’t get much better than here as we’ll discover on our game-viewing drive.

Today we transfer from Rwanda and travel northwest for approximately 3.5 hrs. You have a brief stop at the border to clear with customs and then continue your lodge. Lodge amenities may include a restaurant and bar. Rooms should include a replace and private bath with shower. You’ll have time to settle in before dinner.

Activity Note: Today’s Mountain gorilla trek typically involves two to four hours of walking through thick brush over steep, rugged terrain at elevations ranging from 7,000 to 9,000 feet —and can include exposure to stinging nettles and re ants. As overexposure to humans is harmful to mountain gorillas, contact is limited to one hour—and there is the possibility that they may become agitated and retreat back into the bush in less than our allotted time.

Any travellers showing signs of obvious illness may be refused entrance by park authorities.
At about 6:30am, we take a drive of about 30 minutes to the National Park headquarters at to meet your guides for the day. After completing our park formalities, we are embarking on a once in a life time experience of tracking mountain gorillas. Once you spot them you are allowed to spend an hour watching your closest long-lost cousin.

This is perhaps one of the most breath-taking experiences on earth!!! You get so close to these awesome giant primates. You stare at each other blankly not knowing who to break the long silence first. Tracking the gorillas through the light mountain forest on the slopes of the Virunga is a magical experience. These massive primates are extremely rare, with less than 1000 living today. You will get within meters of the family, and be privileged to spend an hour amongst them.

The trekking may be fairly strenuous; up to 3 hours or longer at a relatively high altitude. It is important to bring good hiking boots, long trousers, gloves for protection against stinging nettles, some snacks & sweets (for you, not the gorillas) as well as sufficient water as the rain forest gets hot and humid during the day. You will spend one hour with the gorillas, but it is an hour you will never forget. Depending on the length of our trek, groups will return to our lodge by about 1pm. In the afternoon, transfer to Rwanda arriving early afternoon and check in to your hotel.

This day is set out for Golden Monkey tracking in the Volcanoes National Park. Entering dense stands of bamboo interspersed with open glades; you will make your way deep into golden monkey territory. Guides lead visitors to the habitat of groups of ‘habituated’ golden monkeys – monkeys that have become accustomed to human presence. Though viewing is kept to a maximum of one hour, travelers can get an up-close look at the golden monkey in its natural habitat. Adult monkeys frolic in plain view, feeding on bamboo leaves and leaping from perch to perch. Females carry their young, completely comfortable among onlookers. After the trek you return to your hotel to freshen up and at about 1pm, we’ll set off for a 2hrs drive back to Kigali arriving early afternoon, drop off at the airport for onward flight.