Kigali to Virunga National Park

Your Sankofa guide meets you in Kigali for a morning briefing. You then drive northwest through Rwanda's terraced highlands to Gisenyi, a lakeside border town on Lake Kivu. The drive takes about 2.5 hours and passes tea estates. On clear mornings you can see Mount Nyiragongo across the border, often with a plume rising.

Your guide helps with formalities at the Petite Barrière border crossing. Entry to the DRC is manageable if your documents are ready, and we give every client visa guidance before departure. In Goma, hardened lava from the 2002 Nyiragongo eruption, which flowed through the city centre, spreads south of town. You drive across it towards Virunga National Park, and the scenery changes quickly from black volcanic rock to dense green forest.

At the lodge you check in and get a briefing on gorilla trekking rules, conservation, safety and tomorrow's plan.

• Morning briefing in Kigali, then drive to Gisenyi
• Border crossing into the DRC, with help from your guide
• Transfer to the lodge and evening trek briefing

Mountain Gorilla Trekking

After an early breakfast and a final kit check, you go to the Virunga ranger station for the day's briefing. Rangers assign your group to a habituated gorilla family, go over the trekking rules, and plan the route from the trackers' first-light positions. An armed ranger escort goes with every trek, which is standard in Virunga. Gorilla permit revenue helps pay for the rangers who protect the park.

The trek goes through rainforest, giant bamboo and sometimes open volcanic ground, with the volcanoes showing above the canopy. It takes between one and five hours, depending on how far the family has moved since the trackers found it. A shorter trek is not a lesser one. Then you spend one hour with the gorillas at close range, watching mothers with infants, juveniles playing and the silverback. You return to the lodge for lunch and a quiet afternoon.

• Briefing and family assignment at the ranger station
• Trek of 1 to 5 hours with an armed ranger escort
• 1 hour with the gorillas, then lunch and rest

Nature Walk, Conservation & Community

Today you see the park beyond the gorillas. A guided walk through the forest and forest edge shows the Albertine Rift, a major biodiversity hotspot with plants and animals found nowhere else. Your guide explains the forest layers, the plants local communities use as medicine, and the birdlife. More than 700 bird species are recorded in the park, including range-restricted endemics.

Afternoon activities are confirmed on the day, depending on park operations and security conditions. The options are a visit to a conservation project, where you see ranger training and gorilla monitoring work; a visit to a neighbouring village with an interpreter; extended birdwatching with a specialist ranger in Albertine Rift habitat; or a quiet afternoon at the lodge with views of the forest and volcanoes.

• Guided forest walk and birdwatching
• Afternoon: conservation project, village visit or extended birding
• Or rest at the lodge

Return to Kigali

After a last breakfast on the lodge terrace, your guide drives you back through the park to Goma and across the border, with the same help as on Day 1. The drive from Gisenyi to Kigali takes about 2.5 hours, and you reach the capital in the early afternoon.

Your guide takes you to Kigali International Airport, or to your Kigali hotel if you are continuing to Volcanoes National Park for a Rwanda trek the next morning, or overland into Uganda. We can also combine this trip with longer itineraries through Bwindi, Kibale and Volcanoes National Park.

• Transfer to Goma and back across the border
• Drive from Gisenyi to Kigali
• Drop-off at Kigali airport or your hotel