I and my other two friends wanted to visit Rwanda for a safari tour. We searched for the best tour company in Rwanda which we found and consulted from Eco Tours Rwanda. Our tour was basically to be for gorilla tours but when we asked the cost of a gorilla permit and we were told that it costs US$ 1500 per individual but our tour consultant Moses told us that it can be discounted if we are to held any conference in Rwanda that we should use that chance and we book for a gorilla tour immediately after the conference and he told us that our permit will be reduced to US$ 1275 which by no chance we had no conference we were to held in Rwanda.

But he also told us never to worry about the discount instead he emphasized us to book for any other Park in Rwanda which we should add to Volcanoes National Park and by doing that he told us that we were to pay US$ 1050 which meant that we were to be given a discount as we were traveling in April 2018.

However, he told us that for the conference is paramount at any time we would like to visit Rwanda but for the offer of visiting two or more Parks is only efficient only from November to May but besides those months we can’t get that offer even though we are to visit all of Rwanda’s attractive places and non-attractive.

We were also lucky enough that we had wanted to visit Rwanda in mid May of 2018 therefore we just asked him the most suitable Park we should add on our gorilla tour and he told us that ‘’you can add chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe Forest National Park which is a 7-hour drive from Kigali or Akagera national Park a two and half hour drive from Kigali city’’.

We asked him many things about those two Parks and our second option we added to Volcanoes National Park was Akagera National Park due to what he told us that is found in the park and the fact that the Park is too close to Kigali international airport yet we didn’t want to spend much time and according to Moses’ words, we had to ultimately choose Akagera and confirmed our tour with the Eco Tours Rwanda and we also paid a 30% deposit to show Moses that we were very serious with our tour such that he plans it accordingly.

Therefore, we paid for the gorilla permit and booked a private vehicle with the same company of which we hired a Land cruiser vehicle. When scheduled dates for our tour reached, we organized and packed our belongings and headed to the airport of which we used Rwanda Air Flight which flew us direct from our home country to Kigali international airport of Rwanda.

At the airport, we were picked up by the Eco Tours Rwanda’s professional and friendly tour guides who transferred us from the airport to one of Volcanoes’ lodges called Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel which consists of a bar, restaurant and a swimming pool for relaxation during leisure time plus a free WIFI.

In the morning we set off and started our gorilla tracking which we started at 08:30am and we were 8 individuals per group and before starting our tracking, we were first briefed at the Park’s head offices at 07:00am and we were told some of the rules we are to follow before and during the tracking.

We were told to first ensure that we are in good conditions before going for the activity because it is a challenging and we were encouraged not to use flashlight cameras when taking photos of the primates. We stood a distance of 7 meters while viewing the gorillas and we only spent one hour with the gorillas. The Park consists of 12 habituated Mountain gorillas which we were able to interact with while in the Park.

Besides gorilla tracking, we were also able to see many other animals in the Park which included; bush bucks, black-fronted duiker, spotted hyena, golden monkey, buffaloes and the Park also inhabits almost 200 bird species which we managed to see.

The Park also consists of five Volcanoes which include Bisoke, Muhabura, Sabyinyo, Karisimbi and Gahinga of which we were able to hike one of it. We hiked Karisimbi Mountain which was a two days hike and we enjoyed its white-snow capped summit plus a brilliant view of Muhabura. Though we enjoyed a lot from our hike, we faced a problem of coldness though we had carried heavy clothes like sweaters, rain coats, gloves and scarves thus reducing on the coldness.

Our tour was so interesting in Volcanoes national park and we were able to know some of the Park’s history which was told to us by the Park rangers. We knew that the Park was gazetted in 1925 and all activities in the Park are governed by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) however years back the Park faced a big problem of poaching till when an American naturalist/zoologist went to Rwanda and conserved the lives of wildlife in the Park. It is believed that the Park would have perished by now if this American naturalist known as Dian Fossey went to Rwanda and formed a research center which she named Karisoke research center due to the fact that it was situated between Karisimbi and Bisoke thus she combined the first four letters of Karisoke and the last four letters of Bisoke.

After our visitation to Volcanoes national park, we also visited Akagera national park and what amazed us from there was its variety of wildlife and bird life. The Park protects over 400 bird species making it the best destination for birders and it has the highest number of birds in Rwanda as whole. Not only being with many bird species but also has the most number of animals compared to what we saw in Volcanoes and what were told to us by our tour consultant (Moses) before accessing Rwanda on what is found in Nyungwe Forest National Park. Some of the animals we saw in Akagera National Park were Lions, Buffaloes, Leopards, Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos plus the hippos and crocodiles which we viewed through boat cruises at Lake Ihema which is found in the Park. Many aquatic birds were also viewed from Lake Ihema and from there we got to know that the Lake is fed by River Kagera.