Rwanda Tours

Spy enigmatic mountain gorillas through misty jungle – it’s one of wildlife’s greatest encounters

Rwanda Tours

Despite its legacy, these days Rwanda is a country of hope, beauty and prosperity. The likelihood is that if you’re on our Rwanda tours, it’s to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Described by Sir David Attenborough as “one of the most exciting encounters of my life,” for many this is the ultimate wildlife experience. Indeed, little else is comparable to standing a few metres from these magnificent yet peaceful primates.

Trekking at high altitude to see these animals can be tough, but this type of raw experience is the very essence of adventure travel. A small population of gorillas live in the Parc National de Volcans, nestled high up in the mountains and shrouded by mist in early morning. It’s breathtaking, as is the whole of this verdant country. Rwanda tours with Exodus spend a few days here to acclimatise, and we’re involved with various conservation projects too.

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Wildlife adventure from Kenya to Rwanda

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Camping adventure from Rwanda to Kenya

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Activities in Rwanda

Wildlife in Rwanda

In focus: Virunga National Park

Rwanda’s Virunga National Park is the best place to see gorillas in the wild. Owing to the nature of the terrain and the need to explore in order to find the gorillas, there are no paths to follow in Virunga and the guides occasionally need to cut a way through the undergrowth. Despite the challenges, the jungle scenery makes the walking very interesting, and to be close to the gorillas in their natural habitat is an experience you will never forget.

An adult male can weigh up to 195kg and be up to 1.7m in height. The gorillas are almost exclusively vegetarian and are quite destructive eaters, which makes them unpopular with the farmers lower down the mountain slopes, as they will wreck a whole field just to eat one plant. For this reason, and also because of poaching, the gorillas are very carefully protected, although good news is that their numbers are on the up.

We travelled on the same trip as Angela, and agree with everything that she said.
The wildlife sightings in the Masai Mara were excellent; the boat trip on the Kazinga Channel was every bit as good; the trip to the source of the Nile is fun; and then there is the big finale of the chimp and gorilla trekking, all making this a wonderful journey.
Only one site, near Lake Nakuru, had poorer facilities, although as it had baboons and colobus monkeys in the camp while we were having lunch, we could happily overlook that.
This is definitely a trip where you need to have the right mental attitude, and then just go for it. The trip notes say that you will remember the time with the gorillas for the rest of your life. That is not an exaggeration, but it could be applied to the rest of the trip as well.

Kenneth Auld Gorillas & Masai Mara – Camping

What an incredible trip. The scenery, the wildlife viewing and the people all combine to make a fabulous itinerary. We were incredibly lucky with the wildlife from the very start, with the Big 5 achieved between the Masai Mara and Lake Nakuru, along with five cheetah, lions, baby giraffe, elephants, zebra and so much more.

We were incredibly lucky with the boat trip in Queen Elizabeth NP, getting to spend time watching two herds of elephants, both with babies, come down to the water’s edge to drink.

The whitewater rafting in Jinja was intense but absolutely brilliant and the safety was top notch. There are options on the rafting for how intense you want the experience – our group did the highest class available and spent a fair bit of time in the water, but it was such a fun activity.

The chimp trekking in Budongo was on relatively easy paths, with only the last 5-10mins being properly ‘off-track’. The chimps stayed up in the trees, however we still had a great viewing, with a young chimp playing around and giving some fabulous poses and facial experiences. Beware of the chimps throwing things down at you – they are surprisingly accurate with their aim!

The gorilla trekking is everything you imagine and more. It is impossible to predict how far or how hard your walk will be, so go prepared for a tough hike. Our group had around an hour of reasonable hiking on established tracks, followed by around 30-40 mins of full scrambling up and down a steep ravine as the gorillas moved away in search of a different food source. Once the gorillas had re-settled, we were able to spend the hour with the whole family, from the massive silverback to the playful adolescents and the relaxing females. The trackers are awesome and the gorillas showed no signs of being even remotely bothered by our presence, coming up towards us and playing / posing for photos near by.

As other reviewers have previously mentioned, there are lots of early mornings, but you soon adjust and, as this is when the wildlife is most active, it is definitely worth it. The campsites were generally of a very good standard. We had a slight issue with very late and loud music at the Jinja camp (take earplugs), and one campsite did not have working showers when we were there, but as this was one night only it really did not have a big impact. Most of the facilities were good and some were excellent (lovely hot showers), but really this trip is not about the accommodation – with good food (thanks Ken!) and great company, you really do not need luxury and the experience of waking up to the sounds of baboons and hyena made everything worthwhile. The Exodus tents and mattresses are good quality and well cared for, and there were plenty of opportunities for upgrades if you wanted a break from camping.

Angela Beckwith Gorillas & Masai Mara – Camping