4 Day Congo (DRC) Gorilla Trekking & Nyiragongo Hiking
Overview
You’re welcome to visit Virunga National park for Mountain Gorilla Trekking & active Volcano Trekking. Spending a night on the nyiragongo summit is one of the most impressing experience. Listening & viewing the volcano lava crushing into itself is a lifetime memorable experience. The trip start/end your trip at Kigali, Rwanda.
Included/Excluded
- accommodation listed on itinerary or similar
- Gorilla trekking permit,
- Nyiragongo volcano trekking permit
- Roundtrip transport
- Services of English/French speaking guide driver
- Price excludes all other things of personal nature like the bar bill, Nyiragongo backpack, porter fees, & gratuities among others
Tour Plan
Kigali, Rwanda - Virunga NP, Democratic Republic Of Congo
After an early morning breakfast at your lodge in Kigali, Rwanda a Safari 2 Gorilla Tours Representative will meet & Greet, this will be followed by a transfer to Virunga NP
Your guide will have to Ensure you arrive at Grande Barriere border crossing at 11:00am and check-in with Virunga NP tourism office that’s conveniently located in the Grande Barriere border post building, opposite passport control. You’ll as well do the border clearance & Once check-in is complete, transfer to Kibumba, Virunga NP. Overnight at Kibumba Tented Camp or similar
Gorilla Trekking, Virunga NP, Democratic Republic of Congo
After an early breakfast at Kibumba Tented Camp, you will head down the hill to meet the Ranger guides and have a briefing before the gorilla trekking. Gorilla Trekking can be anything from 2 - 8 hours depending on location of the gorilla group being trekked & the difficulty of the terrain. After spending the allotted hour with the gorilla family group, you will return back to camp, enjoy a late lunch & have the rest of the day at leisure, including time for nature walks & bird watching. Overnight at Kibumba Tented Camp or similar
Mount Nyiragongo Active Volcano Trekking, Virunga NP
After an early morning breakfast, transfer to Kibati Ranger Post to check for Nyiragongo Volcano Trekking at 8:15am, On arrival to Kibati, you will receive a briefing & will have the opportunity to hire porters and thereafter begin the climb up the volcano which is about 4 - 6 hours & an overnight will be on the summit.
Nyiragongo is an active stratovolcano with an elevation of 3,470m in the Virunga Volcano Mountains associated with the Albertine Rift. It is within Virunga NP, Congo (DRC). The main crater is about 2KMS (1 mi) wide & usually contains a lave lake. The crater presently has two distinct cooled lava benches within the crater walls – one at about 3,175m & a lower one at about 2,975m. Mount Nyiragongo & nearby Mount Nyiramugira are together responsible for 40% of Africa’s historical volcano eruptions. Overnight at the summit hut.
Descend Mount Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo (DRC) - Kigali, Rwanda
Early morning after breakfast leave the crater rim & start the descent back to Kibati. Average descent time is four hours. Once at the bottom, You will be proceed back to Goma to checkout with Virunga National park & border clearance before proceeding to Kigali marking an end of your the 4 Gorilla & Nyiragongo Active Volcano Trekking Congo (DRC). Your driver guide will drop you at your planned destination in Kigali. End.
Request Quote
Communication via WhatsApp to make arrangements went very smooth with Aron being quick and clear in his responses.
Aron drove us most of the time, but we also had a ride with driver Barnice. Every time they were in time, most of the times even early to make sure we could leave whenever we wanted. The service was more than just a private taxi service: Aron told us many interesting things about Uganda and let us taste some local food. That really made our trip more colourful and interesting.They know a lot of good places all over the country, like restaurants and accomodation. Although we organized our trip by ourselves, that was still an advantage. Above that, Aron uses his business in Uganda to help other Ugandans as well.
We would definitely recommend to travel with Safari 2 Gorilla Tours.
Jon Peters
USA
In my iniitial email to him I had explained that I'm Kenyan and would be travelling to Rwanda from Nairobi, Kenya. As an east African citizen I thought this information was useful in terms of national park fees and so on; little did I know that it would affect my whole Gorilla trek experience.
I'd settled the balance of my invoice in November 2019 and Aron emailed to confirm full payment. I never heard from Aron again except when I emailed him to find out the arrangements for when I arrived in Rwanda. At the time I didn't think much of it as I'd read so many glowing reviews of Aron and his tour company; his attentive nature, professionalism and general good nature. A fortnight or so before my arrival I'd still not heard from him so I emailed to find out the itinerary for when I arrived in Rwanda - nothing. Just a curt response confirming that he had the number for my hotel and presumably (Aron did not confirm) that he would call me at my hotel to arrange a time to pick me up from my hotel.
I arrived at the hotel, following a 10 hour flight from London on Friday, 24 January to find there was no message was left by Aron advising when I'd be picked up the following day. On Saturday, 25 January at about 9 am the receptionist knocked on my door to inform me that a driver had arrived to pick me up and drive me to Uganda. As I'd not had any advance information of this arrangement I was not ready; i hadn't showered or eaten breakfast. And so we did not set off until gone 10 am. This was the first poor service i'd received.
I'd paid for a 3-day Gorilla trek etc which included on the first day a visit to the Rwanda Genocide memorial. When the driver set off we'd been driving and passed a sign to the memorial site, after almost an hour I asked if we were still going to the memoial site, and only then did the driver inform me that due to the late departure he had decided to postpone the visit to the memorial until the return leg of my three day trip. The second poor service i'd received.
Bwindi national park is in Uganda and so I was driven through Rwanda to Uganda via a land border, an eight hour journey that ordinarily shouldn't have taken that long. The third poor service.
During the drive Aron maintained constant communication with the driver - whose name escapes me - and not once did he ask the driver to pass the phone to me so that he could speak to me. By that I mean even welcoming me, asking me how my trip was, finding out if there was anything I needed, any issues or problems with the trip I'd paid for. The fourth poor service I received
When we arrived at Rushaga camp each visitor at dinner was assigned a table with the name of their guide on it; stupidly I immediately thought Ohhh so Aron had sent a driver to pick me up from Rwanda and that now I was going to meet him! How wrong i was. When i sat down expecting to meet Aron who should turn up? but the driver! Cheekily I asked if he was Aron and offended he curtly replied no!. When i asked what happend to Aron he informed me that Aron had been in constant communication throughout the day! When I asked why Aron hadn't even said hello or welcomed me he just said that Aron was on another tour. At that moment I realised what was happening and why. In Aron's eyes I was a black African tourist that yes, had paid for the same service and support that my white counterparts had received but due to his low perception of me and fellow black Africans I did not warrant the same service, attention, or even respect. I did not speak to the driver again for the rest of the evening. I was surrounded by fellow travellers that were accompanied by guides who made them feel welcome, valued and respected; they sat together sharing stories from their travels whilst I and the driver sat silently. Even as I tried to get the driver to understand how insulted and disrespected I felt he just didn't get it. A part of me feels if i was white he wouldn't have found it so hard understanding how poorly I'd been treated. But as a black African what reason did I have to complain? The fifth poor service I'd received
On the second day i was due to visit Mgahinga national park almost a two hour drive away. As debrief started at 8 am we arranged to leave Rushaga Gorilla camp by 6 am; arranging to meet for breakfast at 05:30 am. 06:00 am the driver was nowhere to be found. Finally at 06:30 he appears in the dinning room feigning an alarm malfunction. I had to demand an apology from him. The sixth poor service i'd received.
We arrived at the national park at 08:25. I was the only black tourist and when I asked the guide to summarise the debrief he audibly commented that as I'd arrived late he'd not be able to repeat it for me. Cynically I felt that If I was white he'd problably have ignored the fact that the driver had got me to the debrief late and still gone through the key points. The seventh poor sevice I'd received.
I could go on and on but I won't. I think you get the gist. I never once spoke to Aron, met him or communicated with him during my time in Rwanda and Uganda. I left Rwanda on Tuesday, 28 January 2020 and have delayed posting this review until now to see whether or not I'd hear from Aron. I haven't and I know I never will.
I would never recommend this company to anyone regardless of who you are. I pity and despise racists and would never support a business that openly discriminates against black Africans.
Would absolutely recommend Safari 2 Gorilla Tours! Thanks Aaron and Martin for an unforgetable trip!
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Makanga Hill,
P.O.BOX 568 Kabale