After breakfast, join your guide on a City Tour of Kigali town including the Kigali Genocide musuem.

Kigali has been the political and economic capital of Rwanda’s since independence in 1951. A fast growing cosmopolitan town of 1m inhabitants with wide and landscaped boulevards, world class hotels and restaurants as well as an international airport, it is reputedly the best organized and cleanest city in Africa. Tour lower Kigali around Nyabugogo open air market which is a little crowded and considered the heart of Kigali’s informal economy and continue to the Kigali genocide Memorial Center; learn about the Rwandan genocide of 1994, how it was triggered and carried out, and what lessons we can learn from that past. In one section, learn too about other past genocides in world. We continue past the ‘skyscraper’ city center with her pave, maintained and clean boulevards and international hotels to the parliament building which was scene of some fighting in 1994. We culminate in the adjacent new developments around Kimihurura, Kimironko area and the Nyarutarama suburb popularly referred to as the Beverly Hills of Kigali and see firsthand Rwanda’s transition; the recovery has been incredible – a true testament to mankind’s resilience in the face of unfathomable odds.

After lunch at a local restaurant, drive north to Volcanoes National Park.

Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda encompasses the Rwanda section of the Virunga Volcanoes, a series of eight volcanic mountains which sit astride the border triangle between Uganda, Rwanda and DR Congo and include the still active Nyiragongo and Nyakagezi located in DR Congo. Situated 115kms/2½hrs drive north-west of Kigali and encompassing five of the volcanoes, the park’s 160km² of bamboo montane forest are habitat for the rare and critically endangered Mountain Gorillas of which only approx. 800 members remain in the world! Immortalized in the movie “Gorillas-In-The-Mist” depicting the life and times of American zoologist Dian Fossey who spent almost 20yrs in the 60s to the 80s studying the gorillas, they inspire great human curiosity owing to their being massive wild animals that genetically, socially and physically so closely resemble humans. Other mammals include the beautiful Golden Monkeys, a variety of antelopes, hyenas, bushbucks, and some buffaloes and forest elephants, as well as over 170 species of birds. Of the many gorilla families, 10 have been habituated and opened for controlled Gorilla Tracking, one of the most popular tourist activities. Other activities in and around the park include Golden Monkeys Tracking, guided Hikes up several of the Volcanoes as well as scenic tours and cultural tours in the outlying areas.

You will arrive at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge in time for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)

Arise early for breakfast then at 06.30hrs: transfer to the National Park HQs for your Gorilla Tracking adventure. After registration, participants are put into groups of 8, allocated a gorilla family to track and a specialist Gorilla Tracking Guide to lead them.

0700hrs: Briefing by your guide then drive to the trail head from where the trekking begins. Your guide will lead you, first, through local homesteads and small scale pyrethrum farms then into the forest and up the volcanoes through interspersed bamboo forest and grassland with stunning views in the footsteps of the rare yet critically endangered Mountain Gorillas. And he/she never seems to run out of interesting stories about the forest, conservation, the vegetation and the gorillas and other of this forest’s inhabitants.

Upon sighting the gorillas, you will stay with them for one unforgettable hour as they go about their daily life – feeding, playing, resting, sleeping, raising their young; almost oblivious of your presence but definitely curious, especially the little ones who sometimes come rather close. It is a magical and breathtaking experience.

But the hour is always over too soon and you hike back to base where your Driver will be awaiting to transfer you back to the lodge for a deserved shower and lunch.

In the afternoon, enjoy a tour of the Ibyi’Iwacu ex-Poachers Village for a cultural experience.

Situated in Kinigi at the foothills of the Sabyinyo Volcano, ‘ex-Poachers’ as it is popularly referred to, is an award winning conservation initiative where former poachers were persuaded to desist from poaching and instead come together to form this replica of a Rwandan traditional village with a king’s palace and four traditional huts where they showcase aspects of Rwandan culture, traditions and customs and earn a living as conservationists. On arrival at the village, guests are welcomed with cultural drums, song and dance then led by a village guide through the various exhibitions including traditional rural life, cookery and foods, weaving, grinding, fire-making, a traditional healer with a herbal and spiritual medicine’s ‘laboratory’, archery, javelin, a blacksmith and architecture, Rwandan kingship, palace life and coronations as well as the villagers’ previous life as poachers and their new found passion in conservation and how they have benefited. At the end of the tour, you will have an opportunity to learn a few steps and moves in the very captivating Rwanda cultural dance as well as buy some local curios and crafts including the popular agaseke (traditional baskets), calabashes, hammocks, traditional wooden crockery, dancing bows, arrows and beautiful drums of all sizes.

You will return to your lodge for dinner and overnight.

Accommodation at Mountain Gorilla View Lodge (Breakfast, lunch, dinner)

After breakfast, you will drive back to Kigali and proceed to the airport for your departure flight.