“Dian Fossey changed what the world knew about mountain gorillas and what the world was willing to do to protect them. Her camp is still there, on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes. The gorillas she habituated are the direct ancestors of the families you will meet today.”
Following the woman who made gorilla trekking possible
The mountain gorilla exists in meaningful numbers today in part because Dian Fossey went to the Virunga volcanoes in 1967 and spent eighteen years documenting, protecting, and ultimately dying for a species that was being poached toward extinction. Her research at Karisoke — the camp she established on the saddle between Mount Karisimbi and Mount Visoke in what is now Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park — produced the foundational science that underpins every aspect of mountain gorilla conservation. The habituation model that makes your gorilla trek possible, the identification of individual animals by facial features, the understanding of gorilla social structure and family dynamics — all of it began at Karisoke.
This safari adds the Fossey research context to the gorilla encounter by combining the Karisoke trek in Rwanda with gorilla trekking in Uganda’s Bwindi — the other half of the mountain gorilla range that Fossey’s conservation movement ultimately saved. You will trek gorillas in both forests, visit the Karisoke Research Centre, and understand the full arc of the conservation story that connects Fossey’s work in the 1970s to the family you are watching in the forest today.
Truly Iconic Highlights
- Karisoke Research Centre trek — hike to Dian Fossey’s original research camp in Volcanoes National Park, her grave, and the graves of the gorillas she named and lost
- Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park — the families that are the direct descendants of the animals Fossey habituated and protected
- Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda — the other half of the mountain gorilla range, a completely different forest and family character
- Gorilla Doctors veterinary programme visitor option — a behind-the-scenes look at the veterinary care system that monitors the mountain gorilla population’s health
Detailed Itinerary — Dian Fossey Trail Gorilla Safari
Day 1: Arrive Kigali and Drive to Musanze
Arrival in Kigali and immediate drive north to Musanze — the town at the base of the Virunga volcanoes, ninety minutes from the capital. Your lodge looks directly at the volcano chain that Fossey chose for her research site. Briefing on tomorrow’s Karisoke trek — it is a separate permit from the gorilla trekking permit and involves a steeper ascent than the standard family trek.
Day 2: Karisoke Research Centre Trek
Morning entry into Volcanoes National Park for the Karisoke trek — a two to three hour ascent through the bamboo zone and into the Hagenia-Hypericum forest on the saddle between Karisimbi and Bisoke. The camp itself no longer contains the original structures — fire and time have removed them — but the site, the setting, and the graves remain. Fossey’s grave is here alongside those of gorillas including Digit, whose poaching death in 1977 became the catalyst for international attention to mountain gorilla conservation. Descent by midday. The afternoon is for recovery and the Dian Fossey Fund museum at the Karisoke Research Centre visitor facilities near Kinigi.
Day 3: Gorilla Trekking — Volcanoes National Park
Rwanda gorilla morning. The families you trek today are the descendants of animals that Fossey, her students, and the Karisoke research team habituated over decades of patient, dangerous, and ultimately successful work. You know the story now — the poaching, the anti-poaching patrols, the political upheaval, the murder in 1985 that ended Fossey’s life but not the conservation programme she built. Standing with the family in the bamboo forest, that context is not a distraction from the encounter. It is the reason the encounter is possible.
Day 4: Drive to Bwindi, Uganda
Cross into Uganda via the Cyanika border and drive to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest — three to four hours through the Kigezi highlands. The transition from Rwanda’s compact, intensively managed Volcanoes Park to Bwindi’s vast, ancient, less-visited forest is one of the most striking ecological contrasts available on the East African circuit.
Day 5: Gorilla Trekking — Bwindi, Uganda
Uganda gorilla morning. The Bwindi forest is older, denser, and wilder in character than the Virunga bamboo. The family here has been habituated through a different programme and displays a different social structure. Having trekked in Volcanoes National Park two days ago, the comparison is available to you in a way it cannot be for visitors who only do one country. Both encounters are extraordinary. Together they constitute the complete mountain gorilla experience.
Days 6–7: Batwa Walk, Lake Bunyonyi, Return to Kigali
Day six: Batwa cultural experience at Bwindi — the forest people who pre-date the conservation model by four thousand years, whose displacement from the forest Fossey’s model indirectly contributed to through the creation of the national park system that prioritised gorilla habitat over human habitation. Their story is the necessary complication of the conservation success story. Drive to Lake Bunyonyi for overnight. Day seven: drive to Kigali via the Katuna crossing. Departure.
Tour Includes
Rwanda gorilla permit ($1,500), Uganda gorilla permit ($800), Karisoke Research Centre trek permit, Batwa cultural experience, all accommodation, all meals, professional guide, all park fees, road transfers and border crossings, drinking water.