Africa’s easiest and most accessible gorilla trekking tours are the main draw card of a Rwandan safari. After arriving at the capital city of Kigali, you are only a few hours’ drive away from the legendary Volcanoes National Park and its habituated but still wild gorilla families.
It was on the bamboo-covered slopes of Rwanda’s Virunga Volcanoes that the late Dian Fossey studied the behavior of the endangered mountain gorilla for 20 years, followed by the filmmakers who shot Gorillas in the Mist.
Now small groups of privileged visitors can experience one of the most memorable wildlife encounters on earth – gorilla trekking through the pristine Virunga’s rain forest in Africa.
Rarely experienced in isolation, a Rwandan gorilla safari combines well with other East African destinations like Tanzania but there is more to green and hilly Rwanda than meets the eye: it is also home to the primate-filled Nyungwe Forest National Park where there are chimpanzees and fantastic bird-watching opportunities. Akagera National Park, on the other hand, offers big game viewing in a diverse Savannah setting.
Lake Kivu is a gorgeous expanse of water surrounded by Rwanda’s gently rolling slopes – in fact, Rwandans call their home ‘the country of a thousand hills’ because of its undulating landscape. Kivu is a great place to enjoy boating, hiking, kayaking and chimp trekking.
Small, compact and easy to travel around, friendly Rwanda has dealt with its past tragedies and offers intrepid travelers and wildlife enthusiasts what is usually a hard-to-gain insight into Central African cultures, wildlife and environments.
After all these, while on our Luxury Tanzania Rwanda Safari head to Serengeti in Tanzania making it an amazing and ultimate East African combination. The Serengeti is one of the most famous parks in Africa and is synonymous with wildlife and classic African scenery.
It is Tanzania’s oldest park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is home to the spectacular wildebeest migration and offers top-class wildlife viewing throughout the year.
Serengeti’s scenery is renowned for its grassland plains in the southeast. The northern part is more hilly and rocky. To the west, valleys, rivers and forest can be found. Several areas in the Serengeti are dotted with ‘kopies’, granite outcrops rising up from the plains. It’s an immense landscape and quite stunning big sky country that feels like untamed wilderness.
Every year, over 2 million wildebeest, zebra and gazelle migrate from the Serengeti to the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya. If you’re there at the right time, you can spot herds of wildebeest and zebra stretching to the horizon.
The Serengeti offers some of the best wildlife viewing in Africa. All the major safari animals occur in great numbers. Cheetah and four of the Big 5 are easily seen, but rhino sightings are rare, and only black rhino are present. Aside from the big cats, many other predators can be spotted including spotted hyena (especially in the morning), jackal and bat-eared fox.
