Nyungwe National Park safaris, tours & holiday packages

More on Nyungwe Forest holidays

Nyungwe's extent is most apparent from the main road between Kigali and the Lake Kivu port of Cyangugu, which affords a series of sensational views over forest-swathed slopes that roll towards the southern horizon. And chimps are just one facet of its rich biodiversity, which reflects both the great antiquity of the forest and its impressive altitudinal range, spanning more than 1,000 metres. A full 13 primate species are present, most visibly the bulky white-bearded L'Hoest's monkey and the more acrobatic and graceful Ruwenzori colobus.

Nyungwe is an utterly marvellous site for forest birds. Some 275 species have recorded, including 24 that are endemic to the few remaining forests of the Albertine Rift (the western arm of the Great Rift Valley that runs along the Congolese border with Rwanda and Uganda), among them Ruwenzori turaco, red-collared babbler, red-throated alethe, red-faced woodland-warbler, yellow-eyed black flycatcher, strange weaver and the marsh-associated Grauer's rush-warbler. It is also a great site for the garish great blue turaco, which is often seen crossing the road in heavy-flapping flocks.