DISCOVER RWANDA
Walk the Lines Tours in Akagera National Park
The walk the line tour in Akagera National Park is an activity that can only be done in this national park. The activity allows visitors to explore the park and view the majority of its attractions on foot. The walk the line trip begins at the southern park gate and leads you 7 kilometers into the park’s hills, following the fence on the park’s perimeter. The Akagera national park walk the fence line trip is guided by a community local freelance guide who takes you for approximately 2 hours and stops at the top of the ridge with beautiful views in all directions.
The walk the line trip at Akagera National Park includes roughly 2 hours of walking throughout the park. This project teaches you about the value of the park’s fence to both the park and the neighborhood surrounding it. The Akagera National Park walk the line excursion costs $30 for adults and $20 for youngsters. These rates include park admission and guide fees, but do not cover supplementary services, private transportation, lodging, food, or any other extras.
When is the best time to do walk-the-line tours in Akagera national park?
At any time of year, you may visit Akagera National Park and take walk the line excursions. The drier months are ideal for a walk the line trip in Akagera National Park since there is little to no rainfall in the area, leaving the paths dry and the foliage in the park short, allowing guests clear views of the park’s species.
The best months to visit Akagera National Park for a walk the lines trip are December to February and April to September. The months of March to May and October to November are actually rainy seasons with the park receiving heavy rainfall which leaves the pathways completely muddy and the vegetation is over grown, making it hard for you to easily spot wildlife animals 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.
In the park, there is 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, as well as 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.
Camping.
Akagera National Park has the only flat Savannah grasslands, making it ideal for camping. This is an excellent outdoor leisure activity that provides you with a terrific overall experience of the outdoors. Akagera campgrounds provide you with the experience you seek in more natural settings in pursuit of activities that provide you with delight.
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.
A Brief Insight on Akagera National Park.
The first section of the park is the southern sector, which is the center of the Akagera ecosystem, with the Akagera river, multiple lakes, and vast wetlands. They constitute the natural border between Tanzania and Kenya. Elephants, Impala, Waterbuck, Hippo, Crocodiles, and other water bird species may be found here. The Mutumba plateau offers amazing views of the Lakes during the second lap. This area of the park has been cordoned off to keep both animals and humans safe. The Mutumba plateau is home to the endangered African Eland and Roan Antelope.
Several roads link both circuits and provide access to the park’s northern sector, which includes the famed Kilala plain and the Akagera Valley. The Kilala plain is home to a variety of herbivores such as impala and waterbuck, which attract predators like as lions and leopards. The wildlife drives in Akagera’s northern region will pique your attention!
In summary; walk the lines tour in Akagera national park offers visitors like yourself an authentic tour of behind the scenes conservation activities that are undertaken by the park’s management on a daily basis; also not forgetting that you stand a higher chance of having close encounters with wildlife in the park!
