Akagera National Park is located in the east of Rwanda. Kibungu is the city that is nearest to the park and the best starting point.
The park covers over 2500 sq km of savannah west of the Kagera River, which denotes the frontier with Tanzania. The park has a variety of wildlife and is a habitat for over 500 different species of birds. There are accommodation facilities on the edge of the park at Gabiro, 100km (60 miles) to the north. It is best not to visit the park in the rainy season (December, March and April) since many of the routes become impassable.
“Akagera, with all its complex mix of terrains, vegetation and animal life… is a very special place on earth, a place to preserve at all costs for future generations.”
– Jean Pierre Vande, writing in the award-winning conservation magazine Africa Environment & Wildlife.
Akagera comes as an exciting surprise after the steep cultivated hills and breezy climate that characterize the test of the country. Set at a relatively low altitude along the Tanzanian border, this beautiful game reserve protects an archetypal African savannah landscape of tangled acacia and brachystegia bush, interspersed with patches of open grassland and a dozen swamp-fringed lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Country/Territory – Rwanda
Administrative region(s) – Kibungo, Umutara
Central Coordinates – 30o 38′ East 1o 45′ South
Area – ~900 sq. km.
Altitude – 1250m – 1825m
Rainfall – 750-850 mm/year
Bordering Rwandas eastern neighbor Tanzania, Akagera National Park could scarcely be more different in mood to the breezy cultivated hills that characterize much of Rwanda. Dominated scenically by the labyrinth of swamps and lakes that follow the meandering course of the Akagera River, the most remote source of the Nile, this is archetypal African savannah landscape of tangled acacia woodland interspersed with open grassland. Akagera is, above all, big game country! Herds of elephant and buffalo emerge from the woodland to drink at the lakes, while lucky visitors might stumble across a leopard, a spotted hyena or even a stray lion.