Wilderness Bisate Lodge

Volcanoes National Park

Rwanda

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Located in a prime position Wilderness Bisate Lodge looks like giant birds’ nests tucked into the trees, it is well situated to access the parks headquarters, where you start the treks to see the magnificent Mountain Gorilla. Being close to a gorilla in the wild is perhaps one of the most dramatic, thrilling and poignant wildlife experiences possible.

Bisate Lodge has just six extremely comfortable guest villas dotted through the forest. The main areas of the lodge are warm and welcoming complimented by a wine cellar, library, spa, restaurant, and tree nursery. The hospitality is warm and professional. The lodge is located just outside the southern border of the park with magnificent views. The lodge is close to the town of Musanze, and a 20-minute drive from the park headquarters.

Gorilla Trekking
In the morning you will wake early for breakfast & then transfer to the park headquarters for your gorilla trek.

A standard Gorilla trek is a strenuous hike of between 1-4 hours each way (2-3 hours is more usual). You will be tracking through thick forest at heights up to 3,000 metres, traversing steep sided mountains – if the Gorillas are high up it can be arduous and wet.

It is important that you are fit and in good health and properly equipped. This is not a technical climb but it can be a scramble/slide/swing up steep inclines. You follow as the gorillas make their way through the forest, huge trees, clinging vines and undergrowth adds to the challenge of swift streams and slippery red mud underfoot. Basically where the gorillas go you must follow! The guides carry machetes to help clear a path when the undergrowth gets dense. Each visit is by permit and limited to one hour with a professional Gorilla tracker in charge who will coach you in the safety rules and body language required to come close to the Gorilla troops.

Children need to be over the age of 15 in order to trek to see the mountain gorillas.

About This Area

Parc des Volcans, Volcanoes National Park, is the area of the Virunga Mountain chain found in Rwanda. The park encompasses five of the eight volcanoes of the Virungas and covers 62 square miles. The five peaks are Karisimbi, Bisoke, Muhabura, Gahinga and Sabyinyo. The Virunga mountain chain straddles the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Rwanda. The mountains are covered in the most beautiful forests and have some unique fauna and flora, the most famous of which is the Mountain Gorilla. It is here that Dian Fossey eventually settled and set up the Karisoke Research Center in 1967, supported by Lara’s grandfather, Louis Leakey.

The land around the national park in all three countries bordering these mountains holds some of the highest densities of humans per acre globally. The land outside the park is intensively farmed, and over the last century, the future of the mountain gorilla was made increasingly grim due to the ever-increasing pressure on their habitat as farmlands were expanded.

However thanks to the work of the Rwandan government, its supporters, and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund the tide has been turned over the last three decades since Rwanda’s civil war. Mountain gorilla populations have been and are increasing to the point that habitat expansion is now vital to support the growing populations. The Rwandan government has set the ball rolling for expansion of the national park, but is doing this with the utmost of caution to make sure that the livelihoods of the people that live around the park is put first.