How to survive freak accidents on holiday

They're highly unlikely eventualities, but freak accidents do happen. Your strategy in dealing with a dangerous encounter will depend entirely on the species of beast - a lion, for example, you should back away slowly from but never turn and run
 

While the vast majority of safari expeditions are safe, no drive is ever risk-free when it comes to wild animals. 

Your strategy in dealing with a dangerous encounter will depend entirely on the species of beast.

Find yourself face-to-face with a lion, for example, and you'll need to make direct eye contact and back away very slowly. Never turn your back, never run.

If you endure a stand-off with a leopard, the reverse is true. Here, you'll need to avoid eye-contact at all costs and hope they lose interest.

Elephants may look slow and peaceful, but they can be highly aggressive and very capable of harm. The trick here is to stand your ground and pretend to be brave. You're be hoping they'll make one or two mock charges, then saunter off when unchallenged.

As for a buffalo, there'll be no such warning. You'll never outrun one, nor survive them in combat, so your only option is to get a head start and climb a tree. 

Africa's best national parks

More and more visitors flock each year to the continents' parks and reserves, bearing witness to nature on a grand scale and playing a vital role in generating tourism income.

Here are some of the top picks on the continent.

Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

Maasai Mara National Reserve, which has been honored by the World Travel Awards, is named after its ancestral inhabitants, the Maasai people, and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in southwest Kenya.

In addition to an impressive population of big cats, rhinos and elephants, it plays host from July through to October each year to one of the world's more spectacular movements of wildebeest known as the Great Migration, the phenomenon involves more than 1 million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of gazelles, zebras and other animals, which migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Serengeti National Park was established in 1951, making it Tanzania's oldest national park. The park is arguably one of the most famous in the world and covers 5,700 square miles of grassland, riverine forest, woodlands and savannah.

It is famed for its spectacular scenery, diverse wildlife and its part in the impressive annual migration of more than a million wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of other animals.

Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo

Established in 1925, Virunga National Park is Africa's oldest national park and is often considered the crown jewel of parks on the continent. It lies in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The park is known for being the "continent's most biologically diverse protected area" and is home to endangered species, such as the mountain gorilla and the okapi.

In the 1970s, Virunga welcomed an average of 6,500 visitors every year, but it has suffered terribly from armed conflict and poaching. The park is slowly re-establishing itself through international donations.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located in southwestern Uganda and is home to a multitude of birds, butterflies and endangered species, including the mountain gorilla. Some 300 wild gorillas live in the park, accounting for nearly half the world's population
The park also boasts more than 160 species of trees.
The main tourist attraction is gorilla tracking, which generates a steady stream of revenue for the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Kruger National Park, South Africa

Kruger National Park was established as a game reserve in 1898 and is home to a vast number of species, including more than 500 types of bird and more than 100 reptiles. It also boasts a huge diversity of trees and flowers.

The park is also known for big game, as well as more than 255 recorded archeological sites. Several rivers traverse the park from west to east, including the Sabie, Olifants, Crocodile, Letaba, Luvuvhu and Limpopo.

3 Days Gorilla Tour in Volcanoes National Park- Rwanda

Kigali - Volcanoes National Park

With a distance of approximately 80 Kilometers from Kigali International Airport to Volcanoes National Park, this drive at most takes 2.5 hours making this safari package ideal for short stay and business travelers to Rwanda. Gorilla Trekking in Rwanda is not only a fun and thrilling adventure but also a noble cause because a huge sum of the funds collected from the sale of Gorilla permits goes into conservation.

If you want to keep the magic alive a little longer you can add a few days in Masai Mara to your holiday agenda. Masai Mara is one of the most spectacular safari destinatins in the world, Huge herds, big adventures. Once you’ve been on Safari in the Masai Mara National Reserve everywhere else will feel tame by comparison.

DAY 1

Kigali – Volcanoes National Park

Arrival of your international flight. Met by our representative.

Your safari guide will take you around for a tour of Kigali City. Highlights of the Kigali city tour include a visit to the Kigali Memorial Center which is a memorial center in remembrance to the over 800,000 people who lost their lives in the 1994 genocide.

Arrive and check-in.

Dinner and overnight at the selected/available lodge or tented camp.

DAY 2

Volcanoes National Park

06h30: Early morning breakfast at the hotel/lodge then depart for the ORTPN offices for briefing prior to departing into the forest to start trekking the mountain gorillas.

Visit the local community in the afternoon after your lunch and close off the day by visiting the iby’iwacu cultural village for local musical performances by a cultural troupe

Dinner and overnight at the selected/available lodge or tented camp.

DAY 3

Volcanoes National Park – Kigali

06h30: Set off for an early morning mountain gorilla tracking adventure at the Volcanoes National Park

Tracking ideally will last anywhere between 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on your tour guide of the day
Depart for your homebound international flight at Kigali International Airport.

Rwanda Increases Gorilla Permit Tarriffs

Press Release from Rwanda Development Board.

Kigali, 6 May 2017 – The Rwanda Development Board today announced an increase in the price of Gorilla Permits from US$ 750 to US $1,500 for all visitors effective immediately. A new exclusive package for tourists who wish to book an entire family of gorillas was also introduced at US$ 15,000, and will receive exclusive personalized tour guide services.

The price increase will not affect tourists who had already purchased their tickets for gorilla trekking at the time of this announcement.

Tourists who visit other national parks (Nyungwe and Akagera) for a minimum of three days, in addition to gorilla trekking will receive a discount of 30%. Similarly, conference tourists, who stay pre or post conference dates to see gorillas will be eligible for a 15% discount.

In line with Rwanda’s high-end tourism strategy, the price increase aims to strengthen conservation efforts and contribute more to the development of communities living around the Volcanoes National Park.

Along with the new tariff, the tourism revenue sharing rate for communities adjacent to the park, will also increase from 5% to 10%, which will quadruple the absolute revenues received by communities. Over the last 12 years, more than 400 community projects have been completed including hospitals, schools, business development centers and water supply systems to facilitate access to clean water. These projects directly benefit the people living around the parks.

Ms. Clare Akamanzi, the Chief Executive Officer at Rwanda Development Board said:

“Gorilla trekking is a highly unique experience. We have raised the price of permits in order to ensure sustainability of conservation initiatives and enhance visitors’ experience. We also want to make sure that the communities living near the park area receive a bigger share of tourism revenues to fund development projects and empower them economically.”

Differences Between Mountain And Lowland Gorillas

There are two different subspecies of gorilla that are often lumped into one. There are distinct differences, though; the mountain gorilla is larger, with longer hair and shorter arms than their lowland gorilla cousins. Lowland gorillas are much more likely to be seen in the trees, and prefer a more heavily forested, flatter habitat than the mountain gorilla.

Mountain, or eastern gorillas, Gorilla beringei, are found in the Virunga volcanoes that separate the Democratic Republic of Congo from Rwanda and Uganda.

Western or lowland gorillas inhabit the forests of equatorial Africa from the western lowlands near the Cameroon coast through the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Angola, and possibly the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As their names suggest, the two subspecies of gorilla have very different habitats. The lowland gorillas make their homes in the thick rain forests on the Atlantic Coast of Africa. They have a relatively small area that they still live in in the wild, including untouched wilderness in Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, and Cameroon. The mountain gorilla is found at much higher altitudes and much farther inland, surviving in a pocket of wilderness in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of their native habitats are the rocky slopes of once-active volcanoes, although they are known to venture into the high, alpine regions of the mountain ranges where they can face freezing temperatures.

Both subspecies live in family groups called “troops.” Large troops with as many as 30 individuals have been seen, but the usual makeup of these families is quite a bit smaller. A gorilla troop usually consists of one dominant male, a handful of his females, and their immature offspring. Adult male children will split off from their family unit to travel alone; around the age of 15, males will begin collecting their own harem of females and start their own family group. Between leaving their parents and collecting females of their own, immature lowland males will occasionally form their own troop, sometimes attached to a parent group.

There is some difference in the physical features between the two, although it can be hard to distinguish at a glance. Both have very long arms—their arm span is longer than they are tall—but mountain gorillas typically have shorter arms than their lowland cousin. They also have a larger nose and jaw, and larger teeth.

When stressed or upset, male mountain gorillas emit a strong odor from glands under their arms. Studies of lowland gorillas have so far shown that scent communication doesn’t play as large a role in their culture.

Golden Monkey Surveying the Area

Sustainable travel enables conservation of the things that make a destination desirable in the first place.
 

Rather than denuding forests for a strip of souvenir shops and a tiny fenced reserve, places like Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park protect the native habitat for several rare species, including the golden monkey, mountain gorilla and forest elephant. Park tourism dollars employ guides, trackers and porters and also support community development projects that reduce the incentive to cut forest for illegal farms or set antelope snares, which can kill endangered monkeys and gorillas. 

Many primate families in the park are comfortable with close human presence. I was thrilled to get within twelve feet of this beautiful golden when it descended from the trees to search for tender bamboo shoots. It paid little attention to me, but surveyed the area briefly, perhaps as a caution against eagles.