About rwanda

Rwanda’s greatest attraction – and one of the most compelling natural experiences to be had anywhere on earth – is a close encounter with one of the surviving families of mountain gorillas who roam the thick forests of Volcanoes National Park. These gentle, communicative creatures, with complex personalities and depths of understanding and emotion that we still know little about, leave a lasting impression on every human visitor. As you watch a lounging silverback tolerating the toddlers tumbling around him, or a nursing mother adjusting the weight of her infant and peering up in bemusement through the trees at a high-altitude jet, they seem to be persons of another kind, not animals.

While the gorillas are an absolute must-do, the quilt-like “Land of a Thousand Hills” has so much more besides. Head southwest on switchback roads, to track chimpanzees and watch stunning birdlife in the vertiginous cloud forests of Nyungwe Forest National Park. Swim or kayak in the clear, warm waters of Lake Kivu, with its Mediterranean-like shoreline. Or venture east to the archetypal savannahs and lakes of Akagera National Park where the “Big Five” can all be seen, along with (if you’re extremely lucky) the elusive shoebill stork.

Rwanda is of course, famous – or infamous – for the tragic social collapse of the 1994 genocide, a wound from which it is still recovering. Much of the healing process comes from the way this remarkable country has confessed its mistakes – from neighbourhood courts reconciling survivors with perpetrators to countless monuments and several excellent museums, including Kigali’s almost unbearably poignant Genocide Memorial. Combined with the many opportunities you’ll have to discuss the country’s past and present with your driver-guide and other hosts, the memorial is an essential stop on most people’s itineraries and leaves an indelible impression.