A night near Arusha is certainly no bad way to start your safari holiday. The smell and sounds of Africa ignite your senses and raise anticipation for the journey ahead. The early morning bird calls are different to home, enjoy a coffee whilst hornbills bicker in the trees across the lawn.
Soon it is a short hop into one of the Serengeti's airstrips and a safari drive into camp. Your choice of camp may be dependent on budget or on the season when you travel as you may want to catch up with the great migration of wildebeest and zebra that circles annually between southern Serengeti and its northern neighbour the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The Serengeti covers a huge area and conserves a tremendous diversity and density of wildlife. Predator - prey interactions are well documented out on the plains and you can look forward to some memorable wildlife encounters.
After three full days getting to know the Serengeti there is the convenience of a flight to Kigali where your driver guide will meet you for the journey through the hills to Kinigi, staging post for your gorilla trek.
An early start at the headquarters of Volcanoes National Park for a briefing about your gorilla trek before trekking commences. There is no rush and in places the route may be steep and long, depending on which family of gorillas you will visit. However, assistance is provided and there is plenty of time to reach your goal: a wonderful hour spent in the presence of a troop of gorillas as they go about their daily lives. With luck you will see huge silverbacks posturing or playing with young, mothers nursing and juveniles acting up.
The afternoon is at leisure but we can book a birdwatching walk in a forest or a gentle canoe down a river. Among the friendly Rwandans time passes quickly and the next morning the trekking is shorter as you go out in search of golden monkeys that tend to live in the bamboo zone and on the edge of farmland that is at a lower altitude that the habitat of the mountain gorillas.
Returning to Kigali there is probably time to visit the poignant memorial to the civil war at the Genocide Museum or to see some more of the city before departing for home.
