8 DAY RWANDA ADVENTURE

Day 1. At 6.30 am our Company driver guide will pick you from Kigali International Airport and do the City tour includes the Genocide memorial and then proceed to Nyungwe Forest National Park via Nyanza Kingdom Palace. Dinner and overnight at Nyungwenziza Eco Lodge.

Day 2. In the morning you will travel with your packed lunch to Nyungwe Forest National Park headquarters for the Chimp trekking and its 45 minutes drive, later you will proceed to Ruzizi-Lake Kivu in the evening for dinner and overnight at Peace guest House. This is Rwanda’s most iconic wildlife during this private trek through Nyungwe National Park, with a chance to spot endangered bird species, rare orchids, and the park’s most famous inhabitants: their chimpanzees. All-inclusive excursions also include meals.

Day 3. After breakfast around 10 am you will start to enjoy the boat trip along the Lake Kivu-In western Rwanda, along on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo lies the lively Lake Kivu, the largest of the many scenic lakes scattered throughout Rwanda but one of the smallest of the Great Lakes of Africa in terms of size. It is however the third deepest with its deepest point being around 485m. Your lunch break will be served at the choice of your accommodation: Peace guest House for the 2nd night.

The lake and its surrounds have a unique feel to them; reminiscent of what you could describe as being an inland freshwater sea. Filled with volcanic islands, surrounded by beautiful beaches, terraced hills and fishing villages, all giving it a dramatic.

Day 4. After breakfast you will drive between 5 to 6 hour to Musanze Province includes via Pfunda Tea Factory on the way Spend some times at the green tea fields of Pfunda and experience how tea in Rwanda is picked, dried, fermented, packed and drunk. The Pfunda Tea Tour starts at the Cooperative office where your guide will explain the background of the cooperative and history of tea and tea production in Rwanda. From Pfunda head office, the day continues on the back of one of the Tea Cooperative’s trucks where guests travel with the rest of the tea workers from the Pfunda tea cooperative out into the tea plantations. Your guide will teach you about growth and lifecycle of the tea bush in Rwanda. After this, everyone gets a crash course in tea picking before setting out into the plantation to pick tea. Tea picking is not as easy and straightforward as it might seem. Tea picking in Rwanda is totally manual and does not rely on any machinery. All tea is picked by hand. Only the young top three leaves on the bush. After weighing the harvest, the day ends for workers and they are transported back to the tea factory. You will join the transport of your harvested tea leaves with the rest of the workers on the back of the track to the Pfunda Tea Factory. The tour continues at the Pfunda Tea Factory, one of the largest Rwandan tea factories. After learning and experiencing how the tea is processed in different ways will end while tasting by the cups. Dinner and overnight at Isange Paradise Resort

Day 5. Hiking Mt Karisoke research center. In the late 1960s, Rwanda’s Virunga mountains became home to one of the world’s most famous prima-tologists, Dian Fossey. Inspired to travel to Africa by a friend’s photographs and stories, Fossey took out a loan and made the trip in 1963. Fossey’s life, and those of Rwanda’s endangered mountain gorillas, would be changed forever. Fossey founded the Karisoke Research Center in the remote rainforests of northwest Rwanda and, for the next twenty years, devoted her life to living with and studying eight gorilla groups in the surrounding mountain. In 1983, Fossey published Gorillas in the Mist, a detailed look at her scientific research and how it came about. It served as the inspiration for the 1988 film of the same title. Just two years later, however, she was brutally murdered as she slept in the bedroom of her cabin. Today, Fossey’s legacy lives on, namely through the conservation efforts of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Fossey was buried next to her favorite gorilla, Digit, not far from her research center. Tourists now have the chance to visit her tomb in remembrance of one of the most dedicated and fearless wildlife researchers in the world. This hike may take up to 2hours uphill with a slight chance to encounter Mountain Gorillas, Golden Monkeys, numerous birds and wide range of wildlife along the trail. Dinner and overnight at Isunga Paradise Resort.

Day 6. am tour to the Musanze Caves and Diann Fossey Memorial. In the morning you will go to the Diann Fossey memorial and tour the Musanze caves which are not mere caves, but special historical and cultural sites. During the ancient times, it was from these caves where new kings were crowned. Of recent, they offered shelter to 1000s of refugees during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. At Musanze caves, cave explorers are welcomed by the resistible beauty of the surrounding vegetation. At Musanze caves, visitors are also position to enjoy the breathtaking view of the spectacular Virunga Volcanoes, especially Mount Gahinga, Karisimbi and Muhabura volcanoes. Musanze caves have many tunnels, and contain 1000s of bats. As you walk through the tunnels, you can see several of bats hanging on the cave walls. These caves are typical formation of Cenozoic volcanic rocks. The interior is cold and quiet, then you can find streams of water flowing slowly out of the rock ceiling. The length of Musanze caves measure about 2 km and they are the most explored of the many caves in Rwanda. The Musanze caves formed about 65 million years back, they are geographically lying in an area with so much lava flow effect that resulted into creation of the Albertine Rift Valley. Dinner and overnight at Isange Paradise Resort.

Day 7. am Transfer to Akagera National Park and it takes 5 to 7 hours drive to the best view of Akagera Rhino Lodge as your chosen accommodation, your lunch break will be ready as you are checking and after that you enjoy the evening relaxation as you prepare for the next day's morning game drive in the park.

Day 8. In the morning you will do the game drive in Akagera National Park is almost unrecognizable today compared to over 20 years ago when it was on the verge of being irreparably degraded. The aftermath of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi had a devastating impact on the environment, making its story of revival even more remarkable. In 2010, African Parks partnered with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) to assume management of Akagera National Park, shifting the park's trajectory to one of prosperity and hope. From the beginning there was a clear joint vision: Besides becoming a haven for wildlife, the park’s support for income-generating enterprises for local communities has grown remarkably and, together with revenue-sharing schemes, nearly US$1 million of economic activity flowed from the park into the surrounding communities later followed by the transfer to Kigali International Airport.