Gateway to the mountain gorillas — the Virunga volcanoes, Dian Fossey's legacy, and Rwanda's coolest highland town
Musanze (formerly Ruhengeri) is the market town at the foot of the Virunga volcanic chain in northwest Rwanda — 100km from Kigali, at 1,850m elevation, with the five Rwandan volcanoes visible on clear mornings. The town is the logistical base for gorilla trekking in Volcanoes National Park — one of the most expensive and most sought-after wildlife experiences in Africa: $1,500 for a single trekking permit (one hour with one gorilla family), but a genuinely transformative encounter with habituated mountain gorillas in their forest habitat. Beyond gorillas: the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund runs tou…
The Virunga volcanoes have been inhabited and farmed since at least 1000 BCE; the colonial name Ruhengeri dates from the Belgian period. The area was the site of some of the worst violence of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, partly because the Interahamwe used the Virunga forest as a refuge and operational base. The post-genocide government's management of Volcanoes National Park — including the gorilla permit system, the revenue-sharing with surrounding communities, and the investment in mountain gorilla conservation — transformed a devastated region into one of Africa's most successful conservati…