Last July, I took a trip to the Central African Republic, Congo, and DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) for about 2.5 weeks: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92...ublic-1455043/

I nearly went to Rwanda and DRC last year, but the volcano was not accessible to climb due to safety reasons. Now it is possible. Plan map:



Blue: Driving
Red: Boat
Orange: Cycle
Brown: Walking

^Not good parallel grammar

Plan overview:
1) Fly to Kigali, Rwanda

2) Transfer to Goma (DRC, just across the border) to Virunga Park and spend 1 week in the park staying in park accommodations doing gorilla trekking, chimp trekking, and climbing the Nyiragongo volcano. Gorilla trekking involves spending 1 hour with a habituated mountain gorilla family of which only about 850 remain in only 3 countries, DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. The volcano is 1 afternoon/overnight/1 morning and involves an overnight on the rim at the top in huts. This leg of the trip will definitely be the highlight!

Photo from my first time doing mountain gorilla trekking in Rwanda in 2012:


Park site: http://www.visitvirunga.org
Recently released documentary on Netflix: http://virungamovie.com/

The documentary focuses on a British oil company doing lots of shady stuff in the park, in an effort to get access to search for oil. The park director is an absolute boss and I really hope I can meet him.

3) Boat to Bukavu, around 5 days in the Kahuzi Biega Park with more gorilla trekking (Eastern Lowland gorillas this time, same species as mountain gorillas but different subspecies and only accessible to tourists in this one park) and possibly more trekking, haven't quite figured this part out yet.

4) Transfer back to Bukavu and back to Rwanda into Nyungwe Park, where I will stay for around 4 nights, but haven't quite figured out the plans other than chimp trekking. Aside from that, there are lots of other monkeys and trails.

5) Get driven to a point about 1/3 of the way through on the Congo Nile Trail, a trail along Lake Kivu in Rwanda (the name of the trail is a big mystery!). From here, I'll be met by a member of the Rwanda National Cycling team who will be my porter. We'll walk the first two days from Nyamasheke to Kibuye, where we'll find the offices of Rwandan-Adventures, which is mostly a cycling company. From there, we'll take bikes for the next 2 days to Gisenyi, which is on the border of Rwanda, next to Goma.

6) A night in Kigali

7) To end, 3 nights in Akagera National Park on the east side of Rwanda, a park that is currently working on a translocation of 7 lions from South Africa

wow, quite the trip...that's some serious adventure travel!

I recently watched that documentary which was great--HIGHLY recommended for any 2+2 folks who haven't seen it.

You wrote that you wanted to go last year but it wasn't possible due to safety reasons...but now it is. How do you gauge the safety there at the moment, by talking to people on the ground there running tours & treks, etc.? I'm assuming it's a fairly "fluid" situation, meaning it might be safe now but the environment could easily change for the worst?

Good luck & travel safe, def. looking forward to a trip report!

Agreed, very highly recommended!

I trust the people who are managing the park to take the necessary precautions and they are only opening activities/areas that they deem to be safe. Right now, for example, the chimp trekking is "TBD upon arrival" though I'm actually not sure if that's because (a) the chimps moved out of range into an unsafe area, (b) they moved out of range into a safe area that's just too far or inaccessible, or (c) their standard area is now considered unsafe.

Also have been in touch with a really good tour operator from Belgium who runs www.gocongo.com who knows the on the ground situation very well. The biggest danger he exposed me to last year during my 2 days there was a heavyset prostitute who was loitering in my hotel lobby after we got back from dinner

So there is some risk, but I think it's relatively small, and have read a few reports of people saying, paraphrased, "I've been to 40+ countries and Virunga was definitely a top highlight of all my travels".

I've been to 80+ countries and Virunga is one of the things I most want to do! Sounds epic man, get some good lava lake photos up please.

This looks fantastic. This thread made me think you were a bit of a pussy. Obviously, I was wrong

If you don't mind me asking, how much do you expect this to cost?

Haha, will have to read about what caused that, but I have probably de-pussified a little since then

I'm not entirely clear on prices for a lot of it yet, but I will be keeping thorough records for the first time ever

As for the Virunga part,

Transfer from Kigali airport to Goma: $150 (I could have taken a bus for like $5-15, but then I would've had to overnight in Goma or on Rwanda border and hotels are not cheap, so I figured it was worth it to get the taxi)

Volcano trek: $250 including hut

Lodges in park: $244/single or $325/double including breakfast (lunch $15, dinner $25)
-Alternative is to stay in Goma and get driven to the park each day, but as a single, this would be even more expensive or maybe similar if you stay in a really cheap place

Gorilla trek: $400/day (1 hour with gorillas, a few hours to trek to them and return)

Chimps: Not sure

Transport between all the places in the park: Pay for it per route, ends up being about $200 total from Goma to gorilla lodging to chimp/volcano lodging and back to Goma

in. sounds like an amazing adventure. have considered travelling to rwanda as well lately so really looking forward for some reports and lots of pictures obv. stay safe and enjoy your trip

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...t&sf10363806=1

Doesn't sound good

I don't think that area is really close to where I'm going and also

“The situation is now very calm and the area is now secure,” says Mburanumwe

so it must be safe

Amazing how expensive things are, its supposed to be Africa for god sake!

But nevertheless is worth it, I always say I want to (and will) go to every country on earth: you can die at your house watching the telly, why not take the risk and live the dream?

Keep us posted and godspeed

Does this price include activities inside the park or are they extra?

Africa has always been really expensive as a tourist.

Exception to this is the overland tours. They represent fantastic value for money. God only knows how the operators make a profit.

No, just sleeping and breakfast

In general, I think if you had a group of 4 and were willing to camp everywhere you could do things reasonably cheaply. It's rough as a solo.

Sounds like an amazing trip!

That's my understanding, but I've always found that odd--do you have any idea why that is?

I get it that tourist/travelers are going to eat differently than locals (more meat, higher quality all around) but surely employee wages aren't much in most parts of Africa.

Is it mostly a case of lack of competition (i.e., if you want to stay in the park & trek to see the gorillas, this is what we charge) or is it truly more expensive to run a hotel / restaurant / tour company in Africa than in other areas of the world? For the money you are paying, you would get 5 Star accomodation etc., in most areas of Asia, South America, etc.

Here's a really annoying example. I want to go to Akagera Park in Rwanda, which looks interesting, but is not on the level of something like Kruger or Serengeti (although they have just today brought in 7 lions from South Africa, the 1st lions to be in Rwanda in >10 years).

So for game drives, they have NO shared drives. It's either self drive (I don't want to, I don't know how to drive 4x4 and want to enjoy/take photos), get guide with park vehicle ($175/half day or $275/full day), or get guide/vehicle externally ($300/day, but also includes transfers to/from park).

Then for lodging it's either ~$200/day in the park lodge or $20/day camping with no food except what you bring in.

So as a solo, this is pretty nasty, basically paying $500/day, which I would never think to do in a normal city.

I don't think employee wages are very high at all. I'm not really sure why everything is so expensive. I assume that there are expensive logistics involved and many lodges are seasonal.

That said, in South Africa I think there are some pretty legit rates. For example a place called Elephant Plains in the Sabi Sands private reserve (adjacent to Kruger) is <$250/night/person, which includes all meals and 2 game drives. And in the public Kruger reserve this could be done for ~$100/night including game drives, but not including food.

Looking forward to your trip report. I did a similar trip to Rwanda & Zaire (DRC) back in 1993, right before things went sideways. Hiking in Virungas was just amazing, even though we could hear mortar fire in the distance.

Goma/Gisenyi border crossing at that time was a bit "hairy", but I imagine now is much better. Hairy in the sense that there were a lot of unsavory characters hanging around and army types with weapons & vacant expressions. Gisenyi was once a ritz resort town for wealthy expats with luxury homes along the lake.

Stayed in a few church mission compounds on the Zaire side which were super reasonably priced and felt very safe.

Go easy on the "banana beer" it packs a serous punch. Wish I was joining you for the adventure. Hope you have an awesome and safe journey.

Self driving is lots of fun. I wouldn't recommend it for someone on their first safari as you'll miss lots of stuff that a good guide will point out. However, it's definitely worth looking into if you've seen all the obvious stuff.

I went round Kruger in a VW Polo so 4 wheel drive isn't always necessary depending on where you go.

Lack of competition definitely plays a part with gorillas. There's only 3 countries in which you can see mountain gorillas and most people don't want to go to the DRC so Uganda and Rwanda can name their price.

Hey chisness is the trip moving head? When do you depart? Really looking forward to your trip report.

I'm now in Virunga Park at the lodge next to the headquarters. I stayed one night in Gisenyi, Rwanda (next to Goma), then 4 nights in Bukima, which is the starting point for most gorilla treks, and spent last night in the Mikeno Lodge here.

The gorilla treks were great and I went with an average of only 1 other person, which is really nice, especially for photography, although the conditions are always challenging.

I was hoping to go trekking for chimps today, but they couldn't find them, so I got to see a demo of the dogs they use to catch poachers and visited the gorilla orphanage here (which was featured in the Virunga movie).

Internet is quite bad here, but will try to post pictures soon.

Having only 1 other person is great, looking forward to pictures! Thanks for posting

Thanks for the update Chisness, looking forward to more!

Thanks for the update from the road!. Sounds like you are having a great time. Looking forward to photos.

There was a great market in Ruhengheri, Rwanda back in the 90's, were you able to check it out?

Have you been able to try the local banana beer?

How is the Gisenyi/Goma border crossing?

Wondering what Goma is like these days.

Just got to Goma today after trekking up the Nyiragongo volcano! The trek was pretty awesome -- 5 hours up, which was quite steep/rocky with almost no flat parts, and 3 hours down. It was me, 3 Russians who are here serving in the UN, 3 Brits who had recently finished college and regularly do overlanding trips to weird countries together (this one went from Zanzibar to DRC), and 3 Belgians who had been filming a segment for Belgian television in DRC for the prior 2 weeks.

I walked around briefly and went to a couple markets in Goma and since then have just been staying at my hotel, the Lac Kivu Lodge. Had a locally caught tilapia whole fish for lunch, which was quite good. Then attempted the ribeye for dinner. The medium-rare order came in well done and was replaced with a super-rare, which was then cooked a bit more to be a medium+, which was good enough!

Internet is still rough and haven't had the time and/or charging capability to look through photos yet, so I'll just post the 2 I've posted so far on Facebook:

View from Gisenyi hostel Discover Rwanda ($16/n in 8 bed shared dorm -- only had 2 people in it):


Shot of me and silverback during the 1st gorilla trek. A Facebook reply correctly noted that this was the ultimate gorilla selfie opportunity that I missed out on!

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Originally Posted by DuckU View Post

There was a great market in Ruhengheri, Rwanda back in the 90's, were you able to check it out?

Didn't manage to stop there, but maybe in September. What sort of market?

The market in Ruhengheri was a cross between farmers, swap meet, junk yard, black market arms, and stolen UN supplies bazaar.

Have you been able to try the local banana beer?

I actually don't drink beer, but I had never heard of banana beer and if it tastes more like bananas than beer, I'd give it a shot


It tasted like fermented bananas. I'm not a big drinker either, but figured I'd try it. Rwanda being a former Belgian colony had a Belgian built brewery I think it was Chimay, but could be wrong. Others I was with were happy with the beer in Rwanda.

How is the Gisenyi/Goma border crossing?

Really, really easy. Was the only one in the foreigner line at about 9:30am and just had to wait for about 5 minutes for them to complete everything. The only strange part was that a woman without any sort of identification or uniform immediately took my yellow fever card after I passed the security checker guy. After giving it to her (a Congolese guy assured me it was fine) I was rotating between thinking "that was really dumb, this must be some kind of scam" and "what malicious thing is someone going to do with a yellow fever card??" and it turned out that she legit did work for the health office, yet my card was just sitting there when I arrived after the visa processing, so I don't really understand the point of having needed to give it to her in advance.

At the time I was there in 1993 it was a pretty hairy border crossing. Lots of young men carrying around big weapons in a careless fashion. Once on the Goma side lot's of young men with bloodshot eyes and vacant looks. I'd say one of the places I felt the least safe in all of Africa was Goma.


Wondering what Goma is like these days.
Don't have a great idea after only about an hour of driving/walking around, but it really does not feel very clean, calm, or safe. It's quite hectic and I didn't feel very comfortable walking around. The only other city I can recall feeling like this in is Kinshasa (to a lesser extent)

I've never been to Kinshasa, but I've recently read two great books about Kinshasa and Congo in general. One is contemporary, Stringer by Anjan Sundaram and the other is Chief of Station, Congo: Fighting the Cold War in a Hot Zone by Lawrence Devlin