4 Days Mount Bisoke Hike, Gorillas and Golden Monkeys

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   

   Kigali City Visit and Drive to Kinigi

   Our driver-guide meets you at Kigali International Airport or your hotel. Kigali is one of the cleanest and calmest capitals in Africa, and a morning here gives you a sense of the country before you head for the mountains. We start at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, where more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi are buried; allow about two hours, and expect it to stay with you. After lunch in the city, the road north climbs through terraced hills and tea and banana farms for about two and a half hours to Musanze and on to Kinigi, at the foot of the Virunga volcanoes. As you get closer, the five peaks on the Rwandan side line up across the horizon, from Karisimbi at 4,507 m to Muhabura on the Uganda border. Check in at your lodge, take a walk through the nearby village if there is time, and get an early night. Dinner and overnight at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, Da Vinci Gorilla Lodge or, for a luxury stay, Bisate Lodge.

   • Kigali Genocide Memorial
   • Mountain Gorilla View Lodge, Da Vinci Gorilla Lodge or Bisate Lodge
   • Lunch, dinner
2. Day2
   

   Mountain Gorilla Trekking in Volcanoes National Park

   After an early breakfast, we drive the few minutes to the park headquarters in Kinigi for the 7 am briefing. Rangers assign each group of up to eight trekkers to one habituated gorilla family, taking your fitness into account if you mention it. A short drive then brings you to the start of the trail at the park edge, and the walk into the bamboo and nettle forest can last anywhere from one to several hours. When the trackers find the family, you spend one hour with them at a distance of about 7 m, watching the silverback, the mothers and the young ones feed, play and rest. The Virunga mountain gorilla population, shared between Rwanda, Uganda and DR Congo, has grown to more than 600 animals thanks to decades of protection. After the trek, return to the lodge for lunch and rest. In the afternoon, visit the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund in Kinigi, which explains the research that began at Karisoke in 1967. Dinner and overnight at your Kinigi lodge.

   • Gorilla trekking
   • Kinigi lodge
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
3. Day3
   

   Full-Day Hike to the Mount Bisoke Crater Lake

   Today is the big climb. After breakfast and registration at the park office, you drive to the Bisoke trailhead and start walking up through farmland to the park wall. Mount Bisoke rises to 3,711 m, and the round trip normally takes six to seven hours. The first section climbs through bamboo; above it, hagenia and hypericum trees hung with moss and old-man’s-beard lichen give the forest a strange, silent feel. The trail is steep and often muddy, with roots for handholds, and armed rangers walk with the group because buffalo and forest elephants use the same slopes. Near the top the trees give way to giant lobelias and senecios, and then the rim opens on the crater lake that fills the summit, about 400 m across. On a clear day you can see over the volcanoes into Uganda and DR Congo. A porter can carry your bag for the whole day, and a walking stick is provided. Descend in the afternoon for a hot shower and a well-earned dinner. Overnight at your Kinigi lodge.

   • Mount Bisoke hike
   • Kinigi lodge
   • Breakfast, packed lunch, dinner
4. Day4
   

   Golden Monkey Trek and Return to Kigali

   On the last morning, a gentler walk. Golden monkeys are found only in the Virunga volcanoes and a few nearby forests, and their orange-gold backs and busy movements make them a joy to watch and photograph. The trek starts from the same park headquarters at around 7 am, and the walk to the troop in the bamboo zone usually takes one to two hours on easier ground than yesterday. As with gorillas, you spend one hour with the monkeys, and they are often busy feeding on bamboo shoots just above your head. Return to the lodge for lunch, then begin the drive south to Kigali, about two and a half hours through the hills. If time allows, stop at a craft cooperative in Musanze or the Nyabugogo market area in Kigali before the transfer to your hotel or Kigali International Airport for your flight home. Rwanda’s road network is good, so evening flights are easy to make from here. End of the trip.

   • Golden monkey trek
   • Breakfast, lunch