This Rwanda primate safari will take you through different national parks such as Nyungwe Forest National Park, Volcanoes National Park and will be able to come across different primates such as gorillas, chimpanzees and golden monkeys. You will engage in activities such as city tour, gorilla trekking experience, golden monkey trekking, chimpanzee trekking, canopy walk among others. There are a lot of primate safaris and one of them is a 07 days safari and is explained as below.
Upon your arrival at Kigali International Airport, you will be welcomed by our company representative who will transfer you to Kigali city for lunch. After lunch you will go for a city tour. Some of the places to visit include Kigali Genocide Memorial Center, markets and other destinations of your choice. After the city tour, you will check in at Serena Hotel Kigali for relaxation, dinner and overnight stay.
On the second day, you will transfer from Kigali to Nyungwe Forest National Park. On the way, you will be able to see more of the countryside during the ride, admire the rolling hills of Rwanda, homesteads as you drive past them and visit a number of attractions en-route such as the King’s palace in Nyanza, the national museum in Butare. You will have an en-route lunch and after lunch you will proceed to the park. On arrival, you will check-in at One and Only Lodge for relaxation, dinner and overnight stay.
On the 3rd day of your primate safari, after having your breakfast at the hotel, you will head to Nyungwe Forest National Park headquarters where you will make a way to Nyungwe forest or Cyamudongo forest to access the habituated chimpanzee troops. This activity sometimes takes about 3-4 hours and upon locating the troops, you will be given about 4 hours to watch these chimps as they chatter, laugh, feeding the little ones among others. After the rewarding experience, you will return to the hotel for lunch and spend the afternoon hours at relaxation and freshening up.
In the evening, you can participate in a community tour to help you understand the culture of Rwanda people by visiting the cultural groups where you will be entertained by their traditional dances and they will also teach you on how they prepare their local dishes. Later return to One and Only Lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
On the 4th day, you will have breakfast, check out and meet your driver to embark on your journey to Volcanoes National Park. You can opt to have a nature walk before existing the park and this will give you the opportunity of seeing a lot of species such as bird and primate species. You will have an en-route lunch as you exist the park through Kigali city.
On reaching Volcanoes National Park, you will participate in IbyI’wacu cultural tour which will you a chance of understanding about the culture of Rwanda people. On this cultural tour you will enjoy cultural dances and so many of their other cultural practices. Then check-in at your accommodation “Five Volcanoes Boutique Lodge” for dinner and overnight stay.
On the 5th day, you will have a light breakfast and then head to the park’s headquarters with your packed lunch for the briefing about the guidelines followed when trekking gorillas. When the briefing is done and everyone is assigned to a particular family, you will set out into the forest to start searching for the gorillas and you will be led by experienced rangers.
Once you meet these endangered giants, you will be allowed to stay in the forest for about 01 hour enjoying the giants’ presence and also watching them carrying out their daily life styles and you can also take videos with no flash light cameras. Trek back to the park’s headquarters to receive your trekking certificates. Connect with your driver and transfer back to the accommodation for freshening up. You can spend the evening hours at leisure as your waiting for dinner and overnight stay at the same accommodation facility.
The last day of your gorilla safari, you will have your breakfast and then set off to Kigali with an en-route visit to Dian Fossey Museum where you will spend about 2 hours learning about the history of Dian. This lady is the main reason why gorillas still exist in Rwanda. She fought for the rights of these giants. She created a conservation area for gorillas in order to ensure the gorillas’ safety.
She also worked so hard to reduce on gorilla poaching by the hunters. If time allows you can as well hike Dian Fossey’s graves. Connect to Kigali city for lunch and then head to Kigali International Airport to catch up with your flight in case you are to depart that day and that will be the end of your 6 days primate safari.