2 days Dian Fossey hike tour adventure starts and ends in Kigali Rwanda. The safari will take you to volcanoes national park where you will be able to visit Dian Fossey gave and also twin lakes. Dian Fossey was an American primatologist who dedicated the whole of her life to research and conservation of mountain gorillas with her favorite called Digit. Dian Fossey lived in Virunga national park of DR Congo before coming to volcanoes national park Rwanda. During the safari, you will hike to Karisoke research center where you will find Dian Fossey grave near the gorilla cemetery.

2 Days Dian Fossey Hike Safari Tour highlights

Day 1: Arrival and transfer to volcanoes national park Rwanda

Day 2: Dian Fossey hike and transfer back to Kigali

Detailed itinerary 

Day 1: Arrival and transfer to volcanoes national park Rwanda

Our driver-guide will pick you from Kigali airport or your hotel if you are already in Kigali city. He will then brief you about your 2 days Dain Fossey hike tour. You will start your safari with a Kigali city tour. During the Kigali city tour, you will be able to take a visit to Kimironko market, Kigali genocide memorial center, and craft centers where you can buy gifts among others. After the city tour, you will go for lunch in one of the restaurants and after start on your journey to the volcanoes national park located in the northwestern part of the country. The journey to volcanoes national park takes you 2 – 3 hours with beautiful views of rolling hills, terraced farmlands, traditional homesteads, and local people among others. Upon reaching Musanze, you will continue to your booked lodge and check-in after which head out to twin lakes of Ruhondo and Burera where you will have spectacular views of Virunga mountains, hills, fishermen fishing, local people transport their goods, and different bird species. After a visit to the twin lakes, you will drive back to your lodge for relaxation, dinner, and an overnight stay.

Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Accommodation: Luxury ­- Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel, Mid-range – Le Bambou Gorilla lodge, Budget – Garden palace Hotel

Day 2: Dian Fossey hike and departure to Kigali

On your last day of the tour after morning breakfast, you hike to Dian Fossey grave. Carry your packed lunch and meet our driver to transfer you to the park headquarters for a simple briefing about the hike. After the briefing, you will be driven to the starting point of the hike. You will hike to Karisoke research center which is located between mountain Karisimbi and Bisoke / Visoke. During hiking, you will pass through different vegetation zones where you will have a chance to see park animals such as elephants, forest hogs, duikers, monkeys, and different bird species. Upon arrival at the Karisoke research center, you will be able to see the grave of Dian Fossey who was killed by unknown people on the 26th of December 1985. Dian Fossey was buried near Digit her favorite gorilla. After the visit, you will have a picnic lunch and start descending to the starting point where you will find your driver guide ready to transport you back to your booked lodge. After relaxing at your lodge, you will start on your journey back to Kigali at either your hotel or Kigali international airport for your flight back home.

Meal plan: Breakfast and Lunch

2 Days Dian Fossey Hike Tour Rwanda includes

Kigali city tour

Dian Fossey hike permit

Twin lakes tour

Accommodation and Meals

Service of an English-speaking guide

Drinking water

2 Days Dian Fossey Hike Tour Rwanda excludes 

Air flight tickets

Visa

Optional activities not included in the itinerary

Life insurance

Personal expenses

Things to Know About Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey was an American Gorilla-loving Primatologist born in January 1932 in California San Francisco. Diane Fossey was raised by the mother and the stepfather after their parents divorced. Diane Fossey saw her light of love with animals earlier when at the age of 6 as young she had started picking interest in horseback riding lessons and she got a letter inviting her on the riding team. By the time she graduated in 1954, Diane Fossey was already a well-established equestrienne.

It is believed that Fossey had no enough money to visit African jungles when she was invited by Henry but she had to use her personal life-saving in addition to a bank loan of united states dollars 8,000 to take a seven-week trip to Africa. She first arrived in Kenya in 1963 where she found the owner of treetops hotel Mr. William who introduced her safaris guide and he became her travel guide for the seven weeks in Kenya, D.R.Congo, Tanzania, and Rhodesia. This itinerary led Dian and her guide to Tsavo National Park the biggest National Park, to Lakes Manyara and flamingo as well as to Ngorongoro because there are a lot of amazing wild species.

Dian Fossey further visited the Olduvai Gorge the famous archeological sites of the world and hiked mount Mikeno in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Mount Mikeko in Congo, still, the American zoologists who studied for along the championed the study of mountain gorillas in 1959.  By 1973 the population of these great apes in the Virunga Mountains had fallen below 275, but today possibly because of her extreme conservation measures, constant monitoring, intensive antipoaching efforts, and rapid veterinary interventions, the population of mountain gorillas have increased to over 600 in Virunga Conservation Area

Dian Fossey was instrumental in increasing the population of mountain gorillas via her strategies and efforts of gorilla conservation by establishing a gorilla Research Center called Karisoke Research Center. Dain Fossey’s first encounter with endangered mountain gorillas was when she stayed at the traveler’s hotel in Uganda which is near the Virunga Mountains and which harbors the mountain gorillas.  This hotel owner was Mr. Walter Baumgartel who was a gorilla conservationist and he was one of the first beneficiaries of gorilla tourism in Uganda.

Diane Fossey was advised to meet the Kenyans Joan and Alan Root, who were taking pictures and filming mountain gorillas for a documentary.  These two Kenyans introduced Dian Fossey to the forests to search for the endangered mountain gorillas and when they saw them, Dian was so excited and to a lot of photos of the gorillas and decided to come back and have a study on these amiable creatures as she narrated in the Gorillas in the Mist.

Dian Fossey gained gorillas trust by adapting to the gorilla habitat by chewing celery stalks and walking on projections, Dian Fossey took her time habituating gorillas and the locals even gave her a nickname Nyiramachebeli to mean the woman who lives alone in the mountain”

Dian Fossey started to name gorillas most times using the differences of their noses and characters, by the year 1983 Dian published the book gorillas in the Mist. After five years Dian Sigourney Weaver starred as Dian Fossey in a film of the same name.

For years, gorillas were seen as wild creatures but Dian revealed the softer side of these great apes. Dian Fossey named some of the mountain gorillas after her auntie Flossie and her Uncle Bert, Dian nursed two orphaned gorillas who were injured by poachers planning to sell them to a German zoo.

When the enemies became serious and rampant, Dian went back to the United States creating awareness and teaching about mountain gorillas, Dian Fossey and she obtained enough money through her campaign and found when Rwanda Government had also started conserving and protecting gorillas.

Disaster fell on the eve of the 27th of December 1985 when Dian Fossey was cruelly killed, she was found dead in her cottage at her camp in Rwanda, and up today, nobody knows who hit Fossey with a machete on the head through the Rwandan court convicted her research assistant Wayne McGuire to death as he fled Rwanda before the conviction.

Dian Fossey was buried near her loved gorilla called Digit which was killed by poachers a while. And all these made her famous in Africa and tourists for gorilla trekking in volcanoes usually go and have a glance at her tomb