As you steep down from the plane at Kanombe (Kigali international airport), the only thing that goes through in your mind is what the gorilla safari in volcanoes national park will be like. The nervousness and curiosity continues until you encounter these rare apes in their natural habitants.
Though greatly negatively affected by the 1994 Rwandese genocide that claimed the lives of million local Rwandese, the people of Rwanda are very hospitable today and very determined to stay with their past no matter how bitter it is. Various memorial genocides today in Rwanda display the remaining’s of some of the people who were killed some which include skulls, many displays of exhumed dead bodies, murder weapons that were used and many others.
These can be seen in the various genocide memorials for example the Kigali memorial genocide, the Murambi memorial genocide and many others. A visit to any genocide memorial museum assures you that Rwanda is done a lot to reach where it is now as the cleanest country on the African continent and having one of the fastest growing economies in east Africa.
From the city center, the journey to Virunga volcanoes in volcanoes gorilla national parks takes about 2-3 hours enabling you to view various attractions en route especially the large tea and coffee plantations and the gently sloping hills covered with terraced gardens of bananas and other major arable crops grown by the local Rwandese.
In volcanoes national park, you will find the Virunga lodge that offers standard luxury services. Being at the lodge gives you fresh breezes from the jungles of the evergreen forests. The lodge has standard rooms that are self contained and well decorated with clean linens. On arrival at this lodge, tourist are directed to their rooms, left to relax a little and then served dinner in a restaurant offering views of the forest.
Sleeping early is very recommended in order to wakeup early enough for the big gorilla trekking day the next morning. You are then woken up as early as 5:00 am for and early morning breakfast. You then head to the volcanoes national park head quarters at Kinigi for briefing. This from Virunga lodges takes approximately 40 minutes drive. On arrival, you are greeted and subdivided in to groups of 8 to track the various gorillas groups in the national park.
The groups are allocated to the different guides and the specific gorilla families each group will be tracking. You are then briefed about the trek and codes of conduct while in the forest especially keeping a reasonable distance from the mountain gorillas.
There are 10 habituated gorilla groups in volcanoes national park and only 8 tourists visit each group a day. Gorilla group allocations are based on the tourists’ physical capabilities and preferences. Some tourists prefer to trek gorillas that are hard to find while others like trekking gorillas that can be got after short times of tracking like 30 minutes.
You are then led to the thick forests with great views of other wildlife species like birds and different vegetation types as you look around for your gorillas group. Walk sticks, strong shoes or boots and long pants and long sleeved t-shirts are very essential for successful gorilla trekking in Rwanda forest. The long sleeved pants and t-shirts enables you to easily move through the thorny vegetation without being scratched or pierced and the shoes or boots makes it easy to cross from one muddy slope to another.
As you approach the gorilla groups, you are reminded of the instructions especially keeping a reasonable distance away from the gorillas, avoiding the use of flash photography when taking mountain gorilla photographs, avoiding making a lot of noise and keeping all kinds of snacks and food away from the gorillas.
Seeing and getting to close to these apes as they relax in the bushes leaves you astonished and amazed by God’s great work. Without being disturbed by humans’ presence, the mountain gorillas continue feeding as the young ones play around. The sliver back however always keeps a close look since he is the head of the family with an important role of protecting the female and young mountain gorillas from any intrusion of their territory. You are given an hour to view the gorillas as you take as many photographs as you wanted. The park authorities give an allowance of an hour in order to minimize impacts and disturbances of the mountain gorillas as well as reducing chances of disease spread and exposure of sickness to the highly endangered animals.
Sadly the hour ends within a blink of an hour and as much as you would want to remain with the gorillas, you are not allowed to do so. You are led back to the park headquarters to be given your certificates of participation. Gorilla permits are sold at $750 and can be obtained from the Rwanda Development Board offices in Kigali or from a trusted tour operator.
For successful gorilla safari expeditions in Rwanda, I highly recommend Africa adventure safaris limited a safari company that has over the years enabled tourists to carry out gorilla safaris in the land of a thousand hills.
