Introducing Rwanda

Rwanda is small country on the highest African Plateau about the size of Wales. It is land locked country in the heart of the continent. It is generally known as a land a thousand hills where few volcanoes stretch in the horizon.

The undulating hills and mountains ever covered by mist every morning form a good scenery - hence “the gorillas in the mist”. Rwanda has five volcanoes, 23 lakes and numerous rivers. Her mountainous topography is a product of her position on the eastern rim of the Albertine Rift Valley, part of the Great Rift Valley which cuts through Africa from the Red Sea to Mozambique. Rwanda has three main conservation areas: the Volcanoes Park, Akagera Park and Nyungwe Forest. Each of these protects a very unique ecosystem and combination of large mammals. Akagera supports a typical savannah fauna dominated by a variety of antelopes, zebra, buffalo and giraffe, the aquatic hippopotamus, and plains predators such as lion, leopard and spotted hyena.The Volcanoes Park is the best place in the world to track mountain gorillas while Nyungwe offers visitors a good chance of viewing chimpanzees and 400-strong troops of colobus monkeys - the largest arboreal primate troops in Africa today. Rwanda is bisected by the Rift valley forming enclaves and good natural forest habitats for over 600 bird species and the famous mountain gorilla National parks that houses the last surviving gorillas on earth. Akagera National park is set in the east, Nyungwe Forest in the southern part while the Volcanoes National park is in the northern part of the country bordering Uganda and Congo.

Birding in Rwanda

Rwanda is a wonderful destination for birdwatchers, with an incredible 670 species recorded in an area which is smaller than Belgium and has less than half the land surface of Scotland. Prime bird-watchers destinations include Nyungwe (275 species including numerous forest rarities and 24 Albertine Rift endemics) and Akagera (savannah birds, raptors and water-birds).

Almost anywhere in the country can prove rewarding to birders: an hour in the garden of the capital’s larger hotels is likely to throw up a variety of colorful robin-chats, weavers, finches, flycatchers and sunbirds.The proprietors of Access Africa Safaris have been in business for the last six years and are able to boast of a steady growth envied by the existing tour companies.