rwanda: gorillas and the shores of lake kivu

The gorillas are about as dependable as a wild animal gets; the chimpanzees are not, and the two should not be booked with the same expectations.

No official success rate is published for Volcanoes National Park, but we put it at better than 95 per cent, because trackers set off in the dark to find where each habituated family slept, so the rangers usually know where to walk before you leave the briefing.

Nyungwe's chimpanzees are another matter. The three tracked communities are only semi-habituated, they range over steep, densely forested ground, and in Rwanda we find them harder to track than chimpanzees in Uganda or Tanzania. No dependable percentage exists, so we quote none.

Three nights at Nyungwe House help: if the first morning draws a blank there is room to try again, permits allowing. Nobody can promise either animal.

Plenty, though the two animals people ask about are the two that need luck.

Buffalo, zebra, topi, impala and giraffe are everyday sightings, elephants tend to keep near the lakes, and hippo and crocodile are the staple of the boat trips on Lake Ihema, beside Ruzizi Tented Lodge.

Lion and rhino were reintroduced from 2015 onwards, and this is where they live: lions roam the northern plains, black rhino keep largely to thickets in the south, and white rhino, the easier of the two to find, graze plains at both ends.

Ruzizi is in the south, and we advise allowing at least five to six hours to drive the park's full length. With two nights you have one full day, so it is a choice: a long day north for a chance of lion, or shorter drives, the boat and a night drive nearer the lodge.

Tell us which matters more.

Yes, if you take them as a rest with options and not as another park.

Kibuye, the resort town of Karongi district, lies about half way along the lake, which is why the stop is here: it cuts the long road from Nyungwe to the volcanoes in two, and it falls between the early starts of the chimpanzee days and the gorilla trek.

The best-known outing is a boat to Napoleon's Island, known for its colony of fruit bats and its walking trails, and boats also run to Amahoro Island, where there is a restaurant. Walkers and cyclists can sample the Congo Nile Trail, a 227 kilometre route along the shore that is tackled one section at a time.

Beyond that, the point of Lake Kivu is to do very little for a day. If two nights sounds like one too many, this is the easiest stop on the route to shorten.

The dry middle of the year suits every part of this route: June, July and August are recommended on our best time pages for all five places you stay. It thins the bush in Akagera and draws game to the lakes, firms the forest trails and settles Lake Kivu.

January and February form a second, briefer dry window, and we recommend both for Akagera, Lake Kivu and the volcanoes. September keeps its recommended rating on the savannah and the volcanoes, while showers return to Nyungwe and the lake.

Gorilla tracking runs in every month, so rain costs you comfort on the climb and nothing more. We class May, October and December as transitional: some rain and soft paths, and in return gorilla permits are easier to find, lodges sometimes lower their rates, and Akagera turns green with fine birding.

We would not plan this route for April or November, when every stop is at its wettest, and March rates equally low on the volcanoes.

Most legs are half days, and one is a long day.

The first leg, from the capital out to Akagera, is two to three hours. The stretch to watch is Akagera to Nyungwe: the usual road runs back through the capital, and with five to six hours from Kigali to the forest it adds up to most of a day in the vehicle.

That is the leg where flying earns its place. Scheduled flights link Kigali with Kamembe, roughly an hour by road from Nyungwe House, and helicopters can be chartered to any of the parks, typically an Agusta with room for five or six.

After that the route is kinder: Nyungwe to Lake Kivu, and the lake to the volcanoes, each take something like three to four hours of slow, twisting road, and the last drive to Kigali takes two and a half to three. For a gentler version by road, we can add a night in Kigali between the two.

Pack for the forests first, because they are the demanding part.

The gorilla trek climbs to somewhere between 2,500 and 4,000 metres and Nyungwe's trails lie between 1,600 and 2,950 metres, and rain falls on the volcanoes all year.

For the treks, we suggest this kit:

• Long trousers and long sleeves against stinging nettles
• Solid walking boots
• Gaiters
• A light waterproof jacket
• Gardening or leather gloves

Carry water and a small snack in a daypack. At the gorilla trailhead you can take a porter, who carries the pack and gives you a steadying arm where it gets steep; we suggest you do.

Akagera and Lake Kivu need nothing special beyond ordinary safari clothes, a hat and something warm for the night drive.