Tag: Volcanoes NP /Rwanda/
area: 160 km2/62 mi2
Located in northern Rwanda just a couple of hours away from Kigali, Volcanoes National Park is the most approachable mountain gorilla park in the Gorilla Highlands region. It shares three volcanoes with Uganda’s Mgahinga — Muhabura (4,127 m/13,540 ft), Gahinga (3,474 m/11,398 ft) and Sabyinyo (3,669 m/11,959 ft) — and two with Congo’s Virunga National Park — Karisimbi (4,507 m/14,787 ft) and Bisoke (3,711 m/12,175 ft).
In addition to 12 habituated mountain gorilla groups, the park offers golden monkey tracking and many hiking opportunities. The two-day climb of Mt Karisimbi, the tallest peak of the Virunga volcanoes, is the most challenging while the day-trip to the lake atop Bisoke the most popular option.
For our main Gorilla National Parks page with travel advice please click here.
Our Stories:
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Dawn of Gorilla Tracking as a Tourism Activity
While there were sporadic non-scientific expeditions to mountain gorillas before, real tourism began with the arrival of Walter Baumgartel. Baumgartel was a German who had lived in South Africa, helped the British with reconnaissance photography during World War II, and eventually found an enticing ad in London: they were looking for somebody interested in a…
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What Do Gorillas Think of Face Masks?
Hello, my dears? Are you still there? For me, I am still with you, trust me! The reason why you haven’t heard from me for a while is that I was busy busy busy working with two different TV crews. They wanted to capture the best of Volcanoes National Park — and when you work…
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Early Light
16mm, f/8, 1/500s, ISO250 The Gorilla Highlands region is, as the name suggests, characterised by its rather hilly topography. This is one of my favourite landscape photos from there, taken at around 4,000 meters/ 13,100 ft above sea level during an exhausting hike up Mt Kirisimbi. Miha joined me shortly afterwards, while Izy was wise…
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Bringing Africa Closer to You
Ladies and gentlemen, we have been quietly building the Gorilla Highlands Experts Daily Dose blog since 1 February 2021, and a month later we feel that we are ready to go public. This Daily Dose will be the freely available part of our responsible travel membership service, and the unified blogging place for everything that…
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Name-Calling in the Virungas
Hello, my friends? I am back home from what we call the prevention area, the zone in which we are kept isolated for two weeks as we track mountains gorillas. Today I want to tell you about some of my favourite gorillas. I know the names and personalities of about 150 of them but some are…
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Emma’s Gorilla Tracking Field Report
Hello members! I hope this finds you well, l am called Emmanuel Harerimana, the Gorilla Highlands Expert from Volcanoes National Park! My job is the one of a park guide and I have the honour of visiting mountain gorillas about three times each week. To keep Rwanda’s most valuable animal safe in the pandemic, I…
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We Are Still Alive. Very Alive. In 3 Countries!
Rainy greetings from Nyungwe where the Gorilla Highlands team has embarked on the last week of photography and video work.
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7 Practical Things about Rwanda’s Gorilla Naming Ceremony
Kwita Izina, the gorilla naming ceremony organised by Rwanda every year since 2005, has been attracting growing interest from abroad. What is it and how does the biggest conservation event of the Gorilla Highlands region actually look like? 1. You are not going to see any real gorillas at Kwita Izina It’s better we deal…
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Pocket Guide with Rwanda on the Way
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