sevendown

I will have two days of Gorilla treks in Rwanda in early January. The next day, we fly from Kigali to Nairobi to catch our flight back to the US and home.

So Day 1 will be trekking, Day 2 trekking and Day 3 we fly to Nairobi to make a very late night flight (11:15 p.m.) to Paris.

We are considering what time to fly to Nairobi on Day 3, as we will have the whole day free and might want to do some things there before our flight. (Especially a private tour of the Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage if we adopt elephants before we go.) The flight time options from Kigali to Nairobi that day are 9:05 a.m.-11:30 a.m. or 2:00 p.m.-4:20 p.m.

My question is really how late the gorilla trekking usually goes, and whether we should try to return to Kigali on Day 2 after trekking, in order to catch the early flight to Nairobi the next morning. Or should we just stay in our hotel at the Parc and drive into Kigali the next morning? Taking the afternoon flight would pretty much exclude activities in Nairobi.

We are 4 persons, and our hotel at the Parc will be the new Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, so the cost for all of us for the night on Day 2 would be much more expensive there than at the Serena in Kigali.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this? I know you never can tell how long it will take to find the gorillas, sometimes as long as 8 hours (I've done it), but some of you may know about usual start and stop times and about the driving from the Parc to Kigali (like how late into the evening that should be attempted, etc.). Thanks.

MonicaH

I did the trek back in February and returned to Kigali the same day because I had a 6am flight to Tanzania the next morning. We picked Group 13 for the trek because of all the young gorillas, but they were also not as far as some of the other groups. Got back to the drop off point at about 1, had a nice lunch and then got back to Kigali between 4-5.

Some other people we met did the Sousa group and got back to Kigali very late that night.

Have a great trip!!!!!

atravelynn

You will not make the 2 pm Kigali flight back to Nairobi if you are gorilla tracking that morning. The drive from PNV back to Kigali is 2-3 hours. You would need to arrive 2 hours before the international flight.

A gorilla group can be picked that is not that far away to reduce the likely time of tracking. But you can never predict accurately.

Here is what I did and what is commonly done. After your last trek (Day 2 for you), you drive the 2-3 hours back to Kigali and overnight there. Then the next day (Day 3 for you) take the early flight from Kigali to Nairobi.

At one time there was a 7 pm flight from Kigali to Nairobi that allowed a morning gorilla trek and an evening flight. I cannot find that flight anymore, though.

Enjoy your gorilla visits and Sheldrick.

sevendown

Thanks. I am not going to be gorilla trekking on Day 3, that is my flight day to Nairobi. I just wanted to know if there is any problem driving from the Parc to Kigali on Day 2 after we trek. It sounds from you two that it probably will not be a problem, especially if I ask for a close-by group on Day 2.

If the Day 2 trek took longer than expected, would there be any problem driving to Kigali at night (or at least after the sun goes down)?

(When I did this before it was during the first cease fire in the Rwandan civil war, so the driving then was very different than I assume it is now, and I would guess that driving after dark is not that big of a deal, but I don't know. If it were just me this time I wouldn't care, but I will have my family to protect on this trip.)

moremiles

I'm interested in what the experts have to say to this question also since my agent told me we should definitely plan to spend the night in the Parc area after our last trek since there were no guarantees as to when we would be finished-and we definitely don't want to drive to Kigali after dark.

atravelynn

Sevendown, Sorry, at first I thought you were asking about catching the flight after the gorillas.

Back to Kigali after the last trek is a standard procedure, I thought. You can search for typical itineraries and see how they are scheduled. I believe many return to Kigali for the evening after gorilla tracking in the morning.

I would prefer not to drive around Kigali at night either. But it is a common practice because there are daily gorilla departures at 4:30 am from Kigali to PNV. It was dark until after 6:00 am when I was there.

grommet19

I left Kigali at 4:30 a.m., drove to PNV, saw the Susa Group, and got back to Kigali that night by 5:00 p.m. So you definitely shouldn't have any problem.