Land in Rwanda to find that your hotel is scented with history. After being glamorized in a movie and book about the genocide, it has returned to its old-world luxury roots and makes for a very comfortable base in the heart of the capital city. After being greeted at the airport, you will enjoy lunch with the private guide who will accompany you for the first week of your trip. Immediately, you will notice the easygoing and gregarious nature of the people, along with their determination to achieve. On your afternoon city tour, it will seem astonishing that this country is barely two decades past a devastating genocide. Calm and clean, it also has its colorful charms, wonderfully experienced at the local Kimilonko Market. Move into the evening, and your guide can take you for drinks and make dining reservations at Kigali’s upmarket hangouts.
After breakfast, transfer to Volcanoes National Park. Thinking of Volcanoes National Park and you immediately think of Dian Fossey’s Gorillas in the Mist. Swirling mist occupies the folds in the mountains, floating strangely amongst the forest. It is a spectacular journey to get here, weaving higher into the hills, then twisting beneath the rainforest canopy. After lunch at the lodge, the afternoon is at your leisure, a chance to fully relax before two days of gorilla trekking. Should you wish to start exploring, there are various forest trails that take you in and out of the canopy. Dinner at the lodge is a gourmet affair, a log fire crackling as the mist swirls ever onwards.
Today you begin your trek, stepping farther into the wild and toward the gorillas. Mud squishes underfoot, branches are sliced clear by machetes, the trail disappears, and you are following paths left by the gorillas. Meeting a troop requires you to journey deep into the mountainous forest, into a landscape that feels evocatively foreign. Vehicles have never penetrated this place, and the sense of seclusion is exquisite. Groups of up to eight visitors are assigned to a particular, habituated gorilla troop, with troops assigned based upon the fitness levels of the visitors. Some troops may be a four-hour trek away; others might be found within 30 minutes. Regardless of how long it takes, this trek through equatorial rainforest is a major part of the experience.
On each gorilla trek, you spend an hour with the troop. These are habituated gorillas who are used to this daily encounter with humans. However, they are very wild, and it is impossible to predict their behavior. Sometimes you find tension and imposing displays of power; other times you find playfulness and a delectable charm. Going twice not only increases the range of behavior you can witness; it also provides an insight into two distinctive family troops. Most importantly, it gives you double time to enjoy the experience, meaning you can put down the camera and really soak up the intimacy, the gorillas jumping about in all directions.
Rwanda creates new definitions of green. Every mile seems to bring another unfeasible tone, a new hue that cannot be captured on an artificial screen: rustic green creepers winding up mahogany trees, lush rice paddies clinging to the hills, electric colors on passing birds, the arcane olive tones scattered through the canopy. It takes four to five hours to drive from Volcanoes National Park to Nyungwe Forest, although the journey will take longer due the sheer abundance of photographic viewpoints. Stop for lunch in a local village en route, a chance to discover more about rural life in these green hills. Then escape beneath the canopy of the Congo Basin, entering a rainforest of remarkable distinctiveness. Check into Nyungwe Forest lodge, and it is hard to go more than ten minutes without a troop of monkeys swinging past. The evening is at your leisure.
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.
Today you fly out to the Akagera National Park. Touch down, and the landscape feels indelibly East African. Open grasslands are dotted with antelope, trees rise above the swamps in the distance, and lone trees act like safari sentinels. This is classic East Africa safari territory, with a distinctive difference. Akagera is a mix of both grassland and wetland, the contrast of habitats attracting a huge diversity of wildlife. After lunch, you start the safari experience by joining the park’s rangers on a behind-the-scenes tour of the park. You learn about conservation and methods of preserving this precious habitat. You find out the role of a ranger in maintaining harmony between man and wildlife, and you savor the knowledge of the rangers, who know exactly where particular lion prides hide, and precisely where to find certain ungulates. After a day with the rangers, you spend the evening watching the savannah from your luxury lodge, the silence occasionally interrupted by raucous animal calls.
Venture onto the plains, where the grass glows beneath the morning sun. Sable antelope stand proudly, their photogenic horns spiraling skywards. Herds of eland and tsessebe dot the grasslands, along with hundreds of oribi. Some antelope skip and dance, enthusiastic in the morning ambiance. Next, you will find the lions, a healthy pride that inspects you with curiosity. In the morning, you explore these plains in a vehicle, a game drive revealing wildlife diversity. It is quite possible that you could see 15 – 20 different species on the drive. In the afternoon, there is a huge change in atmosphere, a walking safari taking you across the same big-game landscape. Giraffe tower over you, zebra and buffalo cross the trail, and you watch the intense battles between horned males.
It is a two-hour drive back to Kigali and the country’s main international airport. You arrive in plenty of time before the departure, after a winding journey through Rwanda’s legendary green hills.
