#eastern black-headed batis

[birdstudies]

March 8, 2024 - Eastern Black-headed Batis (Batis minor) Found in parts of Somalia, Kenya, and Tanzania, these batises live in forests, savannas, and gardens. Often seen in pairs, they eat insects, capturing prey in flight or while perched. They build small, shallow nests, probably from aloe fibers, lichen, and spiderwebs in saplings where females lay clutches of two eggs. Both parents likely care for the chicks.

[adyeri]

Gorilla Tracking in Virunga National Park

Jagged along the border with Rwanda and Uganda lies one of Africa’s most biodiverse conservation area, it protects the entire Congolese portion of the Virunga Volcanoes, Ruwenzori montane woodland, high altitude forests, open savannah, and lowland rainforest.

Virunga National Park is Africa’s richest protected area in terms of avian diversity, with an astonishing 218mammal species like lions, elephants, okapi, buffalo, hippo, antelopes among others, 22 primates namely mountain gorilla, an eastern lowland gorilla, chimpanzee, black and white colobus among others 706 bird species recorded namely yellow billed barbet, black and white casqued hornbill, double toothed barbet, narrow tailed starling, shape’s starling, Ross’s turaco, black-billed turaco among others.

The Virunga Volcanoes are dissected by the international borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Virunga Volcanoes is made up of three parks; Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, and Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The parks contain six volcanic mountains Karisimbi (4507 m), Mikeno (4437 m), Bisoke (3711 m), Mgahinga (3474 m), Muhabura (4127 m), and Sabinyo (3634 m) and covers an area of 447 km2. The park lies in the Albertine rift region, which is characterized by a high degree of avian and mammalian endemism due to its proximity to a Pleistocene refugium, created during the last ice age. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is situated in southwestern Uganda in Kisoro District. It covers an area of 33.7 km2. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is contiguous with Virunga National Park (240 km2 ) in the DRC, and Volcanoes National Park (160 km2 ) in Rwanda. Virunga National Park is a World Heritage Site and the oldest national park in Africa, the Park was created in 1925. Virunga National Park borders an extensive network of protected areas in neighboring Uganda and Rwanda and together these contiguous protected areas form the Greater Virunga Landscape.

Things to do and see in the Virunga National Park

Virunga National Park is a habitat for 218 mammal species, 706 bird species, 78 amphibian species, and 109 reptile species, and 22 primate species. Virunga is the only park in the whole world that shelters mountain gorillas, eastern lowland gorillas, and eastern chimpanzees.

Virunga National Park is one of the oldest and famous National Park in Africa, arguably the best Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there several activities one can do in just one Park namely gorilla tracking, chimpanzee tracking, hiking, birding, cultural experiences, and forest nature walk.

Gorilla tracking experience

Virunga National Park offers a mountain gorilla tracking encounter comparable in quality and most other respects to that of neighboring Rwanda. There are seven habituated gorilla families active for tourism. Gorilla tracking permits for Virunga National Park cost US$ 400 for foreign non-residents and US$ 150 for Congolese citizens. It is also famous for being home to about 200 critically endangered mountain gorillas

There are eight habituated gorilla families active for trekking in the Virunga National Park namely the Bageni gorilla family consisting of 26 individuals, Mapuwe gorilla family consisting 22 individuals, Kabirizi gorilla family consisting 19 individuals, Humba gorilla family 9 individuals, Lulengo gorilla family 9 individuals, Nyakamwe gorilla family 11 individuals, Rugendo gorilla family 9 individuals and Munyaga gorilla family 9 individuals.

Chimpanzee tracking experience

Chimpanzees are found in savannah woodlands, grasslands – forest mosaics, and tropical moist forests, from sea level to about 3,000 m in elevation. Chimpanzees are sheltered northwest of Rumangabo sector- Tongo, Tongo is a 10km2 block of a medium-altitude forest isolated from other similar habitats by the lava flow, traversed by an 80km network of walking trails. Tongo is home to a troop of 36 chimpanzees first habituated by the Frankfurt zoological society. Chimpanzee tracking in Virunga National Park, Rumangabo headquarters cost US$ 100 per person for foreign non-residents.

Birding

Virunga National Park is a birders’ haven; the Park is a refuge to more than 706 bird species out of which 24 are endemic species to Virunga National Park. Bird species in the Virunga National Park include red-throated alethe, handsome francolin, Kivu ground thrush, dusky crimson-wing, Arche’s ground robin, collared Apalis, red-faced woodland warbler, mountain masked Apalis, Grauer's rush warbler, Ruwenzori nightjar, Shelley's crimson wing, blue-headed sunbird, strange weaver, strip-breasted tit, collared Apalis, Ruwenzori batis, white-backed duck, African black duck, Egyptian goose, little grebe, hamerkop, yellow-billed duck, southern pochard, northern pintail, mountain buzzard, grey kestrel, quail, grey crowned crane, common snipe, curlew, marsh-sandpiper among others.

Nyiragongo Mountain Hike

The Virunga Volcano of Nyiragongo is surrounded to both the North and West by adjacent Nyamuragira Volcano, and other several volcanoes to the East namely, Mikeno, Karisimbi, and Lake Kivu. Mount Nyiragongo shelters, one of the largest active Lava Lake in the whole world. Mount Nyiragongo seats on an elevation of about 3470m, with a wide caldera at its summit about 1.5 km wide.

Nyiragongo is located in the Albertine Rift, on the western branch of the East African Rift Valley system, the Mountain is Africa’s most active volcano, and the fact is that it has erupted 34 times since 1884 and world’s largest lava Lake, about 20 km, North of Goma and approximately 180 km from Kigali International Airport.

[emerygoat26-blog]

Author Nathan Englander Gets His Syrup in New Hampshire - Grub Street

At Mike’s Coffee Shop in Clinton Hill. Photo: Christian Rodriguez

At 30, Nathan Englander was the youngest ever recipient of the PEN award for “excellence in the art of the short story,” and this week he published his fifth book, the comically probing kaddish.com. His writing has been called “genre-hopping” and several variations on “playful,” descriptions that might also apply to his relationship with eating. Like many food lovers, Englander can appreciate a great restaurant as much as he can a well-written recipe — but he also isn’t above eating his daughter’s leftovers. “My wife can’t believe it,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah, I am definitely more than happy to find myself eating the kid food.’” Over the past week, he also had time to eat stoop pizza, consider the qualities that make a neighborhood diner great, and think, wistfully, about bagels. Read all about it in this week’s Grub Street Diet.

Thursday, March 21 I wish this had started Wednesday night. My wife and I actually got a babysitter, and went to a grown-up restaurant with another couple. One half of that couple was our friend JJ, who writes cookbooks, and when you go to restaurants with him, things you didn’t order just appear — “lamb chops, compliments of the food mafia!” — and I think that would have been a fun meal to share. But my Grub Street Diet started this morning! And I was doing drop-off, and was late getting our 4-year-old daughter to preschool — as I am every day.

While I packed her lunch, I ate a piece of wheat toast and drank a gallon of Kitten Coffee’s Tandem blend. I don’t like that super-black, melt-your-tongue coffee. I drink way too much coffee for that, and Kitten’s is just the perfect live-on-it-all-day roast. Also, I was once leaving the coffee shop on our corner, and the Kitten guy was delivering, and I screamed, “Hey, I love your coffee.” And he said, “Try this, I think you’ll like it,” and he threw me a pound of something new they were making, and I swooned with neighborhood good cheer.

So, my book was coming out on Tuesday and I was in prelaunch madness. I was stuck in the house, doing assignments, like 500 words on fingernails for Fingernail Digest, and I had a half-hour phone interview that somehow ran to an hour and a half and I was going to miss eating lunch. But JJ checked in, as he does about a million times a day. He was over on Henry Street, and he texted me a picture of the sandwiches chalked up on the board at Lillo, and offered to deliver. And, as with the Kitten coffee, it’s that kind of neighborly niceness that just kills me. He brought me the Mediterraneo, as ordered. It’s Italian tuna, arugula, sweet marinated onions, and tomato. It was delicious. (He also brought a couple of desserts, which I put aside.) And we both worked on our laptops at the table for a while.

Also, while I was waiting for JJ to show up, I ate the cold tortellini from Olivia’s dinner the night before. I’m all about the cold kid noodles from yesterday’s dinners. I enjoy that stuff. It’s not just that I’m eating it, I actually love it. I am definitely more than happy to find myself eating the properly aged fish sticks, and the apples with bites missing. I think that’s a big parent thing, to be like, “Now I’m going to have a second meal that I found on the counter.”

A friend I hadn’t seen in years was in town visiting, and she was coming by for dinner. So, at the end of the workday, I ran over to Mekelburg’s for a loaf of She Wolf sourdough (which we’re crazy for). I also got Firehook sea salt crackers, and some cheddar and manchego and our favorite cheese, Délice de Bourgogne, which is about one inch away from just eating butter with a spoon. I got olives and radishes, and I also got all the fixings for my red lentil soup. I served it over brown rice, and finished it off with wilted spinach and some Greek yogurt, as the recipe recommends. My wife, Rachel, made a butter lettuce, endive, and grapefruit salad.

Also, it was Purim, and Rach got some hamantaschen that we served along with the desserts that JJ had brought. One was a kind of Italian version of a Boston cream doughnut, and there was a blueberry tart with a lattice top.

Friday, March 22 I made Olivia French toast, which was not at all a weekday thing, but she asked for it, and getting to school on time, as I’ve said, is not my strong suit. I had Greek yogurt, banana, and honey. And coffee. And Rach had a version of the same.

It was Friday, which was a gym day. So we do speed things up as best we can. We’ve been working out at CrossFit South Brooklyn for years, even though it’s over in Gowanus. But we love it, and it feels like family now. And we’re pretty religious about our Monday-Wednesday-Friday class, which is a kind of body-weight-centric thing that we love.

When I need to do busywork before writing, I often head to Three’s Brewing, one street over from the gym. It’s not for a post-workout beer. The brewery is closed during the day, but they have a cozy little outpost of Ninth Street Espresso inside that uses the space during the daytime. I headed over and got a coffee and, to ruin any gym-related gains, a cheddar and chive scone (which is just to say, I should have had the French toast).

Let’s sing the praises of leftovers. I cook so much more lately,, and the more complicated or ridiculous, the better. That, is I like to make the things where people say, “Ummm, you know, they sell that at the grocery store. You can buy that a lot more easily than you can make that.” I was recently cooking Middle Eastern food and I was like, “Well, I should also make the pita,” and there were a million steps, and I was really proud, but, man, that dinner would have been a lot easier if I’d just run to Damascus Bakery, or, you know, any supermarket in the whole city. I think it ties in to the writer brain. If I need to fix something I’m writing, I will stay up all night, and I will do it again and again until it’s where it needs to be.

Anyway, there was the leftover lentil soup and the cheese and that giant loaf from She Wolf waiting. And I had plans to meet my publicist, Jordan. We were both swamped, and so she swung by, and we set up shop at our dining room table (by which I mean, our only table), and we had a super nice lunch, but with screens out, typing away.

Rach and I are nutty for Ethiopian food. It’s a favorite. And, luckily, there’s a fantastic restaurant over on Fulton, across from Greenlight Bookstore, my local. It’s a big corner for me: books and Ethiopian food. The restaurant is called Bati. And the owner, Hibist, is an old friend. Back when I started writing and lived on the Upper West Side, I used to go do my work at the Hungarian Pastry Shop. I mean, I sat there all day, every day, and often closed the place down. And Hibist used to work behind the counter. And I love when a person’s dreams come true. That is, I remember Hibist pouring coffees in the ’90s and now she owns her own restaurant — and it’s the best. Also, they’re really nice to our daughter, who has gone from eating everything to a very beige-focused food phase (possibly inherited from my suburban, white-bread roots).

Anyway, we packed her a little dinner of her own as an emergency backup, which they were really nice about. And as for ordering at Bati, Rach and I haven’t touched a menu there in years. We always, always get a vegetarian combo for two — which had a bunch of things on it, gomen, and buticha, and key sir, and — what really matters to us — always lots of shiro. And, at Bati, I don’t even need JJ for special treatment. They always keep an eye on us and make sure there’s shiro on the tray.

Also, they were out of St. George beer that night, so I had a Walia, which was equally great.

Saturday, March 23 If I’m being honest here, this was a record amount of time for me not to have eaten a bagel. This diary should have already had five dozen or so in it. Anyway, I ate the She Wolf Sourdough toast, day 400 on that bread. If you amortize the initial investment, I was pretty much making money on that loaf.

After dance class (my daughter’s, not mine), we headed over to Tacombi with friends. It’s a great Mexican place with locations in Manhattan, but now we’ve got one across from BAM. I spotted one grown-up couple having beers in the main room when we got there, but otherwise there were lots of kids, and lots in tutus — it seemed to be the new post-dance hangout. We had a big order of kid-friendly plain versions of things, which the staff was really nice about (that is, quesadilla with nothing, rice and beans with nothing). As for this grown-up, I had the seared fish tacos and their Naranja, which is a papaya, carrot, pineapple, and orange juice.

So, it was the Montclair Literary Festival — go NJ! My event was near the end of the day, and, after it was over, I went straight into Joyce Carol Oates’s. Then there was a cocktail party for the festival, and I ate I don’t know what, some hummus and pita, and had a glass of white wine. And Joyce had invited me to dinner with friends, and we headed to a place called Scala del Nonna. The joint was jumping, it was packed out and loud and Saturday night-ish, and one table kept knocking over the wine bucket.

As for wine, apparently Montclair has some ancient liquor law thing, and the restaurant was dry. So my friend Julie ran out to the store next-door and bought a bottle of Gavi, and Joyce’s friend ordered porcini risotto with peas for the table. I got the branzino alla griglia, which was marinated sea bass lightly grilled with scarola Siciliana. And, well, if you replaced all the fish I ate this week with candy and bagels, once again, it would better represent my normal diet.

Sunday, March 24 The day was packed with playdates, which was lovely. My daughter and I headed over to a friend’s who has twins and lives right next to the bagel store — my chance to make a move. But when we got into their house, Melissa had already made a mountain of whole-grain silver dollar pancakes, and a fruit plate with strawberries, watermelon, and pear. And, as always, she put a cup of coffee right into my hand.

We all headed to the park. As the twins headed off, another friend of my daughter’s showed up with her dad. After another couple of hours of wildness, we took the girls for a slice of Luigi’s Pizza and sat on the stoop outside. My slice turns into two, and they keep their seltzers properly freezing in their fridge. Slices on a stoop make me extraordinarily happy in a New York way: I was being nostalgic while it was happening, like, “This is the life.”

For our third and final playdate of the day, we had another of our daughter’s friends over to the house, with her folks. I’d been wanting to make chili, and offered to do so, but — if I’m allowed to break the fourth wall — Oriana, the visiting mom, is a huge fan of this column. She said chili is boring. So we ordered in Vietnamese from Mekong Delta. The restaurant is in one of those neighborhood locations that never works out and keeps changing hands. But Mekong Delta seems to be doing great. We all shared a papaya salad, and I got chicken pho and shrimp summer rolls.

Monday, March 25 It felt like maybe it was one of the last cold mornings before spring kicked in, and even with the pancakes yesterday, I always need to make sure I’m getting enough maple syrup in my diet. Point is, I made oatmeal, and ate it with bananas and blueberries and maple syrup that we buy by the jug when we’re up at our friend’s farm in Sandwich, New Hampshire. So, yes, for the best maple syrup in the world, I’d head straight for the sugar shack at Booty Farm on Mt. Israel Road.

I really want to state again that my body mass is probably about 80 percent bagel. If you cut me in half, I imagine mostly sesame seeds would pour out — as that’s my bagel of choice. So I really can’t believe I haven’t had one since this diet started — it’s the longest stretch since we got back from a year in Malawi (where I broke down and made bagels from scratch).

It was the day before launch. I owed everybody a million things, and was sure I’d be working until the middle of the night. At 2 p.m., I ran over to Mike’s Coffee Shop to grab something. Mike’s has been our home diner since we moved to Brooklyn from Manhattan around a decade ago. And we love it. It’s super homey, and they’re super nice, and it has a proper diner-y, pressed-tin ceiling, and a proper neon sign in the window. You always bump into friends there, and the kids are often given lollipops when you pay, whether they need a lollipop or not. Also, the owners are really good about calmly managing the weekend waiting list when it’s chaos and the throngs of folks are roaming outside waiting on tables.

I sat in the last booth and I ordered a coffee and a tuna sandwich on wheat toast, with lettuce, tomato, and onion. And a pickle spear! If there’s a picture of me up above with a sandwich in front of me, that’s the one. If there’s a picture of me without it, it’s because it’s already in my belly.

The last supper. So, a friend was having a dinner party, and I did not go to that dinner party — though, again, I’d be killing it with the food over there. But, the next day was the launch event at Greenlight Bookstore, and I’d start traveling the morning after that, and except for a night here and there, well, I’ll be hawking books on the road like a brush salesman for the next few weeks. This was basically the last night I got to be home with my wife and daughter and Calli the dog until tour slows down. Also, I usually come home from tour looking like I’ve eaten a bag of salt. That is, I’m so thankful to get to do readings and meet readers and shepherd the novel out into the world, but I will be eating a lot from after-hours menus, and CIBO Express airport food, and the day was gray and cold and some comfort food at home sounded nice.

So Rachel started kid dinner, and my daughter and I ran out to the supermarket around the block. We love going to the supermarket, me and her. We were getting ingredients for my friend Kitty’s chili recipe. When my wife was in grad school (she’s a professor), we lived in Madison, Wisconsin for three years, and our friend Kitty gave us a little book of her very Wisconsin-style dishes, which are great for this kind of weather. At the store, we also got the stuff for a green salad, because it sounded nice and I also wanted to keep my heart from exploding on the road.

At home, while my daughter ate, I got the chili into a giant pot and let it simmer until — as happens in our building — the whole floor smelled like cayenne peppers and onion. For the salad, I just used lemon and olive oil and salt, which is my single favorite dressing. And after our daughter fell asleep, Rach emerged and served up the chili. I chopped up some cilantro and chives for toppings, and we sat down at the table and dug in, with the dog underneath the table at our feet, which is my kind of dinner.

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Source: http://www.grubstreet.com/2019/03/nathan-englander-grub-street-diet.html

[newssplashy]

Opinion: After long road to Turkey, brief flight home feels cruel

KABUL, Afghanistan — Their desperate journey out of Afghanistan, en route to safer lives in Europe, had taken months through high mountains and treacherous deserts.

They survived bullets, beatings and insults from border guards.

Bandits stripped them of nearly everything except their shoes and clothes — which over the months of the journey they would wash in whatever puddle or pool was available, laying the clothes out in the sun to dry and then wear again.

But their migration halted suddenly in Turkey, and now they were being deported to a home country racked by war. I flew with them on the return flight to Kabul from Istanbul that finally ended their hopes. It took just five hours last month.

From the oval windows of the packed airplane, many of the at least 60 young men (all flying for the first time) looked down with amazement at the vast darkness beneath them. They smiled at the cruel reality of it all, as they tried to explain to me what they were feeling.

“It took us so long to get there, and now the trip is so short,” said Mohammed Dawood, 19.

Dawood is from Bati Kot district, a spot in eastern Afghanistan that is under siege by the Taliban and vulnerable to Islamic State loyalists. He left for Europe when three of his friends were killed in a blast targeting a cricket match.

“They were all just like you and me — one was about to get married,” he told me. “I said ‘enough.'”

Since January, Turkey has deported more than 17,000 Afghans, according to Afghan officials, most of whom were trying to make it to Europe. Nearly 1,200 others have been returned from other European and Asian countries, either voluntarily or by force.

Turkey is a central stop on the most important refugee route frequented by Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and others, many of whom then board boats to try to make it to Europe by sea.

But in 2016, as Europe struggled with a large number of refugees, it struck a deal in which Turkey would stem the flow in return for about $6 billion in aid.

From the peak of about 850,000 people arriving in Europe via Turkey by sea in 2015, the numbers have dropped to 173,000 last year, according to U.N. figures. So far this year, about 29,000 people have arrived by sea.

While entry into Europe has become difficult, thousands of Afghans continue to arrive in Turkey through Iran. But the Turkish government has been quickly turning new arrivals right back around.

“The Turkish police would tell us, ‘We are sending you home — your leader has agreed, because the population there is decreasing,'” said Fazul Rahman, 21.

For the young Afghans, none of it made sense — not the deal with Europe, not the possible agreement of their own government opening the way for their deportation. How could they be denied a simple right to a better life?

They see it more simply: They tried, they were caught, they will try again.

Still, for the moment, they were buckled into their seats, headed to homes in Afghan places that appear frequently in the news for attacks.

Some on the plane tried to figure out the entertainment system on their screens (one found his way to an Indian movie, another to a Quran recitation). Others were thankful for the first warm meal in weeks: grilled meatballs with rice and vegetables. Shoes came off aching feet.

A flight attendant walked the aisles every hour or so, spraying air freshener. When some of the men couldn’t figure out how to open the lavatory doors, she stepped in to help them push in the folding door.

“We have been through such hunger. We didn’t taste cooked food for a long time,” said Abdul Mohammed, 19, gaptoothed and skinny in a black T-shirt. “For 15 days, we were detained at a place where they only gave us a slice of bread, a candy bar and some water.”

Mohammed, from Maidan Wardak province, worked for nearly three years as a transport shepherd of sorts. He would be given dozens of sheep and his task was to walk for days, resting in bleak deserts and mountain ridges at night, to bring the sheep to traders on the other side of the border in Pakistan.

He said the hardship of his countless journeys as a shepherd, with only a cane and a dog for protection, were nothing compared with what he saw on the way to Turkey. Border guards spit at the group of migrants he came with, and held a gun to their heads. For days, as they walked, they took turns carrying a friend whose feet had blistered. His cousin, Akbar Khan, was taken from them by the police in Iran and he has had no word of him.

As the plane gained altitude, many of them clung to their seats, their discomfort visible.

“This was nothing,” Mohammed said, putting up a brave face. “You don’t know what I have seen.”

After the plane had landed, Ezzatullah Tanha, 21, would board a bus to Dand e Ghori, in the northern province of Baghlan. Afghan commandos have fought difficult battles there against the Taliban.

Tanha comes from a farming family. He and his three brothers grew onions and melons. Their father was killed by a roadside mine in the 1990s, when he was just 3.

When the fighting became intense in recent years, disrupting any hopes of farming a decent harvest, Tanha paid a smuggler $1,500 and set off for Iran.

“There would be as many as 33 people in the back of a Datsun,” he said, referring to the trucks that would drive them through the deserts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. “The smugglers would load all of us and have us all stand next to each other, and then say ‘sit.’ Half of us couldn’t sit — there was no space.”

Tanha said Iranian border guards repeatedly fired at them. He saw at least two dead bodies on the way, just lying in the desert. At one point, the truck they were stuffed into flipped.

“There was one person whose back broke: They just dropped him at a bathroom on the way so the police doesn’t see him,” he said. “We all left.”

He added, “What I saw — it disgusted me from life.”

When the plane landed about 7 a.m. Kabul time, the young men had no part in the jostling to get out. They remained seated as flight attendants urged other passengers already opening the overhead bins to wait.

After almost everyone else had exited, and following a considerable delay (as if they waited for a miracle — that the plane might take off, with them on board) they emerged one by one. Most of them carried nothing but an empty plastic bag with their name and case number written on it, given to them by a refugee agency.

Some limped from their blisters. Others walked in their sandals, their shoes long fallen apart, to a special queue where they would be processed. One young man, scrawny in tight jeans, looked lost. He dragged his feet, the disappointment of a shattered dream, a simple wish of a better life, clearly written on his face.

Days later, I spoke to Tanha, who had reached home in Baghlan province. He was happy to see his family, but it was difficult to explain to them why he hadn’t made it.

He said he was waiting for Ramadan to finish before he made another attempt.

“I will try again,” he said. “There is nothing here.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

MUJIB MASHAL © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/opinion-after-long-road-to-turkey-brief.html

[adyeri]

Top Attractions in Rwanda

Rwanda is located in the heart of Africa; Rwanda is one of the most popular tourist destinations in East Africa, lively towns, scenic wilderness, and remarkably hospitable people. A unique and largely undiscovered venue, Rwanda also offers incredible biodiversity, beautiful mountains, some of the oldest and most valuable rainforests on the planet, 5 volcanoes, 23 lakes, several waterfalls, and 3 stunning national parks namely Volcanoes National Park, Nyungwe National Park, and Akagera National Park.

Volcanoes National Park

Mountain gorilla tracking is a unique wildlife experience in the Virunga; these vast animals weigh three times the weight as well as the average man. Gorillas are visited on a daily basis than any other wild animal, and they are fascinating animals to the extent that some try to interact with their visitors, often approaching them and sometimes touch visitors as they pass by.

Visitors can spend a maximum of 1 hour with a designated Gorilla family, the increase in the price of Gorilla trekking permits in Rwanda was meant to reduce the number of people who trek mountain gorilla in Rwanda, hence promoting gorilla tourism in Rwanda indirectly.

The advantage of tracking Giant Apes in Rwanda – the vegetation of Volcanoes National Park is comprised of Bamboo trees which make visibility and photography mountain gorilla better.

Chimpanzee trekking and Canopy walkway

Nyungwe National Park hosts a wide diversity of amazing animal species, making it one of the prime conservation areas in Africa. The largest remaining tract of montane rainforest in East Africa, Nyungwe extends for 1,015 kilometers squared over the mountainous southwest of Rwanda, forming a contiguous forest block with Burundi’s 370km2 Kibira National Park. The park is the most important catchment area in Rwanda supplying water to 70% of the country, and its central ridge divides Africa’s two largest drainage systems, the Nile and the Congo, a spring on the slopes of the 2,950m Mount Bigugu is now regarded to be the most remote source of the world’s longest river.

Nyungwe Forest National Park is the only park in Rwanda where you can trek habituated Chimpanzees, approximately 500 chimpanzees are residents at the Park. Rwanda is also known as the land of a thousand hills, one of the most diverse destinations in Africa, offering untouched wilderness, incredibly friendly people.

The canopy walk is also the first treetop forest canopy walk in East Africa and the third in all Africa. Visitors to Nyungwe National Park can experience the rainforest from a new perspective: the Canopy Walkway. Hanging 60 meters above the forest floor between giant trees and towers, East Africa's only Canopy Walkway provides a stunning view of the park's amazing wildlife and nature. This walk is also an activity not to be missed in Rwanda.

Kigali Genocide Memorial

The burial site of over 250,000 people killed in 100 days in 1994 genocide, more than 800,000 people died in Rwanda. Visitors can this place and more information about this devastating massacre at the Kigali Genocide Memorial. The memorial center is not just a mass grave and exhibition center but it is also an important contribution to the recent history of Rwanda and the entire world that no one can afford to forget.

Wildlife Experience

In Rwanda, Akagera National Park is the only park where you can encounter wild animals in their natural habitat. Today Akagera is emphatically worth visiting, for one thing, it ranks among the most scenic of Africa’s savannah park, with its forest-fringed lakes, tall mountains and constantly changing vegetation. Akagera also still retains a genuinely off the beaten track character, the only park in Africa where you can drive for hours without seeing another vehicle. As for the coveted Big five, buffalo are plentiful and easily seen, elephants are quite common, leopards are also common at Akagera National Park

Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu is the sixth largest lake in Africa and the sixteenth deepest lake in the whole world, an East African great lake located at the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo for 90km, the 2700km2 Lake Kivu is one of a string that submerges much of the Albertine Rift floor as it runs southwards from Sudan to Zambia with a drainage basin of 4900km2. It is divided into one main basin, two small basins and two bays – Main Basin, Isungu Basin, Kalehe Basin, Bukavu bay, Kabuno bay.

Birding in Rwanda

Nyungwe National Park and Akagera National Park are the most important birding sites, Nyungwe is arguably the best bird watching site in Rwanda, 310 bird species recorded of which the majority are forest specialists. This includes 27 Albertine Rift Endemic and 3 bird species not recorded elsewhere on the Eastern side of the Albertine Rift namely the red-collared babbler, Rockefeller’s sunbird, and owlet.

Depending on your level of expertise, you could see more than 200 bird species 2 to 3 days in the forest and these birds include Ruwenzori turaco, yellow-eyed black flycatcher, red collared mountain babbler, Ruwenzori nightjar, handsome francolin, red-faced woodland warbler, collared Apalis, purple breasted sunbird, strange weaver, Kivu ground thrush, dwarf honeyguide, Rockefeller’s sunbird, blue-headed sunbird, paradise flycatcher, great blue turaco, red-breasted sparrow hawk, white-headed wood-hoopoe, mountain masked Apalis, regal sunbird,  Ruwenzori batis, stripe breasted tit, village indigo bird, cinnamon-breasted bee-eater, black and white manikins, black-crowned waxbills, African harrier hawk, martial eagle, European honey buzzard among others.

Akagera National Park is Rwanda’s second most important birding site after Nyungwe National Park, both parks complement to each other to such an extent that very few species recorded in Rwanda aren’t found in one or the other. Akagera National Park is rich in savannah and water birds of  East Africa namely black-headed gonolek, red-faced barbet, white headed-chat, Ross’s turaco, conical grey hornbill, papyrus genolek, and the Majestic Shoebill stork. For more information about Safaris in Rwanda kindly contact Adyeri Creations Limited so we can tailor your remarkable wildlife and primates experience in Rwanda.