Arrival at Kigali International Airport where you will be welcomed and transferred to your hotel. Rest of day at leisure.
In the morning after breakfast, transfer from Kigali to Bwindi National Park, Uganda while driving through a verdant countryside, you will pass traditional homesteads and enjoy panoramic views. In the afternoon arrival in Bwindi National Park, home of the endangered mountain gorillas.
Arise early today and prepare for the highlight of your safari, an unforgettable encounter with the Gentle Giants!
Following breakfast, transfer to the national park offices where you will be allocated a gorilla family in groups of 8 as well as a gorilla tracking guide. After a pre-tracking briefing by your guide touching on the gorillas generally, your assigned gorilla family as well as appropriate safety precautions, you drive to the trailhead for the start of a thrilling adventure.
Expect to walk between 2 and 8 hours in steep and sometimes muddy conditions with rain overhead, which can be tough and require a degree of (average) fitness. However, the thrill of coming face to face with a giant Mountain Gorilla silverback completely makes up for the effort!
Upon sighting the gorillas, you spend the allowed one hour with them as they go about their daily life; feeding, moving, playing, raising their young and sometimes wrestling by the juveniles – it is a totally unique and unforgettable experience!
Of the over 800 mountain gorillas worldwide, Bwindi National Park is home to almost half of the gorilla population. There is no better place for observing these gentle giants from a close distance! Thanks to the wildlife conservation program, the number of gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest only has increased from 300 to 400 in the recent years, which include nine different families that are habituated for tourism purposes. Apart from the famous residents, the dense forest hosts 9 other primates. There are different trails in the park, including the Munyanga River Trail and Waterfall Trail, leading through the pristine rainforest to three sparkling waterfalls.
After an early breakfast, transfer to Kigali. Visit the Genocide Memorial and Museum.
The Kigali Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda commemorates the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The remains of over 250,000 people are interred there. There is a visitor center for students and whose wishing to understand the events leading up to the events of 1994. The Center is a permanent memorial to those who fell victim to the genocide and serves as a place in which the bereaved could bury their family and friends, and a clear reminder of the cost of ignorance
Some background history: In April 1994 reports of systematic mass murder within Rwanda began to filter out of Rwanda and circulate throughout the world. Little, sadly was done to halt the mass killing. To outsiders the genocide was represented as tribal-based ethnic violence, with the Tutsis the victims and the Hutu's as the perpetrators. Precisely how many people were actually murdered may never be known; estimates vary between 500,000 and over a million. The number of people killed is widely accepted as being somewhere close to 800,000.
After the city tour you will be dropped off at your hotel for dinner and overnight.
Transfer to Kigali Airport for your departure flight.
