Nyungwe Forest National Park
Nyungwe is a true rain forest, typically receiving in excess of 2, 000 mm of precipitation annuary. It is also one of the oldest forests in Africa, which is one of the reason it boasts such a high level of diversity. Scientific opinion is that Nyungwe, along with other forests of the Albertine Rift, was largely unaffected by the drying up of the lowland areas during the last ice age, and thus become a refuge for forest plants and animals which have subsequently recolonised areas such as the Congo Basin.
One of the central planks in ORTPN’s tourism – diversification programme is Nyungwe National Park, 980 square kilometers of hilly jungle cloaked terrain in the country’s South – West, o the boarder with Burundi and the DRC, and surely one of the undiscovered gems of African environmental tourism.
Ranging between 1,600 and 2,950 meters in altitude, the park is contiguous with Kibira National Park in Burundi, together with the two protected areas form the largest block of forest in East Africa. Nyungwe was originally set aside as a reserve in 1933, which although relatively effective, still saw it lose about 20 per cent as its area by 1984, when a coordinated forest-protection plan was implemented. It was elevated to national park status in March 2004.
Tourist activities in Nyungwe National Park
Bird watching
Nyungwe is probably one of the most important bird watching destination in Rwanda with more than 280 bird species recorded of which the majority are forest specialists and 26 are regional endemics whose range is restricted to a few forests along the Albertine Rift. Bird watching in Nyungwe can be rather frustrating, since the vegetation is thick and many birds tend to stick to the canopy, but almost everything you see ranks as a good sighting.
You don’t have to be an ardent birdwatcher to appreciate some of Nyungwe’s birds. Most people for instance, will do a double – take when they first spot a great blue turaco, a chicken – sized bird with garish blue, green and yellow feathers, often seen gliding between the trees along the main road. Another real gem is the paradise flycatcher, along tailed blue, orange and (sometimes) white bird often seen around the rest house. Other birds impress with their bizarre appearance – the gigantic forest hornbills, for instance, whose wailing vocalizations are almost as comical as their ungainly bills and heavy – winged flight.
And when tracking through the forest under growth, watch out for the red throated alethe, a very localized bird with a distinctive blue-white eyebrow. The alethe habitually follows colobus troops to eat the insects they disturb, and based on our experience it sees humans as merely another large mammal, often perching within a few inches!
The priorities of more serious birdwatchers will depend to some extent on their experience elsewhere in Africa. It is difficult to imagine, for instance, that a first – time visitor to the continent will get as excited about a drab chubb’s cisticola as they will when they first see a paradise flycatcher or green pigeon. For somebody coming from southern Africa, at least half of what they will see will be new to them, with a total of about 60 relatively wide spread east African forest specials headed by the likes of great blue turaco. Ross’s turaco, red – breasted sparrow hawk and white – headed wood hoopoe.
From the east African perspective, however, it is the 26 Albertine Rift endemics that are the most alluring. Depending on your level of expertise, you could reasonably hope to tick off half of these over a few days in the forest. The more common regional endemics are handsome francolin, Ruwenzori turaco (a stunner), strip-breasted tit, red-collared babbler, red throated alethe, archer’s ground robin, kivu ground thrush, grauer’s warbler(confined to high altitude marshy areas), red-faced woodland warbler, kungwe apalis, grauer’s warbler, yellow-eyed black flycatcher , Ruwenzori batis, blue-headed sunbird and strange weaver.
The guides at Nyungwe are improving and some are excellent, but others haveonly limited knowledge. For this reason, you will be highly dependent on a field guide, and without a great amount of advance research you are bound to struggle to identify every bird that you glimpse. Given the above, relict forest patches and the road verge are often more productive than the forest interior, since you will get clearer views of what you do see.
Chimpanzee tracking in Nyungwe.
The Rwandan chimp population of at least 500 individuals is now thought to be confined to Nyungwe national park (including a small community in the Cyamudongo Forest), but it remains faintly possible that a small population recorded in the early 1990’s in the more northerly and badly degraded Gishwati forest still persists.
During the rainy season, a troop of chimpanzees often moves into Uwinka and the coloured trail as well, and it is up to you to decide whether to pay extra to track them.
You will here them before you see them; from somewhere deep in the forest, an excited hooting, just one voice at first, then several, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied unified crescendo, before stopping abruptly or fading away.
Unlike most other primates, chimpanzees don’t live in troops, but instead form extended communities of up to a hundred individuals, which roam the forest in small socially mobile sub groups that often revolve around a few close family members such as brothers or a mother and daughter. Male chimps normally spend their entire life within the community into which they were born, where as females are likely to migrate into a neighbouring community at some point after reaching adolescence.
Nyungwe’s Monkeys
The thirteen primate species which occur in Nyungwe represent something like 20-25% of the total number in Africa, a phenomenal figure which in east Africa is comparable only to Uganda’s Kibale forest. Further more, several of these primates are listed as vulnerable or endangered on the IUCN red list, and Nyungwe is almost is almost certainly the main stronghold for at least two of them.
The most celebrated of Nyungwe’s primates is the Ruwenzori colobus a race of the more wide spread Angola colobus which is restricted to the Albertine Rift. The Ruwenzori colobus is highly arboreal and acrobatic leaf-eater, easily distinguished from any other primate found in Nyungwe by its contrasting black over all colour and snow-white whiskers, shoulders and tail tip. Although all colobus monkeys are very sociable, the ones in Nyungwe are unique in so far as they typically move in troops of several hundred animals. A semi-habituated troop of 400, resident in the forest around the campsite, is though to be the largest troop of arboreal primates anywhere in Africa- else where in the world, only the Chinese golden monkey moves in groups of a comparable number. Most of the other monkeys in Nyungwe are guenons, the collective name for the taxonomically confusing cercopithecus genus.
Other types of monkeys in Nyungwe National Park are the L’Hoest’s monkey, Silver monkey, golden monkey, Owl faced monkey, red tailed monkey, Dent’s Mona monkey, crowned monkey, Vervet monkey, and Olive baboon which is a savanna monkey that is occasionally seen along the road through Nyungwe, Grey-cheeked mangabey is an arboreal monkey of the forest interior.
In addition to the chimpanzees and monkeys, Nyungwe harbors four types of prosimian, small nocturnal primates more closely related to the lemurs of Madagascar than to any other primates of the African main land. These are three species of bush baby or galago (group of tiny, hyper active wide – eyed insectivores) and the sloth – like potto. All are very unlikely to be encountered by tourists.
Other Activities
A large selection of walking possibilities and other excursions is available within Nyungwe .Visitors with sufficient vehicles and interest could easily keep themselves busy for three or four days without significantly retracing their steps. The opinions for travelers without private transport are more limited and depend on whether they base themselves at Uwinka campsite(where the main attraction is the network of colored trails, a good place for colobus and seasonally for chimps), or at the rest house (the best base for the water fall trail and for visiting the colobus in Gisakura tea estate). In the dry season you need a private vehicle to go chimp tracking wherever you are based and at all times of year you need a vehicle to visit the harbituated grey-cheeked mangabey troop and to explore the road to Rangiro. The forest trails are steep and often very slippery. Dress accordingly; jeans a thick skirt and good walking shoes are the ideal out fit, and water proof jacket will be useful during the rainy season.
Nyungwe Park has a number of trails;
Uwinka and the coloured trail. A relic of an early attempt to develop Nyungwe for tourism, back in the late 1980’s, a net work of seven walking trails, each designated by a particular colour leads down hill from the Uwinka campsite into the surrounding forested hills. Ranging in length from the 1 km Grey Trail to the 10 km Red Trail, the footpaths are all well maintained and clearly marked, but don’t under estimate the steepness of the slopes or after – rain – the muddy Trails pass through the territory of habituated troop of 400 colobus monkeys. During the rainy season, a troop of chimpanzees often moves into this area as well, and it is up to you to decide whether to pay extra to track them.
You can reasonably expect to see some primates along any of the coloured Trails as well as a good variety of forest birds – though the latter require patience and often stops where there are open views into the canopy. Unless you opt for specific primate visit, chance will be the decisive factor in what you see, though the 2.5 km Blue Trail is regarded as especially good for primates and birds, while the 10 km Red Trail is good for chimpanzees and passes four water falls.
Birdwatchers in particular are advised to explore the main road close to the campsite, as they will probably see a wider variety of birds than from within the forest. About 500m east of the campsite, the road offers some stunning views over the frosted valleys, and passes a stand of giant lobelias.
The Waterfall Trail. This superb trail starts at the ORPTN Rest house and takes between three and six hours to cover as a round trip, depending on how often you stop and whether you drive or walk from the rest house. The first part of the trail- in essence following the road to the car park-passes through the rolling tea plantations doted with relict forest patches which are worth scanning closely for silver and other monkeys. These small stands of forest can also be rewarding for birds; keen ornithologists might well want to take them slowly, and could perhaps view this session view this section of the trail as worthy bird watching excursion in its own right.
The Trail then descends into the forest proper, following flat contour paths through a succession of tree-fern-covered ravines, and crossing several streams, before a sharp descent to the base of the pretty but small waterfall. Monkeys are often seen along the way (The Angola colobus seems to be particularly common) and the steep slopes allow good views into the canopy. This trail can be very rewarding for true forest interior birds, with a good chance of sporting of Albertine Rift endemics such as Ruwenzori turaco and yellow – eyed black flycatcher.
Gisakura Tea Estate. A relict forest patch in this tea estate, only 20 minutes’ walk from the ORTPN Rest house, supports a resident troop of around 40 Ruwenzori colobus monkeys. This troop is very, far more so than the larger troop at Uwinka, and the relatively small territory the monkeys occupy makes them very easy to locate and to see clearly. Oddly, a solitary red – tailed monkey moves with the colobus, and has done so far at least six years. Some of the guides say it is treated as the leader.
Other guides may tell you the odd monkey out at Gisakura is not a red-tailed but a Mona (also known as Dent’s monkey and unlikely to be observed elsewhere in east Africa) or a hybrid red-tailed / Mona. The apparent cause of this confusion is that a solitary Mona monkey does spend some of its time in the same forest parch, and the guides are unable to distinguish it from the red-tailed cousin.
Particularly in the early morning, a relict forest patch is also an excellent bird watching site, since it lies in a ravine and is encircled by a road, making it easy to deep into the canopy. Most of what you see are forest fringe or woodland species(as opposed to interior forest birds), but numerically this proved to be the most rewarding spot in Nyungwe, with some 40 species identified in an hour, notably black-throated apalis, paradise and white-tailed crested flycatcher, Chubb’s cisticola, African golden oriole, olive-green cameroptera, three types of sun bird, two greenbuls and two crimson-wings.
Note that a visit to this forest patch is treated as a primate walk by the ORTPN office and a corresponding fee is charged.
Other Trails for those spending more time in the forest, the 4 km, 3 hour Kamiranzovu Trail leads to a quite different ecosystem, a relatively low-lying marshy area rich in orchids (particularly during the rainy season) and localized swamp-associated bird species. This used to be the best place to see Nyungwe’s elephants, but none has been sighted here in recent years. The trail starts with a steep descent from the main tar road about 12 km from Uwinka and 6 km from Gisakura.
Bigugu trail leads to the 2,950 m Bigugu peak, which is the highest point in Nyungwe national park. Suitable only for the reasonably fit walkers, the trail starts about 4 km from Uwinka along the Huye(the trail is clearly marked) and it usually takes at least six hours to complete. For geographers a fresh water spring on mount Bigugu has further significance as possibly the most remote source of the world’s longest river.
Park fees
Costs can mount up at Nyungwe, with all the possibilities, so plan carefully and check before hand in case of increases. An entrance fee of US$20 per person per day is charged for the non residents and foreign residents and foreign residents. The cost for chimpanzee tracking is US$50 for non-residents or US$30 for resident foreigners, while other guided walks cost US$30 per person for non-residents or US$15 for resident foreigners (with substantial discounts available to children under the age of 15).
Residents of Rwanda pay an entrance fee of Rfr2,000-4,000 per person for the various guided walks. If you appreciate the guides’ work, you are free to tip them.
Parc devocanoes gorilla tracking park, Nyungwe national Park, Lake Kivu and Akagera National Parks.. Detailed information. 
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