This 6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari is a 6 Days Congo Safari taking you on a double gorilla trekking, chimpanzee trekking and the great Nyiragongo Volcano Hike in the celebrated Virunga National Park.
Virunga National Pak is a true wonder inhabiting two apes that is the endangered mountain gorillas and chimpanzees along with other primates including colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys and so much more.
6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari offers travellers an opportunity to enjoy gorilla trekking, chimpanzee tracking and hiking the Nyiragongo Volcano for an opportunity to sight the world’s largest boiling lava lake.
Tour Summary of 6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari
- Day 1: Pick up from Kigali, Transfer to Goma
- Day 2: Gorilla Trekking in Virunga
- Day 3: Second gorilla trekking experience
- Day 4: Chimpanzee tracking
- Day 5: Nyiragongo hike
- Day 6: Descend the Nyiragongo, Transfer back to Kigali
Detailed Itinerary of 6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari
Day 1: Pick up from Kigali, Transfer to Goma
Your guide, our company representative will pick you up from Kigali City of Rwanda. After a brief about your safari, you will proceed on a transfer to Goma where you will proceed to be checked in with the Virunga Tourism Office at the Grande Barrier. Clad with your gorilla trekking and chimpanzee tracking permits as well as the Nyiragongo hike permit, you will proceed to be transferred to a convoy to Rumangabo in Bukima Gorilla Sector of Virunga National Park. Check-in to the lodge, have a mouth-watering lunch and get to spend the rest of the day at leisure. You can use this time to explore the lodge area, enjoy bird watching or simply read a book or listen to good music by the balcony at the lodge as you await dinner and an overnight stay.
Day 2: Gorilla Trekking in Virunga
Today, you will take park in the much sought after activity in the Congo, gorilla trekking in Virunga National Park. After breakfast at the lodge, you will head to Bukima the starting point of gorilla trekking in Bukima Sector of Virunga. You will be briefed by the park officials, given the rules and regulations to follow while gorilla trekking, placed in groups of 8 and then allocated a gorilla family to track.
Gorilla trekking in Virunga takes about 30 minutes to 4 hours or more depending on the location of the gorillas and the terrain. You are allowed only one hour with the gorillas once you encounter them. Enjoy the moments with them as they go about their routine activities that include feeding, making nests and grooming each other. After you will trek back to the starting point from where you will be transferred to Bukima Tented Camp for a late lunch. Spend the rest of the day at leisure. Dinner and overnight stay at the camp.
Day 3: Second Gorilla Trekking Experience
After a sumptuous breakfast at the camp, you will head out for your second gorilla trekking experience. After the trek, transfer back to the camp for lunch and then proceed to Mikeno Lodge. Dinner and overnight stay at the lodge.
Day 4: Chimpanzee tracking
As early as 6 am in the morning, you will head to the park and embark on a chimpanzee tracking adventure. Chimpanzee tracking in Virunga National Park takes place in the Mahura Forest, and it is an activity that is more like chimpanzee habituation for it involves travellers being in the company of researchers who visit the chimpanzees every day to have them accommodate human interaction. Spend time with the chimpanzees every day to have them accustomed to human interaction. Spend time with the chimpanzees and learn of their behaviours and triggers. Thereafter, trek back to the lodge and have late breakfast.
Spend the rest of the day at leisure, with optional activities like visiting the Senkwekwe Gorilla Orphanage, Community Visit, or Simply shed off fatigue from the primate treks as you prepare for your hike of the Nyiragongo Volcano to see the world’s largest lava lake. Lunch, dinner and overnight stay at the lodge.
Day 5: Nyiragongo hike
After a sumptuous breakfast at the lodge, you will set off to the starting point of the Nyiragongo Hike. Once there, you will have a briefing and opportunity to hire porters to help you during the hike. The Nyiragongo Hike starts at 10 am and it takes about 6 hours in total, with 2 stopovers in between including a lunch stopover. Once at the summit, spend the rest of the time of the day enjoying views of the amazing beautiful and breathtaking lava lake of the Nyiragongo with boiling magma. Dinner and overnight stay at the summit.
Day 6: Descend the Nyiragongo, Transfer back to Kigali
On this last day of your 6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari, you will wake up to an early breakfast at the summit as you prepare to depart. Gaze at the beauty of the boiling magma for the last time and thereafter proceed to descend the Nyiragongo. The descent can take up to 4 hours only. Once at the foothills, you will proceed to Goma from where you will continue with a transfer to Kigali with a lunch stop enroute. You will arrive in time to catch your outbound flight or be transferred to your hotel or airport.
End of 6 Days Great Ape and Nyiragongo Hike Safari
