Rwanda 4 Days Gorilla and Golden Monkey Trek Safari

Day 1: City tour
Your Rwanda safari begins with the airport pick, a safaris guide from AA safaris & tours will be waiting for you at Kigali international airport. When you meet, he will brief you about the day’s itinerary and then you drive towards Kigali for the Kigali city tour. Depending on what time you arrive and how much time you have before dusk, you may or not have time for a lunch break. The Kigali city tour takes you the Kigali genocide memorial centre, a place where you find all the information you may need to know about the thousands of people who were killed during the 1994 genocide-caused by misunderstandings between the Hutus and Tutsi people. You may visit the museum in Kigali, here you will learn about the different Kinyarwanda cultures and believes, also buy some souvenirs that you may be interested in.

Later on, your guide/ driver will drive you towards Ruhengeri district, through the Musanze town to Volcanoes national park which is the home to a big population of mountain gorillas. In this park you find the Virunga massif. You will arrive late in the evening at the hotel where you will have your dinner and spend the night. The hotel choice entirely depends on how much you are willing to spend. There are the luxury hotels like Virunga lodge, Sabyinyo silver back lodge and others, the midrange include mountain gorilla view, La bamboo gorilla lodge and then the budget lodges include Kinigi guest house, Virunga hotel, among others.

Day 2: go for the gorilla trek

On this second day, you have to wake early, have your breakfast and grab your packed lunch because you can’t be sure you will return to the lodge in time for lunch. The time you spend in the jungle is unpredictable since it depends on how far that particular family you are tracking is on that particular day. However, you will be allocated a ranger in the morning after the 8:00am briefing and he will help you locate the gorillas since he knows where they were the previous day therefore has an idea where they might have migrated to. You will be 8 people in every group tracking a particular family and you must follow the dos and don’ts of gorilla tracking as listed during the briefing for your own safety and that of the gorillas. You are free to ask question during the trek and also when you meet the gorillas. You will have an hour to spend with the gorillas after you meet them and that is your time to take all the pictures you wish to take. Later after the one hour, you will walk out of the forest back to the lodge and if you still have some time before dark, your driver can take you to visit the twin lakes of Bulera and Ruhondo which are beautiful with stunning waterfalls. From here, you will return to the lodge for your dinner.

Day 3 is for the golden monkey trek

Volcanoes is blessed with lots of other primate species be sides the gorillas. Some of these are the golden monkeys. Just like with the gorillas, you will have a ranger with you during your golden monkey trek. You can expect to see other primates like the velvet monkeys, blue monkeys, L’hoest, the black and white monkeys, among so many other types and there will be so many birds and also various tree species. When you find them, you will have time to watch feeding on the shoots, care for their little ones and also play around with them. Golden monkey trekking doesn’t take long like the gorilla trek, takes about 4 hour therefore you will have your lunch back at the lodge, after lunch you might have some extra time to do an extra activity. You can go for the community visit, you can visit the Batwa community of course at an extra cost, you can interact with to learn about their life style and they can entertain you through their music and dance.   Later in the evening, you can return to the lodge for your dinner and sleep as you wait for the next day’s activities.

On day 4, visit the Diani Fossey grave.

This extra activity is optional therefore you can only go for it if you still have time in Rwanda for example if your flight is late in the night or you are leaving the next day otherwise you can miss your flight if you have to fly out in the afternoon on that day. The trek to Diani’s grave is at an extra fee, it is a guided walk, done only in the morning hours and booking should be made prior to your arrival. A range is always available to trek with you until you get to the spot. From here, you will go for lunch and then your driver will drive you back to Kigali and straight to the airport if you have a flight to catch.   This will mark the end of a Rwanda Primates Safari with AA safaris & tours.