1 Day Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Safari

Detailed Itinerary

 DAY 1: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park. [Approx. 3 hours’ drive]

What to Expect on A Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Safari

Meet you guide/ driver who will handle gorilla trekking formalities on your behalf as well as registering you for the activity with your gorilla permit (USD $1500), make sure you have packed all the necessary gears like gloves, trekking boots, long sleeved wear, rain jackets, snacks and packed lunch, walking stick (very necessary), among others, this is what you should expect the day of your Rwanda gorilla tour excursion.

Carry your passport with you as you head to the park headquarters for an early morning pre-tracking briefing by park officials. Your gorilla permits will be crosschecked with your passports to verify that you are the right owner of the permit. At this moment, you are expected to be ready with your packed lunch since no one is certain about the time you will take to see these gorillas.

A cup of tea/ coffee is served as you are being entertained by the local traditional Kinyarwanda dancers to give you a good start of a strenuous yet exciting day, before the ranger guide gives you tips on how to conduct yourself on this trek. After a quick briefing on safety measures and what to expect during the day, you will be grouped in groups of 8 people maximum and each group is assigned one gorilla family to trek.

Rwanda has 10 gorilla families, hence 10 groups of 8 people each are the ones allowed to track on a particular day. Rwanda gorilla tour through the forest is very interesting, Assigning the groups highly depends on the fitness and age of the guests. For example, those above 45 years and the ones with less fitness are assigned the ‘easy to find’ gorilla families which do not wander far away from the trail heads.

However, even those with special interests about specific groups may inform their guides to help them negotiate with rangers before assigning the groups such that they may be assigned those specific groups too. Being wild animals in their natural habitat, what may be regarded as easy to find may not necessarily be, as the animals may wander far as they search for food and therefore, it is not a guarantee that they must be near or easy to find. Even those which are allocated to the physically fit and energetic tourists, that are always regarded as strenuous to track, may be easily tracked on a particular day which makes the total experience interesting and unpredictable.

While on your Rwanda gorilla trekking safari, each gorilla tracking group consists of a main guide and two scouts who carry AK-47 guns, one walking in front and another behind the group. The reason for armed scouts is for protection in the forest against wild elephants or angry, wild gorillas. The scouts are trained to fire shots into the air first in order to scare away the animals but this is only done on rarest occasions when all other options like hiding away from such dangerous animals have been done. On Rwanda gorilla trek in Parc nationale des volcanoes PNV, We’ve never heard of any case where such animals attacked the tourists and the scouts had to fire bullets though on many occasions, they advise to hide or remain still until the animals go away.

However the policy of the Volcanoes National Park is to be safe rather than sorry. Your group will also have a pair of trackers who will have been sent out in the early morning (prior to your arrival in the park) to find the location of your specific gorilla family and to assess where they may be headed. Trackers communicate the gorilla’s movements to the guide so that he can decide on the best approach to meet the gorilla family.

If you do not trust your fitness, please endeavor to let your guide know such that he may help you to hire a porter at the park gate.

A porter is hired between $15 to $20 depending on what he is going to carry.

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