What to expect on Nyungwe canopy walk

What to expect on the Nyungwe canopy walk

Nyungwe canopy walk is one of the top Rwanda tour activities because of the great experience on this walkway. Suspended above a ravine in the lush montane rainforest of Nyungwe Forest National Park, it provides an exhilarating perspective on the ancient treetops and wildlife. The Canopy walk in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park is 160m long and 70m high, suspended.

The best canopy walk experience in East Africa is in Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest National Park. A canopy walk can literally be explained as a walk above within the tree canopies of the ancient Nyungwe Forest on a suspension bridge.

A canopy walk is one of a kind as you see the forest from above, while sighting several bird and primate species. The walk starts from any of the three trailheads, where you will walk from the Uwinka visitor center. If you need a unique safari activity, then the canopy walk is a preferable option with experiences like no other.

Other Activities in Nyungwe Forest National Park besides the Nyungwe Canopy Walk

Nyungwe Forest National Park escaped the last ice age and is a hotbed of biodiversity. The park is home to several primates, including chimpanzees, countless butterflies, and birds, including many endemic to the region.

Located in southwestern Rwanda on the border with Burundi, Nyungwe forest is very accessible and has many activities tourists can undertake during Rwanda tours. Here are other activities to do in Nyungwe National Park on top of the canopy walk;

Chimpanzee Trekking

Chimpanzee trekking in Nyungwe Forest National Park ranks among the most popular Rwanda safari activities and mainly takes place in the Cyamudongo area of the park. Visitors most commonly track chimpanzees, the park’s most popular primates.

Nyungwe Forest hosts about 500 chimpanzees, and park authorities have habituated two troops for trekking. One troop lives in the main Nyungwe Forest, while the other inhabits Cyamudongo, a small forest patch in the eastern part of the park.

Chimpanzee trekking starts at three main reception centers: Kitabi, Uwinka, and Gisakura. Tourists must arrive at these centers very early in the morning. A driver-guide picks visitors up from their hotel and transfers them to the trekking starting point, where guides conduct a briefing.

Before the trek begins, ranger guides move ahead to locate the chimpanzees. Visitors then follow the guides’ instructions while trekking through the dense tropical forest. After reaching the chimpanzees, trekkers spend a maximum of one hour observing them.

During this time, visitors watch the chimpanzees go about their daily lives and interact with their natural environment. Since chimpanzees share about 98% of their DNA with humans, their human-like behavior often surprises visitors.

When choosing to trek with chimpanzees in Nyungwe, the habituated chimpanzee group in the Nyungwe Forest has about 60 individuals, but hard to see because of the rugged terrain. The habituated group at Cyamudongo has a smaller number, with about 30 individuals, but with several successful sightings.

Bird Watching

Bird watching in Nyungwe National Park is one of the main activities that avid and seasoned birders choose to undertake. This is because of the impressive and unique bird checklist and affordability. The park is one of the seven important birding areas found in Rwanda that has been considered so by BirdLife International.

With the terrain and dense forest, it is such an amazing experience as forest birds tend to be shy and hide in the forest, offering such a challenging yet memorable experience. In Nyungwe, it is also possible to spot new species that you might not see anywhere else in the country.

Nyungwe forest is unique and rich in terms of biodiversity, with different flowering plants and a marsh area that provides food and shelter for the birds.

Birding Trails in Nyungwe

Some of these trails include the Bigugu trail, where you can spot the Red-collared mountain warbler, the Karamba trail, rich in bird species like the Yellow-eyed Black Flycatcher, and the Gisakura trails with possible sightings of birds like the Kivu ground Thrush, short-tailed Warbler, Mountain Masked Apalis, and Regal Sunbird. The Kamiranzovu trail offers a chance of seeing the Grauer’s swamp warbler, short-tailed Warbler, and Grey-crested Kakamega.

Over 310 bird species have been recorded in Nyungwe Forest National Park, which reflects the wide habitat diversity and altitudinal range. Among the 310 species, these include the 29 species of the Albertine Rift mountains endemic birds that occur in Rwanda. The Chapin’s Flycatcher and Rockefeller’s Sunbird are found in Nyungwe, and both are globally threatened, restricted-range, and biome-restricted within Nyungwe.

Species

Visitors can see 11 of the 23 species from the Guinea-Congo forests biome. The park has recorded 71 of the 74 Afrotropical Highlands biome species that occur in Rwanda. Common birds in the park include the African paradise flycatcher, Chinspot batis, Crowned hornbill, Eastern mountain greenbul, and Long-crested eagle.