12 DAYS: BIRD WATCHING AND GORILLA TREKKING RWANDA SAFARI
12 DAYS: BIRD WATCHING AND GORILLA TREKKING RWANDA SAFARI
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A 12-days birdwatching and gorilla trekking safari in Rwanda offers a unique combination of rich avian biodiversity and the unforgettable experience of encountering mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. On these 12 days of Birding in Rwanda and Gorilla Trekking Safari this package has four national parks that are good birding areas according to Birdlife international. These parks are Akagera National Park, Volcanoes National Park, Nyungwe Forest National Park, and Gishwati Mukura National Park. And to more other birding areas in Rwanda include swampy areas, wetlands, and agricultural lands that are outside and protected areas. The birds are easly to be seen most especially in Akagera National Park which is mainly made up of savanna and woodland. Nyungwe Forest National Park offers the best site for the Albertine endemics
This 12-days birdwatching and gorilla trekking safari in Rwanda provides an in-depth exploration of the country’s avian diversity and the thrilling experience of tracking and observing mountain gorillas. Please Note you can customise the itinerary to your birdwatching interests, and be sure to secure your gorilla trekking permits well in advance.
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Day 1: Arrival Pick-Up and Explorer Kigali City
On you first day of this tour, you will explore with us one of the safest and cleanest cities in Africa. In the morning, your trip will start with a warm welcome by our tour driver/guides, who will be ready to show you around, just according to your wishes. The driver/guide will lead you to a must-see places and real insider spots. After some delicious snacks, your driver/guide will transfer you to Gizosi to visit the Genocide Memorial, a grim reminder of a senseless massacre of innocents lives in 1994. Learn about Rwanda’s history from pre-colonial times to the 1994 genocide and how Rwanda has dealt with that past. We shall proceed with our tour and see the new developments in Rwanda. After lunch at one of the best restaurants in town, you can explore vibrant market scenes, some boutiques of the up-coming Kigali fashion scene, or an Art Gallery. On this first day you will already familiarize yourself with the diversity of this thriving country. After the day depending on your flexibility for Kigali night tour, our driver/guide will lead you back to your hotel or lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 2: Transfer to Akagera National Park–Birdwatching Tour
After morning breakfast at your hotel, we start on our journey to Akagera National Park located in the east of Rwanda on the borders with Tanzania. We will do birding in the marshy area for bird species such as hamerkop, cattle egret, long-crested eagle, pied cow, sacred and hadada ibis, black-headed weaver, augur buzzard, and veillots black weavers. We shall arrive at your booked lodge later in the evening and check-in for dinner and an overnight stay.
Days 3-4: Birding Tour in Akagera National Park
On this birding adventure tour you will spend two days inside Akagera National Park for full day birding with lunch breaks. The park is known as a home to over 525 bird species living in savannah and woodland areas among which include shouldered robin chat, brown snake eagle, pearl spotted owlet and red-faced barbet among others. In the afternoon your driver/guide will drive to Lake Ihema and take a safari boat cruise on the lake for African fish eagles, Blue-cheeked Bee-eaters, Rufous-bellied Heron, Slender-billed Weavers, Greater Swamp Warblers, and Swamp Flycatcher. More species include Goliath, Black-headed, and Squacco Herons, Water Thick-knee, Little Bittern, Grey Crowned Crane, African Openbill, African Wattled Plover, African Darter, Black tern, Long-toed and Senegal Lapwings, and Malachite Kingfisher, etc. While birding in Akagera National Park, on your fourth day you will have breakfast as usual and head out for a morning game drive in search for birds and while on your birding tour in the park you will have opportunity to come across animals like buffaloes, elephants, rhinos, zebras, impalas, hippos, crocodiles, cape eland, duikers, and many more. Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner will be served on a daily for both days. Accommodation- Relaxation and overnight stay will be at your booked lodge.
Day 5: Transfer to Nyungwe Forest National Park
After morning breakfast and checking out, you will meet up with your driver/guide and start on your journey to Nyungwe Forest National Park with some lunch break and stopovers for birding and photography. In the swampy marshes and papyrus in Nyungwe. On your arrival in the forest, you will check in and proceed back on the search for the white-winged warbler, papyrus gonolek, papyrus canary, and Grauer’s swamp warbler. Later you will return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Days 6-7-8: Exploring Rift Endemics Birding Tours and Chimpanzee Tracking in Nyungwe Forest National Park
Nyungwe Forest National Park  hosts the remaining large montane forests on the continent of Africa and rich in bird species most especially the Albertine rift endemics. You will have three-days in Nyungwe Forest National Park birding and exploring some of the species, we shall look out for include the Handsome Francolin, Barred Long-tailed Cuckoo, Great Blue and Rwenzori Turacos, Chestnut Owlet, White-headed Wood-hoopoe, Olive and Elliot’s Woodpeckers, Stripe-breasted Tit, Red-collared Babbler, Neumann’s Short-tailed Warbler, Doherty’s Bush-Shrike, Archer’s Robin-Chat, White-bellied Robin-Chat, Mountain Masked, Black-faced, and Collared Apalises, Rwenzori Batis, White-tailed Blue-flycatcher, and Purple-breasted and Regal Sunbirds, etc. Chimpanzee trekking and canopy walk. Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner will be served on a daily for both days. Accommodation- Relaxation and overnight stay will be at your booked lodge.
Day 9: Transfer for Birding Tour to Lake Kivu
After the early morning breakfast, your driver/guide will pick you up at the lodge and transfer you to Lake Kivu which is located north-wards of Rwanda and, on your way, you will have lunch breaks and stopovers for birding in the near forested areas, marshes, and agricultural areas. The journey to Lake Kivu might take you a full day depending on how active the birding en-route is. Lake Kivu is the largest freshwater lake in the country and will provide you with the much-needed rest and opportunities for birding along the shores on arrival that evening. You will proceed and head to your booked lodge check in and have a relaxation dinner will be served in time and stay for overnight.
Day 10: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park for Gorilla Trekking
After breakfast, you will be transferred to Volcanoes National Park. The Virunga Volcanoes region shared between DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda are home to rare, endangered mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. Volcanoes National Park is where Dian Fossey an American primatologist was buried after her death on 26th December 1985 by unknown poachers. The drive from Lake Kivu in Gisenyi to Musanze or Kinigi is about one hour but with stopovers for birding, it can take several hours. You will proceed on the journey with lunch break, and you will have a stopover at a patch of the forest for opportunities of seeing Narina’s Trogon after which continue to your booked lodge for relaxation, dinner and an overnight stay before gorilla tracking the next morning. Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Day 10: Transfer to Volcanoes National Park for Gorilla Trekking
After breakfast, you will be transferred to Volcanoes National Park. The Virunga Volcanoes region shared between DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda are home to rare, endangered mountain gorillas and golden monkeys. Volcanoes National Park is where Dian Fossey an American primatologist was buried after her death on 26th December 1985 by unknown poachers. The drive from Lake Kivu in Gisenyi to Musanze or Kinigi is about one hour but with stopovers for birding, it can take several hours. You will proceed on the journey with lunch break, and you will have a stopover at a patch of the forest for opportunities of seeing Narina’s Trogon after which continue to your booked lodge for relaxation, dinner and an overnight stay before gorilla tracking the next morning. Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.
Day 11: Gorilla Trekking and Guided Nature Walk in Volcanoes National Park
After early morning breakfast, our driver will transfer you to Kinigi for a briefing from the park rangers. The briefing helps you know about the dos and don’ts of gorilla tracking. After the briefing, you will be allocated a gorilla family and a park ranger/guide will lead you into the jungle for the mountain gorilla tracking experience. The tracking can last for a few to several hours depending on where the mountain gorillas last nest the previous night – you need to be physically fit to enjoy this experience. Once you find these animals, you spend an hour with them while observing their behaviors, watching them do their daily activities, taking photos, and recording videos for memories. How you spend the rest of the day will depend on the time you finish and get back from trekking. In the evening you will having a nature walk around the lodges which host a lot of different bird species. Later you will return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 12: Transfer Back to Kigali City
After morning birding around your lodge area, you will check out and start on your return journey to Rwanda’s capital Kigali with lunch break and stopovers for birding along the way. On arrival in Kigali city of the hills, you will continue to the airport for your flight back home. Or you will be dropped off at your hotel/lodge or at any place of your inconvenience.