Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Gorilla trekking/tracking August 25 in Parc National des Volcans

Country forums / Africa / Rwanda

Hello, I'm wondering if anyone plans on going gorilla trekking in the PNV in Rwanda on or around August 25? I'll be there then, traveling alone, and hoping to share transportation with/meet up with other travelers. Or also, anyone traveling from Uganda to Rwanda around this time.

Thanks!
Amber

Hi there,

We did the odd thing of making our way to the park HQ by public transport and joining up with transport to the trail head there. Not the most straight forward, but here's how...

  1. Public transport to Ruhengeri and then a mini van to the village (Kinigi I think) and a walk (30mins or so) to the guest house. They have dorms, but we camped and I recall it being a crazy $3 or something each. http://www.rwanda-direct.com/rwanda-kinigi-guesthouse/

  2. We stayed two nights so we got to hang out with guests who were also there a couple of days and discussed sharing transport. Food was reasonably priced given where the guest house is.

  3. In the morning we walked to the HQ, and although we had planned to share transport with one couple who already had their truck, we ended up sharing with another couple as we were keen to do the same walk / group. We contributed to the costs of the people who had hired the truck. I can't recall precisely but it was either $50 or $100.

  4. One way or another you will need to have a vehicle and a driver. You assemble at one point but then it is a drive to the trailhead for the group that you are to see.

You could try to stay in Ruhengeri and try to find travelers / transport there. It's a wee drive to the HQ from there so you'd want to be certain you can get there in the morning. http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Rwanda<i>(Kinigi+Guest+House+%2F+Volcano+NP)&daddr=Ruhengeri,</i>Rwanda&geocode=CWFMgVWx6fUdFd4j6v8d3qLDASFe9m1IA8MJ-g%3BFaAc6f8dNSvEASnJi167RFrcGTE2uCgqFlcCUA&hl=en&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=-1.475918,29.619745&sspn=0.123555,0.219212&ie=UTF8&ll=-1.468059,29.617596&spn=0.123556,0.219212&t=h&z=13

Good luck. It's an expensive but very worthwhile thing to do.

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VERY HELPFUL .. thanks.

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