After landing at Kigali International Airport, you will be greeted by a private guide for a two-hour transfer to Akagera National Park, arriving in time for lunch on the lodge verandah. Begin your adventure with your first game drive to follow the prints in the sand to a lion pride. One lion yawns as another one stretches and starts to wander over, circumnavigating the vehicle as you watch on with both excitement and trepidation. On the outskirts of bushes, you may be able to see the rhinos, and all across the savanna is the evidence of wildlife diversity. Akagera is one of Africa’s great conservation success stories, a park returned to its pristine natural state barely two decades after it was partially populated by those displaced by the genocide. On your private game drive, you can explore serenely, stopping to admire the expressions in an impala’s eyes and the antics of a hippo barreling out of the water. Your lodge will offer uninterrupted views over the landscape, continuing the safari into the evening.
Swamps extend to the north of Akagera National Park and can be explored on a boat safari. Hippos poke their eyes from the water, occasionally one yawning to reveal a cavernous jaw. Young elephants playfully push each other under, waving their trunks in their air like snorkels. Ungulates cluster together, safety in numbers as they come to drink from the banks. The boat safari is a relaxed experience as you cruise past all of these animals that bask along the banks. Continue your safari in the afternoon with a game drive across the savanna that will bring many more delightful wildlife scenes. While Rwanda is not as well known as its neighbors for big-game safari, Akagera provides a beautiful contrast to the more famous forests and primates. All of today’s activities are private, and your guide can tailor the routes to your mood and interests.
Step onto the savanna and walk into the land of the giants. Elephants and giraffe are in the distance, buffalo are scattered across the landscape, and you can move slowly as you walk and get close to the ungulates. With a walking safari, you will not go in search of lions, but rather enjoy intimacy with the smaller animals, coming within meters of zebra and wildebeest, among others. After lunch at the lodge, you will drive towards Kigali and trace the history at the National Genocide Memorial. After a guided experience through the exhibit, you will view the mass graves and honor the hundreds of thousands buried down below. It is a haunting experience, but will only enhance your admiration for the country that has been built in just two decades that followed.
Two smaller genocide memorials provide an elegy to the past. Bones stand in churches alongside splatters of crusted blood and clothes that hang from the rafters. The guides at these memorials tell incredibly moving stories as to what happened, accompanying the context you received at the national memorial. Rwanda’s history does not start in 1994 and in Butare, you will discover the great civilizations that flourished here many centuries ago and the Ethnographic Museum is an excellent place to dip much further back in time. Crumbling palace buildings showcase the grandeur of this history, and a local guide will accompany you in the oldest of Rwandan cities. After lunch, you can keep driving south and dip beneath the canopy into Nyunge Forest National Park, a strange and mysterious realm that celebrates the authenticity of the Congo Basin.
Nyungwe Forest is home to a quarter of Africa’s primates, including many rare and endangered species. Today is fully flexible, and the guide will outline potential trekking options, from leisurely trails to serious hikes into the tangled undergrowth. L’Hoest’s monkeys are scattered around the trails, different mangabeys have faces full of emotion, and when you encounter the Rwenzori colobus monkeys, it is impossible to know which way to look. They gather in 600 – 700-strong troops, bathing whole sections of forest in noise and intrigue. This second day also provides a back-up day for chimpanzee trekking if you failed to see a troop yesterday. You will find a fabulous landscape here, one that makes you feel like an old-world explorer venturing into the unknown. But unlike Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this part of the Congo Basin is wonderfully illuminating.
One glance at the chimpanzees, and you can tell that they are biologically similar to yourself. Deft fingers open seeds, eyes display emotion, and gestures change with every passing second. You spend a whole hour with a chimpanzee troop, and you understand that they are also socially very similar. Individuals form cliques, mothers nurture babies to their bosoms, certain males gain respect through their size and power, and others enchant with their peculiar ways and enigmatic actions. The chimpanzee experience is very different from the gorilla experience. You will usually not get as close, as the chimpanzees stay primarily in the canopy, only a handful coming to the forest floor. Encounters come with unpredictability; some days you will see the whole 60 or 70-strong troop, other days it is a small splinter group. But in whatever manner you encounter chimpanzees, there is an intimacy and intensity to the hour, brought on by the remarkable similarities you will witness.
On your private flight, you will have a chance to admire the vibrant landscapes of Rwanda. Lake Kivu shimmers beneath the wingtips, and volcanic mountains are reflected in its glassy surface. Thick and tangled forests present a rainbow of green with mist rising evocatively from beneath the canopy. It takes just less than an hour to skirt the west of Rwanda, as you fly between the land of the chimpanzees to the land of the gorillas. Touch down and spend a relaxed afternoon in Volcanoes National Park to savor the atmosphere of this remote volcanic forest. Your lodge is one of the finest in Africa, an opulent base that combines contemporary comfort with the charms of the surrounding wilderness.
Deep in the forest, you will find the great legends of Rwanda. At first, they are just dots of black fur in the distance, but as you walk closer the rich and remarkable details rise. Small, deep-set black eyes convey emotion as facial expressions that change every moment. Watch a jet of gray fur across the silverback’s back and thick arm muscles that extend to nimble fingers for climbing and foraging. You will spend an hour with a wild mountain gorilla troop with nothing between you and them. Admire the behavior, explore the emotions, uncover the interactions, and then laugh as an infant starts throwing rotten fruit out of the tree. It will be a remarkable experience, one that is emblematic of wider Rwanda while emanating an exclusivity and inimitability that makes you want to keep exploring.
All primate families are different, whether it be humans, gorillas, or monkeys, and on your second gorilla trek, you can more fully explore the contrasts. Perhaps this troop has two silverbacks seeking dominance, and maybe a young baby nestling into her mother’s bosom. The troop could be large with more than 20 gorillas surrounding you, or there may be just nine or ten. On a second gorilla trek, you are also more likely to put the camera down and really absorb the experience, which can be difficult when the potential to document such rare animals is so apparent. Take your time, admire all the behaviors, soak up the atmosphere of your surroundings, and feel the goosebumps rise once more as another gorilla gives you a welcome.
Transfer back to Kigali and the country’s main international airport, memories of the gorillas and the Rwanda savanna likely to linger long in the memory as you journey home.
