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Mountain gorilla, Rwanda

Rwanda

Spy enigmatic mountain gorillas through misty jungle – it’s one of wildlife’s greatest encounters

Tours in Rwanda

Despite its legacy, these days Rwanda is a country of hope, beauty and prosperity. The likelihood is that if you’re on holiday here, it’s to see mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Described by Sir David Attenborough as “one of the most exciting encounters of my life,” for many this is the ultimate wildlife experience. Indeed, little else is comparable to standing a few metres from these magnificent yet peaceful primates.

Trekking at high altitude to see these animals can be tough, but this type of raw experience is the very essence of adventure travel. A small population of gorillas live in the Parc National de Volcans, nestled high up in the mountains and shrouded by mist in early morning. It’s breathtaking, as is the whole of this verdant country. Rwanda trips with Exodus spend a few days here to acclimatise, and we're involved with various conservation projects too.

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Rwanda Adventure Holidays

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Activities in Rwanda

Wildlife

In focus: Virunga National Park

Rwanda’s Virunga National Park is the best place to see gorillas in the wild. Owing to the nature of the terrain and the need to explore in order to find the gorillas, there are no paths to follow in Virunga and the guides occasionally need to cut a way through the undergrowth. Despite the challenges, the jungle scenery makes the walking very interesting, and to be close to the gorillas in their natural habitat is an experience you will never forget.

An adult male can weigh up to 195kg and be up to 1.7m in height. The gorillas are almost exclusively vegetarian and are quite destructive eaters, which makes them unpopular with the farmers lower down the mountain slopes, as they will wreck a whole field just to eat one plant. For this reason, and also because of poaching, the gorillas are very carefully protected, although good news is that their numbers are on the up.

Rwanda map
Responsible travel

We offer more than 500 holidays across 100 countries on all seven continents. And although we’ve grown in the past 40 years, our philosophy has stayed the same: to bring like-minded people together on authentic adventures, with minimal impact to the environments and cultures we visit. We work only with reputable partners, with whom we’ve built long-standing relationships, and participate in various community and environmental projects around the world. Read more about our responsible travel initiatives here.

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