4 Days Rwanda Gorilla Trekking & Hike to Dian Fossey Grave

Itinerary of 4 Days Rwanda Gorilla Trekking & Hike.

 DAY 1: Kigali City tour & Transfer to Volcanoes National Park. [Approx. 3 hours of transfer]

On this Day after breakfast, our experienced tour guide will picked from your Hotel in Kigali and take you to various famous and exclusive, cultural, religios and Historical sites of Kigali city center. Start your day’s fascination by doing Kigali City tour. You will Visit Kigali Genocide Memorial, Nyamata Church, Camp Kigali, Caplaki Craft Market among others. Later, you will drive northwards to Volcanoes National Park a home to endangered Mountain gorillas.  Expect to arrive early evening in good time to have your dinner and overnight stay;

• Luxury: MOUNTAIN GORILLA VIEW LODGE
• Mid-range: DAVINCI GORILLA LODGE
• Budget: LA PALME HOTEL, MUSANZE

 DAY 2: Gorilla Trekking Rwanda & Cultural Visit to Gorilla Guardian’s.

This is your Mountain gorilla trekking day! After your morning breakfast, you will assemble at the park Headquarters for the briefing about Do’s and Don’ts of gorilla tracking. As soon as the briefing is done, you will ascend in the forest together with the rest of the team and with your lead guide to start your Rwanda gorilla adventure experience. You will be allowed a period of one hour with gorillas once you find them. On return, in the evening you will go to the cultural village called iby iwacu/Gorilla guardian village to meet the Banyarwanda community members who will welcome you with a poem and perform traditional dances and drummer, taking you through their culture. Dinner and overnight at;

• Luxury: MOUNTAIN GORILLA VIEW LODGE
• Mid-range: DAVINCI GORILLA LODGE.
• Budget: LA PALME HOTEL MUSANZE

DAY 3: Hike to Dian Fossey Grave .

After breakfast, report to the park office with your snack and drinking water to attend the briefing by the park ranger guide. you will then enter the trail and begin your hike to the grave yard of Dian Fossey whose effort was conservation of mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes national park. The guide will give you information about Dian’s love for gorillas and how she ended up losing her life while saving mountain gorillas. This hike will probably take you 4-5 hours in total depending on your speed. You will then descend back to the base, continue to your lodge for refreshing. Dinner and overnight at;

• Luxury: MOUNTAIN GORILLA VIEW LODGE
• Mid-range: DAVINCI GORILLA LODGE
• Budget: LA PALME HOTEL, MUSANZE

DAY 4: Golden Monkey Trekking & Transfer to Kigali. [Approx. 3 hours’ drive]

In the Morning, you will go for Golden monkey tracking in Volcanoes national park where you will enjoy these rare species as they play in the Bamboo forest. On return from tracking, you will transfer back to Kigali, with stopover on the way to admire the beautiful topography and possibly take pictures. Once you reach Kigali you will be dropped to your Hotel or Kigali International Airport for your departure if it will be on schedule.

END of Rwanda Gorilla Safari.

What to Expect on a Rwanda Gorilla Trekking Safari.

Meet your 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.

Arrival at the Park Offices.

Enjoy a cup of tea/ coffee which is served from the Banda as you are being entertained by the gorilla film 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 trekking 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.

Excorted/ Guided Gorilla trekking in Rwanda.

While on your Gorilla tour in Rwanda, each gorilla trekking 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 Volcanoes national park, 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 Volcanoes National Park is to remain 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 $20 depending on what he is going to carry.

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