The magic of Virunga National Park
A journey through one of Africa’s oldest treasures: Virunga National Park
The beauty of Africa never ceases to amaze and never let’s you go. My first time back in sub-Sahara Africa, since my family moved to Belgium from Kenya. My husband surprised me for my birthday and it was the most magical trip.
We flew from Brussels Airport with Brussels Airlines to Kigali (Rwanda), where we arrived by night. A driver drove us all the way to the border with Congo to Gisenyi, where we stayed the night in a lovely hotel with a fantastic view.
Where to sleep?
We had a five night stay in the Mikeno Lodge in Rumangabo, surrounded by the most beautiful nature. Have diner by the fireplace and breakfast between exotic birds and monkeys
We stayed on the Tchegera Island for 3 nights in a luxurious tent with a bathroom, dressing space and bedroom
We spent one night up the Mount Nyiragongo Volcano in a tent
Optional: spend a night in the Hotel des Mille Collines
What to visit
Tchegera Island by boat and stay a night, or two, kayak around the island, go for a swim in Lake Kivu and enjoy dinner and breakfast in this dreamy destination
Gisenyi, Rwanda at the border with Congo for a beautiful view and transfer to Goma
Goma to experience a vibrant city
Gorilla trekking and get amazed by this beautiful creatures that relate a lot to us humans
Hike up the Mount Nyiragongo Volcano, stay the night to see the magic of the lava by night and come back in the morning
Visit the orphan gorillas in the Virunga’s Senkwekwe Center
Before you leave Kigali Airport, visit the Hotel des Mille Collines and have a lunch or diner
View from our hotel in Gisenyi, Rwanda
The next morning after breakfast, we got our passport stamps, ready to cross the border to Congo, where another driver awaited us to drive us to Goma. Tip for the ladies: don’t wear shorts or short dresses. People aren’t used to over the knee clothes. Little did I know. In Goma we immediately felt the vibrant Congo vibe with lots of colors, traffic, music playing, curious kids following us, souvenir markets, but also kids begging for food. A little reality check for me, when I decided to give some leftovers I had, causing some kids fighting over it. So there’s also lots of poverty here.
In Goma a jeep took us to Rumangabo, the headquarters of the ICCN rangers, guarding the park. We stayed in the Rumangabo lodge in the middle of the jungle with a stunning view. You can visit the gorilla orphan sanctuary where André takes care of the gorilla orphans as if the are his own.
My husband got a total plan worked out. We started with a two day hike to the top of the Nyiragongo volcano. An active volcano, caused a lava catastrophe in Goma a couple of years ago (you can still whitness the consequences in Goma, since a part of the city got overwhelmed by lava. The beauty of the people is they just keep going, building new houses and trying to make a living with anything they’ve got). At the top of the volcano we stayed the night in a tent and admired the lava dancing its way through the night.
One of the guides made us a lovely dinner by the fire and breakfast too, ready to go back to the lodge.
The next day we went to visit the mountain gorillas in their own habitat. It took us two hours in the jungle until we spotted a family with babies. We were able to admire the beautiful creatures for an hour. Taking pictures and just enjoy how they take care of each other and the little ones swinging from tree to tree.
Our last three days we stayed in the most magical place: Tchegera in the middel of Lake Kivu. We took a boat from a little port in Goma to the island. A couple of luxurous tents and nothing but beautiful nature, nothing more we needed. We enjoyed the island all by ourselves, we took the kajak to explore the surroundings, had a lovely dinner, breakfast and lunch and just enjoyed our last days in a place I will never forget.
From Tchegera we drove back to the border with Rwanda, where another driver took us to Hotel Mille Colline (thousand mountains). A hotel well known for it’s history. You may know Mille Colline from the movie ‘Hotel Rwanda’. A terrible genocide not so long ago. The drive to Rwanda is absoluty beautiful. It’s a complete different country and mentality compared to Congo, but so very nice to see the beauty of both countries. We had dinner in Hotel Mille Colline, ready to fly back to Brussels by the evening. Dreaming of what we’ve just experienced.