Proposed Itinerary - Follow our journey!
Journey around Rwanda
Trying to finalise a 10 day trip around a country the size of Wales is no mean feat, especially when booking a rental car is more challenging than the Mensa IQ test (another post on that later).
Here I will put a vague itinerary of what we are planning, and as I write them, link to each of the daily blogs. Each daily blog will include a review of activities and prices, plus a review of the accommodation.
I have added a little bit below about what would could have done (and chose not to) too!
When you do book things, generally the National Parks and bigger hotels are very helpful with answering questions, and Akagera even gave us this helpful list of recommended companies (that aren't likely to rip you off!) - Member List | RTTA
Proposed Itinerary
We are flying with BA, from Heathrow to Kigali. The time difference is only 1 hour as it is almost directly below the UK, so the flights are both night time flights so that you can (hopefully) sleep!
3rd June
We land at 7am in Kigali. We will be staying in the Four Points by Sheraton and for $85 they allow an early check in (from 8am) so we have opted to do this so we can shower! This day we will be looking around Kigali, and probably going to the Genocide Museum.
4th June
A day of a long (6 hour) drive to Nyungwe National Park, visiting the Kings Palace on the way through. Staying at the Chimpanzee Lodge.
5th June
Ben is going to do the Canopy Walk (I'm too much of a wuss) and we will visit a Tea plantation. We will drive to Lake Kivu and stay in Rwiza Village Kivu.
6th June
A morning around Kivu, and then drive to Musanze (the town near Volcanoes National Park), with a Canoe tour on the nearby lake through Kingfisher Tour company. We are staying at Garden Palace Hotel for 2 nights.
7th June
This day isn't fully decided. But we will probably be doing the Diane Fossey hike at the lower part of Mount Bisoke.
8th June
A bit of a rest morning! But then we drive to Akegera National Park and check into the Mantis Game Lodge within the park.
9th June
We have booked a guide who will sit in our car with us, and guide us around to see the Big 5. I am very excited about my first African Safari! We are then going to stay in the Ruzizi tented lodge, overlooking the lake.
10th June
We are going on a boat tour in the morning, followed by a couple more hours self-driving around the park. We then drive back to Akagera and stay in Heaven Boutique hotel. We chose to book 2 nights even though we will leave at 11pm to catch our middle of the night flight home.
So what are we missing out on?
Covid is still hanging around, and so any experience involving primates requires a full PCR test. These PCR tests are very hard to get (and expensive) and generally only available at big towns or the airport. The main reasons we havent done the below is for the expense, and fitness levels (of which I have none).
Chimpanzees
Chimpanzee treks are availale in Nyungwe National Park, and according to reviews, it is a long trek chasing them through the trees as they swing a lot faster than you can walk! They are also often far away and the trek goes up and down the hills a lot! You also have to book onto these by 5pm at the entrance to the national park at Gisakura, the night before you want to go. It costs around $95 per person.
Gorillas
A permit to see a Gorilla is $1500 per person. Yes that is the correct bumber of 0's! They only sell a max of 95 permits per day in order to limit the numbers of people and these are more likely to sell out in the dry season. This permit also allows you to take photos of the gorillas when you come across them and the guides split the trekking groups into fitness levels to go and see one of the 3 gorilla families.
There is also a hike up Mount Bisoke which takes you to a crater lake up the top, but this is a very arduous 6hr+ trek up the mountain for which you need to be really fit. You do not need a gorilla permit for this trek, as you are not technically trekking specifically for gorillas, but there is a small chance you will stumble across them. However, you haven't paid your gorilla permit so there will be no photos allowed. We have chosen to do the Diane Fossey trek which is the lower part of this trek - hopefully we might get a glipse of a gorilla, but I think the graves of them next to Diane Fossey is more likely at the lower altitudes.
Colobus Monkeys and Golden Monkeys
Most of the parks also have options to do smaller treks to see Colobus monkeys or Golden Monkeys for a bit less money so it's worth looking on the national park sites for these.
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