Volcanoes National Park
Volcanoes national park (French: Parc National des Volcans) lies in northwestern Rwanda and borders Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park in Uganda. The national park is known as a haven for the mountain gorilla. It is home to five of the eight volcanoes of the Virunga Mountains (Karisimbi, Bisoke, Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabyinyo), which are covered in rainforest and bamboo. The park was the base for the zoologist Dian Fossey.
The park was first gazetted in 1925, as a small area bounded by Karisimbi, Visoke and Mikeno, intended to protect the gorillas from poachers. It was the very first National Park to be created in Africa. Subsequently, in 1929, the borders of the park were extended further into Rwanda and into the Belgian Congo, to form the Albert National Park, a huge area of 8090 km², run by the Belgian colonial authorities who were in charge of both colonies. In 1958, 700 hectares of the park were cleared for a human settlement.
Other attractions in Rwanda include the following: Lake Kivu which boarders Rwanda and DRC with a beach, the city itself known as a city of a thousand hills that is Kigali city which is attractive with genocide memorials, markets, crafts shops, cultural centres like Francophone and a Museum without forgetting visiting the Dian Fossey Tombs who had come to make research on Gorillas and eventually killed after establishing Karusoke research centre.
Activities:
- Gorilla tracking, Golden monkey, Dian Fossey Tombs, Karisimbi or Visoke a day climbing/hiking
