Tag: Virunga NP /DR Congo/
area: 7,769 km2/3,000 mi2
UPDATE, December 2025: Virunga National Park is currently closed for tourism.
The oldest national park in Africa is a site of staggering environmental variety: from the Congolese side of the Virunga volcanoes through the savannah up to the permanent snow on the Mountains of the Moon i.e. the Rwenzoris (5,109 m/16,762 ft). The park includes Sabyinyo (3,669 m/11,959 ft), Karisimbi (4,507 m/14,787 ft), Bisoke (3,711 m/12,175 ft), Mikeno (4,437 m/14,560 ft), Nyamuragira (3,058 m/10,031 ft) and Nyiragongo (3,470 m/11,400 ft).
To climb the active Nyiragongo volcano and spend a night next to the lava lake is simply an experience you should come to the Gorilla Highlands region for. Tourists can also visit six mountain gorilla groups here, starting their tracking from Goma or Rubavu.
For our main Gorilla National Parks page with travel advice please click here.
Our Stories:
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Travel Advisory for the Democratic Republic of Congo: Insider Info & Superb Images
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a challenging place in many ways. It is best known internationally for poverty, civil war and Ebola. At the same time, it is also a land of opportunity. The population is rapidly growing (it has passed 80 million), GDP is on the march, there is an increasing…
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Fire, Death and Rebirth
50mm, 1.6s, f/4.5, ISO1600 We — humans, that is — seem to be irresistibly drawn to fire, as much for its beauty as for its destructive power. The sheer force of it can be mesmerising. The lava lake atop Mt Nyiragongo is one of my favourite places on Earth. I inevitably find myself enthralled by…
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Dawn at the Edge of the Region
26mm, 0.6s, f/8, ISO640 I may be colourblind, but I still love colourful photography. I have many close-ups from Mt Nyiragongo, and I’m sure I’ll share several of them with you, but this is probably my favourite photograph from the top. Taken just before dawn, it required a tripod, but I kept the shutter speed…
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Nyiragongo Volcano Hike: 9 Things to Know
UPDATE, MAY 2021: Nyiragongo has erupted. In December 2019 a Gorilla Highlands team member made it to the the world’s largest bubbling lava atop Mount Nyiragongo (3,470m/11,380ft) in Virunga National Park. She chose the Democratic Republic of Congo because of the adventure and because she felt that the country needed support, based on its turbulent…
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Virunga National Park is Closed. Time to Slow Down.
UPDATE, 24/1/2019: Virunga National Park will reopen on 15 February 2019. Yesterday’s announcement that Virunga National Park would stay closed for the rest of 2018 surprised no one. In a hot Congolese election year security was expected to become problematic, and the park leadership has always put client safety first. (The letter from the Chief Warden…
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Fast-Tracking Congo and Wishing for Peace
Ian Cantwell, the Irish historian who wrote the bulk of the award-winning Gorilla Highlands Interactive eBook, returned from Congo two days ago… Oh yes, we wasted no time! The idea first unveiled in October and discussed at the Bootcamp in November turned into reality in December: fast-tracked inclusion of the Democratic Republic of Congo in…
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