The 5 days’ tour takes you to trek gorillas and Golden monkeys in the Volcanoes National park. You will visit Dian Fossey tombs and the Iby’iwachu cultural centre. Generally, the safari highlights the best that Volcanoes N/P has to offer in a short while. You will end your tour with a short city tour and shopping before your departure.
Details.
Day 1-Transfer to Volcanoes National park.
You arrive at Kigali airport or while at your hotel, our guide will be ready to welcome you and drive you to Kigali. He will then transfer you to Volcanoes national park about 80km from Kigali in the North.
On the way, you will view the beautiful country side and the mesmerizing hills that form the sky line on each side of the road making the display of the land of a thousand hills. Arrive at the lodge in the afternoon and have lunch. You will relax at the lodge the whole afternoon as you await the next day’s activity.
Day 2-Gorilla tracking.
Rise up early in the morning have breakfast, pack your tracking gears and head to the visitors centre for briefing. Do not forget to carry parked lunch because you might not be sure of the time you may take to meet these apes. After briefing, you will go into the lush jungle for the jungle the search of the Mountain gorillas.
During your trek, you will get to see other primates like monkeys, birds whistling from the tree branches and the surrounding vegetation is awesome. When you encounter the gentle eyed gorilla, you will forget the tedious hikes you did during searching for them. Spend an hour with them, taking photo graphs and watching their moves. Later return to your lodge for relaxation.
Day 3- Golden Monkey tracking
Wake up early in the morning and head for yet another exciting trek this time for golden monkey. The bright reddish-gold body colored apes with black limbs and tail only appear in the Virunga ranges of Mgahinga in Uganda and Volcanoes in Rwanda.
In the entire world, these exciting monkeys are considered to be one of the dying out primates in Africa. Golden monkeys are famous in the Albertine Rift and are both rare and less information has been written about them. After briefing you will be lead through the trails by the ranger guide and start on the trek for the search of these apes.
When you get to see them you will be allowed an hour for photography and learning about their behaviour. Later return to the lodge for lunch. You can opt for a guided tour to the twin lakes later in the afternoon.
Day 4-Dian Fossey Hike and Iby’iwachu Cultural Centre visit.
Wake up early in the morning have breakfast and drive to the park headquarters for the Dian Fossey hike. The hike will give you a learning experience about the works of the famous primatologist and conservationist, Dian Fossey, who dedicated her life to research about the mountain gorillas. She founded a research camp in a valley amidst Mountains, Karisimbi and Bisoke hence the name ‘Karisoke’.
Dian’s efforts to protect and conserve the critically endangered mountains gorillas (at the time) and their habitat would later lead her into conflict with negative forces including poachers and she was eventually killed. Her body was buried among her beloved gorillas near the Karisoke Research Center. Survival of the endangered mountain gorillas is largely credited to her work and your trek to meet these amazing creatures will be even more meaningful and exciting after the revealing visit to the Dian Fossey grave site and her research center.
Return to the lodge, have lunch and later visit to Iby’iwachu Cultural Village, based in the community bordering Parc National des Volcanoes. While at the village, you will have a magnificent, interactive experience, getting to know all about Rwandan traditions, culture, songs and dance.
Day 5-Drive to Kigali and Departure
Later in the morning right after breakfast, you will drive to transfer to Kigali. On arrival you will do souvenir shopping and visit the genocide memorial site before transferring to the airport for the exit flight.
