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Take your best photograph machine , and not your phone to take pictures . |
You will need at least a 200mm lent . |
Go for it ! |
Akagera National Park is Rwanda's largest protected wetland and only protected savannah reserve. |
It is teeming with a diverse range of wildlife and an even more varied landscape. |
Don't miss the sunset boat ride...so many birds to see, and hippos! |
Beware of the Tsetse flies - don't wear blue! |
I went on a two day safari to the Akagera national park with Golden Rwanda tours and safaris. |
Frank the owner was my guide and it was my first safari experience. |
It couldn't have been any better ! |
I did a boat trip on the Ihema lake and with te car we did a trip to the whole of the park. |
Frank and another guide of the park gave a lot of information about the animals I saw and the legends where also very nice to hear. |
I saw a lot of animals except the lions but I went with an open mind and was just blown away by the beauty of the landscape, the views and any animal I saw and I did see lots of animals ! |
The stay at the Akagera lodge hotel was excellent too. |
But most hartwarming was learning to know Frank, a generous person with a great hart for nature and people. |
And also a good price for what you get! |
You can discuss your wishes, your budget,.. and I'm sure he will offer you a good price for a custome made arrangement. |
Before our group left Rwanda we used our down time to head to the Akagera National Park, that was is just a couple of hours from Kigali, the last 30 minutes or so on the dirt road. |
We did a day safari drive which got off to a slow start when the driver (we used two 4x4s provided by the park) forgot to gas up the jeep! |
The drive itself was fantastic though, with so much to see as the place, despite being reduced in size, is huge! |
We saw the elephants among lots of the other animals, but missed the lions and rhinos. |
Some of our group also took a boat tour on the lake and saw the crocs that we hadn't seen from the jeep. |
All in all, it was a great experience, altho it was a very long drive, around 9 hours in all, and the last couple of hours it was as if the driver was looking for something specific but hadn't communicated that to us. |
It would have been nice to have more information about the park, the animals, where they go and why etc, but the park itself was fantastic and I'd definitely recommend it. |
Akagera park is a reasonable drive from Kigali. |
We stayed at Ruzizi tented lodge, which is in the south section of the park. |
Apparently the larger herds of animals are in the northern section, which probably takes about 6 hours. |
We did not have that much time, as we had to catch our plane home. |
You must have four wheel drive. |
We got onto one trail that obviously had many elephants on it, and had knocked down a lot of trees onto the path. |
We had to do some creative driving to find our way around, then locate the path again. |
We saw the Blue Turaco bird, lilac breasted roller with a nest in a hollow tree, Rothschild Giraffe, water buck, bush bucks, roan, impala, vervet monkeys, brown parrots, African green pigeons, and fish eagles. |
There were quite a bunch of tsetse flies.The birds made up for it though! |
Akagera National Park is unique not only in it's topography but also in what it represents to the Community of Animals and Villagers that surround it. |
All the money spent goes back to support the Animals as well as the Villagers. |
I visited 2 weeks ago and had a driver arranged for me through a travel company called Inspired Journeys, who helped me create my African trip that included a Safari in Akagera National Park. |
JP, my driver, brought me from Kigali to Akagera. |
Inpired Journeys also hired a guide for me as well, Venuste Ndungutse, who is one of the many Akagera Community Freelance Guides. |
The Park created this program to get the surrounding Villages more involved with the sustainability and success of the Park as well as to promote Cultural activities of the communities. |
Venuste and JP were so amazing in not only their enthusiasm for the Park and the animals but Venuste's knowledge of all things Conservation and Ecological. |
I so enjoyed my 1 and 1/2 days seeing and photographing so many different animals, from a variety of Antelopes, Giraffes, Zebras, Hippos, African Cape Buffalo, Baboons, Velvet Monkeys, Elephants to the very shy Black Rhino... but I most enjoyed learning about the history of the Park, the animals and all the details of the environment the animals live in. |
Venuste knew all the plants and trees as well as amazing details of all the animals. |
And he explained how the Park maintains such a healthy environment for them. |
I was lucky enough to have an encounter with Akagera's most famous resident, Mutware, a 50-60 year old elephant who has an infamously grumpy side to him but is quite endearing at the same time. |
To my amazement we saw the elusive Black Rhino twice! |
They had just been reintroduced in May so a sighting is pretty wonderful...and the 2nd time, we were lucky enough to take pictures. |
This park has low mountains that give you wonderful access to vistas that are not seen in other Safari Parks. |
It has swamps and Savannahs too. |
But i think what made the experience so wonderful were my Guide, Venuste and Driver, JP...Their knowledge and excitement were infectious...This is a must see Park when in Rwanda. |
And know that the money you spend on both Park and Guide are going to make both the Park and Villages more sustainable and prosperous. |
I hope to return to Rwanda and Akagera is a must visit again for me. |
Because I live in Kigali, this is our go-to Big5 game park to relax and enjoy nature. |
it is absolutely the greenest, lushest park I have ever seen, especially when you go in the rainy season (less game viewing, but spectacular scenery and lower pricing). |
The park has savanna's and lots of lakes, but also bush and hills. |
There is so much food for all the animals, it must be heaven for them. |
Loads of crocs and hippos, antilopes (topi, impala, duikers, eland), monkeys and also elephant, buffaloes and lions. |
The elusive black rhinos and leopards are more difficult to spot because they hide so well but yes, they are there as well! |
In the south there is the lovely Ruzizi tented lodge, and during the dry season, head north to Karenge Bushcamp, a temporary camp for a more rustic immersive experience. |
Both offer terrific food in and will offer a picnic lunch while you are in the park. |
And if you leave early from the camp, you can watch hyena and lion at dawn before anyone else gets there. |
Not that there will be many people anywhere, because it is still an undetected gem! |
You will need your own 4WD though, because the park is an adventurous self-drive. |
If you want, you can hire a local guide to come with you (in your car). |
I never thought that I'd make it to Africa, but I always wanted to go. |
Akagera is a national park (unlike private parks) so all the proceeds go back to the park and it's rangers, upkeep etc. |
I was only there for 1 day, therefore only able to make 1 trip out. |
Nonetheless, it was an AMAZING experience! |
Seeing animals in their native habitats and in their native lands was moving. |
Because I only made one trip out, the animals that I saw were limited (the lions live to the north), but impressive nonetheless: elephant, impalas, water buffalo, hippos, tons of monkeys, birds, topee (spelling? |
), zebras. |
I would love a chance to go back! |
We hired a driver with a safari land rover (the top lifted up) from our hotel in Kigali. |
We then had a local guide from the park with us for our 4-5 hour excursion. |
Yes, you might drive longer to see the animals but the views are great and my guide was top-notch and very knowledgeable. |
Saw all but lions. |
Do not miss out on the community activities: beer making and honey tasting, fabulous! |
This is a fairly small game reserve in comparison to the Serengeti in Tanzania and the Mara in Kenya so expect to see smaller numbers of animals. |
There is dense vegetation, making it difficult to see many of the animals up close. |
We did see several types of antelopes, a leopard, zebras, hippos, hyenas and buffalo. |
We also saw giraffes and elephants, but from a distance. |
You can only enter from the south, but the north end has more animals. |
Great day! |
We hired a car and driver for the day from Kigali. |
You'll need an extra seat in the car for the guide from Akagera. |
Left Kigali by 4:30 am because we wanted to be early in the park . |
Justice was the name of our guide at the park and he was awesome! |
Very knowledgeable and fun! |
Ask for him! |
He even took pics with our phone through binoculars so it worked like a close up lens! |
We saw baboons, giraffes, zebras, hippos, elephants, Cape buffalo, all kinds of antelope and birds plus so much more- no big 5, it was the big 20! |
From south to north, we spent eight hours driving and looking. |
Bring water and snacks (chapati from Simba lasted nicely) and there are a few bathroom stops in the park (bring your own tissue). |
Left park at 3, dinner on way home, so definitely doable in a day!! |
Akagera National Park was a TREAT after a long week. |
I really enjoyed our tour guide and the entrance process seemed easy enough, Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about the park and was excited to share information about the region and animals in the park. |
We stayed for two nights at Ruzizi Tented lodge and restricted our visit to the middle and Southern areas of the park during our stay. |
He had hired a 4x4 vehicle for our holiday and used this to self-drive around the park. |
It should be said that the dense nature of the woodland in this area of the park means that wildlife viewing is at a premium and you don't get the prolific number of animals that you might see say in Etosha Park in Namibia but when you do see animals it makes it very special. |
During our self-drives we saw Zebra, Buffalo, Elephant, Hippo, Crocodile, various antelopes, Warthog and many varied birdlife. |
Unfortunately we missed Lion, Rhino and Giraffe. |
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