The best way to go gorillas is through visiting Congo due to the best and nice to see features characterized with the stunning views of the volcanic mountains in from the Virunga ranges. The Congo gorilla tours are life time experience as myself i got a chance of touring this amazing country with the gorillas. This was a six days trip as we arranged it with Nature adventure Africa Safaris limited which we paid all the money before having our safari.
We passed via Rwanda which is the shortest distance to Congo and this is where Nsubuga picked us from Kigali international airport having reached in the evening, we were taken to Goma where we slept and on the second day we were transferred to the park at Mikeno lodge where we staged, this is where most of my colleagues took beers as water on that day from the available bar.
Our third day we were taken to the headquarters where we met our guides who led us into the activity, we were briefed, told the do’s and don’ts while with the gorillas we put on our gears and we started on our jungle hike which was a long one. Among the gears we were advised to move with included trekking shoes, wool or moisture – wicking socks, comfortable hiking clothes, rain gear, a first aid kit and a lightweight backpack that has room for plenty of water and snacks not forgetting a waterproof camera.
This took us 6hours of trek as the gorillas were too far and on our first sighting, we saw mothers holding their babies, juvenile gorillas playing and the dominant silverbacks keeping an eye out for their family. This was so interesting to the extent that we laughed as some were summer sorting around. We spent 1hour with them, we took our snacks and returned back to Mikeno lodge for the rest of the time as we prepared for a hike at Nyiragongo.
On the fourth day, we went to the for a hike, we met our guides including porters who carried our luggage up on the hill, we added two cooks whom we paid separately on our account, and we started our hike to the top, this was a tactical scene since some paths were slippery and others had hard rock. This took us 7hours to reach the top as we took a number of bottles of water as we almost completed the snacks on the way!
This was amazing, the time we reached up it was cooler and everyone was tired, we couldn’t sleep because it was massive up there as we started seeing the colours into the sky as it was getting to night, much volume as a result of the boiling magma that was from the large crater on top of this mountain. We were not allowed to get too closer to the vent for safety reasons as the vent is too long and we just heard sounds of magma, Nyiragongo Mountain is marked as one of the Africa’s remaining active volcanic mountain due to its numerous historical eruptions.
On the fifth day we, descended the mountain after collecting all our equipments from the tents we slept in and after the morning tea, we reached at Mikeno at 10am. We had some refreshments and we spent an overnight here again, on the sixth day we were taken back to Kigali international airport for our departure.
