Rwanda
Rwanda is a mountainous
country
with a moist, temperate year-round climate.
Its conical mountains and shrouded equatorial jungles have helped it earn the well-deserved nickname as the “Land of a Thousand Hills”. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa and the country carries the burden of recent history following an infamous civil war. Mention Rwanda to anyone with a small geopolitical conscience and that person will no doubt recall images of the horrific genocide that brutalized this tiny country in 1994. But since then a miraculous transformation has been wrought and today the country is one of tribal unity, political stability and a promising future.
Visitors to Rwanda are now openly amazed at how far the country has come and how willing its people are to talk about and regret the terrible happenings of the past.
Why Rwanda
Rwanda has a number of unique delights to offer travellers: Parc National des Volcans in the Virunga volcanoes is home to the Mountain Gorillas to which Dian Fossey dedicated her life. Nyungwe Forest National Park is one of the world’s most majestic and pristine mountain rainforests. It is believed to be one of Africa’s oldest and largest forests remaining in Central Africa. Home to chimpanzees and 12 other primates species (including a 400-strong troop of Ruwenzori Black and White Colobus Monkeys as well as a rich variety of orchids.
Akagera National Park is central Africa’s largest protected wetland and the last remaining refuge for savannah-adapted species in Rwanda. The rolling highlands, vast plains and swamp fringed lakes of this north-eastern territory contain a rich biodiversity and are home to a number of rare species, such as the shoebill stork. With more than 12,000 large mammals and 482 bird species, this breath-taking landscape is every nature lover’s wildest dream. Finally Lake Kivu is one of a string of huge fresh water lakes which lie along Africa’s Great Rift Valley. Lake Kivu is Rwanda’s largest lake, and the sixth largest lake in Africa that is home to a large variety of birds.
Gallery
Places to Tour
VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK
Located in the Virunga Mountains, a magnificent chain of dormant volcanoes in the north of the country, the park forms part of the extension of the Congo-Nile Divide, separating two of Africa's most important watersheds. They're also home to the world's last surviving mountain gorilla population, currently a mere 700 individuals.
Gazetted: 1925 to protect the Mountain Gorillas. It was the first National Park in Africa.
NYUNGWE FOREST NATIONAL PARK
This 1000 km². jungle in the south of Rwanda is the largest and most ancient Afro-Montane forest remaining in East & Central Africa, dating back to the last ice age.
One of Africa's best-kept secrets, the forest is interspersed with well-marked and maintained trails and boasts 13 rare primate species, the world's largest ever recorded arboreal troop of black/white colobus monkeys, over 300 species of birds and 100 types of orchid. Nyungwe Forest and chimpanzee tracking is the ideal complement to any gorilla safari.
AKAGERA NATIONAL PARK
Situated at lower altitudes on the Tanzanian border, Akagera is dominated scenically by a labyrinth of swamps and lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River, one of the main sources of the River Nile.
Giraffes and zebra haunt the savannah alongside more than a dozen types of antelope, such as the diminutive oribi and the world's largest antelope, the eland. Pods of hippopotami splutter throughout the day while outsized crocodiles soak up the sun with their vast jaws agape. Along the lake shores are some of the continent's densest concentrations of water birds, while the marshes are home to endangered bird species like the exquisite papyrus gonolek and the bizarre shoe-bill, probably the most eagerly sought of all African birds.
Rwanda Itineraries
2 Day Double Gorilla Trek.
Go where you feel Most Alive
