Virunga national park formerly known as Albert National Park a protected area and a famous mountain gorilla destination, the park is found in the northeastern region of Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa with its southern tip resting on the northern shore of Lake Kivu. Virunga national park lies in a short distance from The town of Goma to the East.
Virunga national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the most biodiverse park in the world and arguably the best national park to visit if you wish to experience Africa’s true beauty. Virunga national park is also the oldest game park in Congo created in 1925 covering an area of 7,900 square kilometers.
The park stretches around the Virunga Mountains that lie between Lakes Kivu and Edwards and extends into Rwanda and Uganda, these volcano ranges are dominated by cloud forests and include Mt Mikeno, Mt. Karisimbi, Mt. Visoke and Mt. Sabyinyo.
Virunga national park is divided into three sectors that are The northern, The Southern and Central.
- The northern sector covers parts of the Semuliki river basin and is dominated by savannah vegetation and sections of Montane forests, because of the high altitude in this sector and the presence of Mount Stanely, Alpine vegetation dominates the sector and is the largest glacier region in Africa.
- The Southern sector contains of the 7 Virunga volcanoes / massifs which were formed as a result of the tectonic movements in the earth’s crust leading to the volcanic activities. The most prominent of these volcanoes are Mount Nyiragongo and Mount Nyamulagira
Climate in Virunga national park
Climate in Virunga national park and the Albertine Rift is greatly influenced by inter tropical Convergence Zone Movements and Southern El Nino oscillation. The park experiences both dry and rainy seasons, the rain season occurs between March and Mid- May and between September and November.
Flora Fauna in Virunga national park
Virunga national park is blessed with a great variety of flora and fauna
Flora
Virunga national park encompasses 2,077 plant species including 264 tree species and 230 plant species that are endemic to the Albertine Rift, the plains of the park are dominated by wetlands and grasslands with papyrus sedge, jointed flatsedge, sacaton grasses, conkerberry among others.
The montane forest between 1,800 and 2,800 meters in the southern sector of the park is dominated by Ficalhoa laurifolia and Podocarpus milanjianus with upto 25 meters high trees. Africa Alpine bamboo grows at the attitudes of 2,300 – 2,600 meters. The vegetation above 2,600 meters is subalpine with foremost African redwood growing up to 3,000 meters, Tree heath, heather and mosses covering humid slopes up to 3,700 meters elevation. The scenic and Lobelia species grow on vast clearing to the heights of up to 8 meters.
Fauna
Virunga national park hosts a wide range of fauna species including 196 mammals, 706 bird species, 109 reptiles and 65 amphibians as recorded in 2012.
Mountain gorillas in Virunga national park
Mountain gorillas are the main tourist attraction in Virunga national park, the park is one of the few places in the world hosting the critically endangered mountain gorillas. Currently there are 8 habituated mountain gorilla families in Virunga national park open for gorilla trekking and they include
- Kabirizi family
- Bageni Family
- Mapuwa Family
- Rugendo Family
- Lulengo Family
- Munyaga Family
- Humba Family
- Nyakamwe Family
Primates in Virunga national park
Other primates in Virunga national park include common chimpanzees, red tailed monkey, Dent’s Mona monkey, blue monkey, Hamlyn’s monkey, De Brazza’s monkey, Central African red colobus, mantled guereza, olive baboon and grey checked mangabey.
Virunga national park also inhabits forest mammals in addition to primates and these include Africa bush elephant, hippopotamus, African buffalo, Okapi, blue duiker, bay duiker, yellow-backed duiker, water chevrotain, red river hog, Ugandan Kob, waterbuck, common warthog and topi among others.
Reptiles
Reptiles inhabiting in Virunga national park include Nile crocodilewhich are observed at the northern shore of Lake Edward.
Birdlife in Virunga national park
this is one of the birder’s haven in Africa with over 706 bird species include 24 species considered to be endemic to the Virungas, the endemic birds include
Of the Albertine Rift’s endemic birds, Rwenzori turaco, Rwenzori batis, Archer’s ground robin, red-throated alethe, Kivu ground thrush, collared apalis, mountain masked apalis, dusky crimson-wing, Shelley’s crimsonwing, red-faced woodland warbler, stripe-breasted tit, blue-headed sunbird, regal sunbird, Rwenzori double-collared sunbird, handsome spurfowl and strange weaver.
Other bird species include Wahlberg’s eagle, African goshawk, African hobby, harrier hawk, common buzzard, mountain buzzard, hadeda ibis, grey-crowned crane, black-and-white-casqued hornbill, black-billed turaco, African olive pigeon, tambourine dove, blue-spotted wood dove, red-eyed dove, brown-necked parrot, red-chested cuckoo, olive long-tailed cuckoo, barred long-tailed cuckoo, Klaas’s cuckoo, Diederik cuckoo, blue-headed coucal, Narina trogon, white-headed wood hoopoe, white-necked raven, white-tailed crested flycatcher, African paradise flycatcher, white-eyed slaty flycatcher, African dusky flycatcher, among others.
Safari activities to do in Virunga national park
Mountain gorilla trekking
Mountain gorilla trekking is the highlight Congo safari activity done in the Mikeno sector, this activity offers visitors an encounter with the critically endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Mountain gorillas available for this experience underwent habituation experience which makes then less hostile to human presence.
Visiting the endangered mountain gorillas is a lie changing experience offering trekkers one hour of being in the presence of our closest cousins. Mountain gorillas are highly intelligent, good natured and luring creatures to observe. Though they are powerful most especially the Silverbacks, they are calm that is why there are referred to as the Gentle Giants.
Gorilla trekking starts with briefing at the park’s headquarters / Bukima Patrol post where trekkers are taken through the rules and regulations to follow while in the presence of the gorillas. The treks take approximately 1-3 hours depending on the movement of the gorillas and where they spent the previous night, upon meeting the gorillas. You will spend one hour in their presence observing their behavior and taking pictures.
Nyirangongo Volcano Hike
Nyirangongo Volcano is worth exploring primarily because of its lava lake, hiking to the summit of Mount Nyirangongo is technically easy most especially from the direction of Goma and the hike takes about 6 hours. Most climbers spend the night at the top so as see and enjoy the boiling lava by night as it becomes even brighter.
Treks to the summit of Nyirangongo starts at the Kibati Patrol Post which is approximately 30 minutes from Goma by car and less than one hour drive from the Mikeno Lodge in Rumangabo.
On the hike, trekkers are accompanied by park rangers and porters and to reach the summit depends on the fitness level of the hikers, for average fitness the hike takes 4-6 hours. The hike starts at 1989 meters and ascends to 1989 meters in a short time.
Note: Altitude sickness can be an issue for some hikers
Rwenzori Mountain Trek
The snowcapped mountain range of Mount Rwenzori is located in the north of Virunga national park on the border of Congo with Uganda, Mountain Rwenzori dubbed as the Mountains of The Moon can be hiked during the safari in Virunga national park, the highest peak in the range lies on the border.
Trekking Rwenzori Mountains is a 4-5 or 6 day trek to reach the height of 5,109 meters (16,761 ft.) which contains the largest glaciers left on the African continent.
Visit The Tongo Chimps
There is one habituated chimpanzee group living in the stunning hills of Tongo situated in the Southern part of the park and west of the park headquarters of Ramangabo.
Tongo Forest is a unique forest island hosting a small population of chimpanzees, the forest lies one of the lava flows from Nyamulagira volcano and is estimated to be 300 years old.
Getting There
Virunga national park can easily be accessed in different ways and the common ones are
By road
- The park can be accessed on an overland journey in Bunagana from where the mountain gorilla sites Jomba and Bikenge that can be reached within 1 hour, the border crossing is easy and visitors are required to have visas which are bought at the border.
- Overland via Rwanda, crossing at Gisenyi/Goma
By air
Fly to Goma, there are many flights connecting to Goma from outside the DR.Congo, Entebbe Airport is the only city connected by TMK.
