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Camping in Akagera National Park
If you’re seeking for a pleasant approach to really enjoy nature and live life outside of the usual, camping is the activity for you. Camping is a really wonderful, life-affirming experience after spending a night in stunning natural settings and enjoying the simplicity off-grid and without the typical frills preceding sleep. Camping tours in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park is one of the fantastic outdoor recreational activities that provides you with a great entire wilderness experience. Akagera campgrounds provide you with the experience you seek in more natural settings in pursuit of activities that provide you with delight.
In general, individuals leave developed regions to spend time outside in more natural environs engaging in enjoyable activities. Camping at the park is an excellent opportunity for you to enjoy a romantic evening with your partner, as well as a terrific way for friends and family to interact. Campers may enjoy the sound of crickets singing throughout the night as well as wonderful folk tales or stories recounted by local guides. Early in the morning, listen to the wonderful sounds of birds singing, chirping, and tweeting.
Campsites in Akagera National Park.
In Akagera National Park, there are a few camping areas where you may stay. These camping sites provide you with a wide range of camping alternatives, ranging from affordable to mid-range to luxury. If you want to go camping at Akagera National Park, you can rent tents from the park’s reception. However, you are recommended to bring camping equipment because the park’s supplies are limited, especially if you plan on doing lazy camping.
Additionally, there are three campsites in the park that provide minimal services for overnight stays. Muyumbu and Shakani cams are located in the park’s south direction. Muyumbu is perched on a ridge that overlooks Tanzania’s lakes in the distance and provides a stunning background for the morning sun. Shakani also provides a lakefront camping excursion, murmuring hippos, and a diversity of bird species. The Mutumba campground sits in the north and is abundant in game, with ample rolling grassland slopes.
Camping at Shakani Campsite in Akagera National Park.
Shakani, located on the shores of the scenic Lake Shakani, provides a lakeside camping experience where visitors may wake up to the sound of songbirds and the unique grunt of local hippos. Shakani is the only campsite having running water, as well as flushing toilets and solar-heated showers.
Camping at Mutumbu and Muyumbu Campsite in Akagera National Park.
It is located on a hill and has stunning views of two lakes. Lake Ihema and Lake Shakani flow into the neighboring country of Tanzania. This is the only camping spot in Kayonza that is close to the park gate. Each of these three campgrounds has toilets and washrooms. It is important to realize that tap water is not safe to drink in Akagera National Park. Also, before consuming water, we recommend that you boil it. Another alternative is to bring bottled water with you. The tents may be rented at the reception area, and firewood will be provided.
Camping at Mihindi Campsite in Akagera National Park.
The northern part is home to the Mihindi Campsite and Café. The former research building has been turned into a coffee shop, and a picnic space is available for day guests. There is also a low-lying stone wall, an ablution facility with flush toilets and solar-heated showers, and two rondavels with wood-fired BBQ amenities at the campground.
How much is camping in Akagera National Park?
Camping at Shakani, Muyumbu and Mutumbu campsites in Akagera national park costs $25 per person per night for adults and $15 per person per night for children aged 6-12 years. If you are camping at Mihindi Campsite and café, you will pay $50 per person per night for adults and $30 per person per night for children aged 6-12 years.
What is the best time to go camping in Akagera National Park?
Camping is available all year at Akagera National Park, and tourists are welcome. Aside from that, June through September and December through February are the hottest months of the year, and the park may become dry, making this the greatest time to camp in the park.
What other activities can one do after walk-the-lines tour in Akagera national park?
Game Drive Safaris.
You may choose between a morning game drive to see the morning hunters and grazers, an afternoon, evening, or night game drive to see the nocturnal animals in the park. Entering the park from the main entrance and spending the day making your way to the park’s northern Nyungwe gate (wildlife numbers are significantly greater in the north) is one long but rewarding safari alternative. There are also hyenas, leopards, topis, elands, and newly reintroduced Eastern Black Rhinos, elephants, Zebras, Giraffes, Buffaloes, and Lions. Giraffes, Impalas, Topis, Zebras, bush bucks, African swallows, eland, vervet monkeys, warthogs, baboons, Mongoose, hippos, crocodiles, and elephants are among the other antelopes that may be observed during game drives.
There are about 120 elephants in the park, as well as other animals like as the Defassa waterbuck, oribi, reedbucks, roan antelopes, sable, buffaloes, and many more. The most spectacular game drive safari experience from the south to the north in a day will provide you with numerous wildlife to see as well as the most breathtaking vistas from the top of the mountain over Lake Ihema towards Tanzania. However, at Akagera, you may self-drive your own car through the park. There are guides available to accompany you on your drive. The guides can point you in the direction of the most abundant animals and magnificent scenic sites that you would otherwise miss.
The park has a two-tiered guiding system, with over 10 park-employed guides and 15 community freelance guides. As a park visitor, you may opt to take a park-employed guide who has guiding experience ranging from 2 to 12 years in Akagera National Park and has undergone training in content, interpretive guiding, and first aid in the last 2 years, subject to availability. You can choose to utilize the business safari guide, who is well-versed in game vehicles, but it is preferable to bring a park ranger guide, who is more educated about the park. A night drive may reveal leopard and hyena sightings and other nocturnal species.
Game drives in this park follow several routes, and the best one depends on the season. During the dry season, animals congregate near swamps and lakes, providing you with a spectacular photo opportunity – a swarm of wild African animals with the dazzling lakes in the backdrop. Make sure to pick up a handbook at the tourist center. It includes suggested driving routes, a large map of the park, an animal spotting checklist, a birding guide, and valuable identification aids to help you identify what you’ve seen. If you wish to go on a guided game drive in a park vehicle, it costs roughly $280 per vehicle (which seats up to 7 people) for a full day or $180 for a half day. It costs $40 to hire a guide for your own vehicle.
Boat Cruise on Lake Ihema.
Boat ride through Akagera National Park. Boat cruises around the banks of Lake Ihema, Rwanda’s second biggest lake, give some spectacular aquatic bird sightings, making it the single best way to explore the park, and you can also observe some of the fauna that lives in the lake’s waters. This will provide you with an excellent opportunity to enhance your animal count from the safari game drives. Keep a watch out for crocodiles, buffaloes, and hippos, as well as colorful Kingfishers, gorgeous Fish Eagles, Egrets, Hammerkops and their massive nests, and even the prehistoric-looking Shoebill during your boat launch.
Endangered species include jacanas, Ibis, plovers, herons, malachite Kingfishers, hawks, and many others. The boat excursion lasts around 2 to 3 hours and provides you with an unforgettable experience of Rwanda’s national park. Trips leave at 7.30 a.m., 9 a.m., 3 p.m., and 4.30 p.m. There are also three pre-planned boat rides (day, morning, and sun set) to experience the park from the water level, which is surrounded by crocodiles, hippos and birds.
Birdwatching.
The only Savannah park in the country of a thousand hills, Akagera National Park, boasts over 482 bird species, both migratory and resident, that live in the diversity of rolling hills, woodlands, forests, seasonal and permanent swamps, lakes, Savannah vegetation, and sticking landscape within the park area, both inside and outside the park, due to their mobility. The park is home to savanna birds such as the black-headed Gonolek and others.
Birding may be done throughout the day or in the evening during the cooler hours of the day. Outside of Nyungwe Forest National Park, it is Rwanda’s greatest bird viewing spot. African eagles, kingfishers, herons, ibises, storks, egrets, crakes, rails, cormorants, darts, and pelicans live along the many kilometers of waterside habitat. Large groups of ducks, bee-eaters, and terns arrive seasonally, and the forest sections are especially suitable for barbets, shrikes, orioles, and weavers.
Community/Cultural Tours.
Your visit to the nearby local community might spice up your safari and provide you with a fantastic opportunity to interact with the neighboring community, providing you with a great understanding of the Banyarwanda’s. Your tour operator guide or a freelance community guide can also arrange for you to partake in some exciting safaris and cultural activities for park visitors.
There are four options: heritage, which is cattle culture, local production, which is beers and bees, arts and crafts, and celebration, which is food and festivals. Each of these towns will provide you with a unique experience throughout your visit. The activities range from milking a cow to creating Imigongo paintings, sipping honey from the comb, assisting in the preparation of a traditional Rwandan feast, and participating in a traditional Rwandan dance.
This is one of the most well-known cultural places, largely organized by women’s organizations that came up with the idea of utilizing cow dung to produce an art that can be utilized as a house decoration. Imigongo Art Center is a social enterprise whose purpose is to develop and innovate Imigongo art as a means of contributing to the efforts of establishing jobs for adolescents and women in rural Rwanda. Imigongo art is a style of art that is created using designs produced from cow dung. This art is indigenous to Rwanda, having originated in the eastern district of Igisaka, which is now part of the districts of Ngoma and Kirehe.
Fishing
Fishing is one of the most popular sports along the shores of Lake Shakani in Akagera National Park. Hippos and crocodiles share the same water as the fish, and you can hear the hippos’ snorts, the calls of the water birds, and the noises of the fish in the water. As you catch fish, you are surrounded by spectacular scenery and animals like as hippos, crocodiles, elephants, waterbucks, and gorgeous birds. Because the temperature can soar beyond 40°C, you should bring plenty of sun protection. Wear long socks, long-sleeved pants, and insect repellents that can be used just for tsetse fly bites. Sport fishing necessitates skills; hence, you will want the help of our knowledgeable and qualified fishing guides!
As previously said, you must transport your fishing equipment, and bear in mind that all fish caught are not killed; rather, they are returned to the water alive. If you do not have the necessary fishing equipment, your tour operator may make the necessary arrangements for you to have a good fishing trip. The good news about fishing in this national park is that you get to keep what you catch. If you want to cook it, you can make a fire and have it ready to roast in time for lunch, or you can take it to your hotel and have it prepared for you as supper.
What is the best time to visit Akagera National Park?
Akagera National Park is open all year, so you may visit it whenever you visit Rwanda. Most people believe that the greatest time to visit the park is from June to September, during the longer dry season. However, there are also significant drawbacks to going on safari during that time: much of the plant life in the park is dry and withered, forcing wildlife to congregate closer to lakes and streams, which are more difficult to spot from the road.
Food supplies for wildlife in the park are everywhere during the rainy season, and you’re far more likely to see animals by the side of the road or in large fields, rather than tucked away around lakes. As a result, the ideal month to come only for safari is possibly March, around the eve of the “dry season” inside the rainy season. There are also less people in the park during this time of year, so you’re more likely to observe animals than people.
