Category: Experiences

Budget Gorilla Trekking Tours in Rwanda

Are you planning for your budget gorilla tours in Rwanda the land of thousand hills and thinking of mountain gorillas? We are here to help you to have a very affordable tour in this country even though the Rwanda Development Board has increased the gorilla permit from US$750 USD to US$1500 per person. We help our travelers to either go on wildlife tours in Akagera National Park with chimpanzee trekking in the Nyungwe Forest National Park and also if you travel during low season in November every year we can secure for you a discounted gorilla permit, and for those coming before in Rwanda for conference and seminars we can to acquire for you a discounted permit.

This safari trip takes you to Nyungwe National Park a primate capital in Rwanda located south west of Kigali to trek the cheerful chimpanzees and then we move to the most two attractive parks in Democratic Republic of Congo in Virunga National Park and Kahuzi Biega National Park for mountain and Eastern lowland gorilla experience and climbing mount Nyiragongo.

On arrival in Kigali, you are met and then drive south to Nyungwe Forest. The drive can take around 6-7 hours on roads that vary in quality. Traditional villages and rolling hills form the backdrop of this drive and as you enter Nyungwe Forest, the scenery changes again as you enter what many consider to be one of the most beautiful forests in the country and the largest single tract of montane forest remaining anywhere in East or Central Africa.

With over 13 different species of primates found here, including L’Hoest’s monkey and vervet monkey, it is still the chimpanzees who take the starring role. The birding here is also beautiful, with over 300 species and 26 endemics, along with 120 species of butterfly and the occasional, ever-changing chameleon hiding in the bushes. The forest is also home to Rwenzori Colobus monkeys including a four hundred-strong semi-habituated group thought to be the largest troop of arboreal primates in Africa.

Head out today to search for Rwanda’s other famous cousins, the chimpanzee, in the beautiful Nyungwe forest. After a short briefing from your guide on how to behave when you’re with the chimps, walk through stunning tea plantations, before entering the forest. Nyungwe itself is considered to be one of the most beautiful parks in Rwanda and whilst lying at a lower altitude, it can be very steep and challenging in places.

With an estimated 500 chimpanzees in the forest, the chances of seeing them is 95% and you will hear them shout before you see them, but trekking can take anything from one to four hours. The on-going habituation process gives you a good chance of seeing them but nothing is guaranteed. If you are lucky enough to find them, you will spend one hour watching them play, fight and eat in the atmospheric forest, before retracing your steps back to the lodge.

We then drive from Nyungwe Forest National Park we can to drive towards the Volcanoes National Park via the Gisenyi Lake Kivu and you can relax at the shores of this Lake staying at Discover Guest House and you can enjoy the Dancing Pots of the local communities of Rwanda and after transfer to Volcanoes and here if you cannot afford the US$1500 per person please you can experience the golden monkey tracking, Hike mount Visoke & Karisimbi, Dian Fossey trek, Iby’wacu cultural village and after back to Kigali for your city tour visiting  the Kigali genocide memorials and craft shops like Caplaki shopping villages marking the end of your safari in Rwanda.

Enjoy Cultural Encounters in Bwindi Forest

Uganda the pearl of Africa is gifted with various tribes of people who have unique cultural attributes but the areas around Bwindi Impenetrable national park are gifted with the unique cultural encounters which cannot be got else in the world but in south western part of Uganda. Therefore any traveler seeking an interesting, memorable, educative, and interactive and above all authenticity cultural encounter experiences should book for a gorilla trekking trip that is combined with cultural experiences. Your tour will become a dream come true given the experience you will get after encountering some of the people you have never met in life and yet the first sight makes you feel to stay with them for the rest of your earth life.

The best cultural encounter in Bwindi can be experienced from taking the Buhoma Community Tours. The three to four hour walk to the nearby villages enables the visitors to pay visit to local hand craft shops which are selling locally made artifacts like beeswax candles as well as the fabrics ,wood carving produced by the natural talented Batwa people.The interesting part of the tour or nature walk is that it leads visitors to the rare Batwa community where visitors will be entertained with various traditional songs as well as dances showing the traditional life of local Batwa when they were still living in the dark forests of Bwindi. The journey leads visitors to the local traditional healer who is more respected in the Batwa community and here visitors will be exposed to various ways how traditional healers use medicinal plants and other local herbs to cure diseases. The experience here is marvelous and leaves visitors demanding for more time and days to stay with the local people.

Safaris in Uganda do not only depend of wild life but the exceptional cultural encounters one can get from taking Uganda safari surpass the visitors’ expectation.Takinga cultural tour to meet the Nkuringo Community Conservation and Development Foundation found in the south western part of Uganda in the areas around Bwindi offers a memorable cultural experience. A visit in this particular place avails the visitors with interesting scenic views and also taking time to tour Nicholas the blacksmith activities which reminds visitors of the long ago old stone age period were Nicholas does interesting wonders which cannot be witnessed in any part of Africa.

Participating in the Buniga Forest Nature Walk is that rewarding experience which no visitor should afford to miss when he or she lands on the pearl of Africa to spend his or her holiday safari in Uganda. The walk enables the visitor discover the hidden secrets of African traditional life life’s and at the same time offering interesting scenic views of the interesting forested lands in the south western part of Uganda.