Virunga national park is among the three wonderful gorilla habitats located on the Virunga ranges and this is where it derives its name from. It is located on the Congo side of the mountain in the southeastern part of the country. This park is managed by the Virunga foundation and it has about 160 mountain gorillas living in the montane and tropical rain forest ranges.
This park had a rapid decline in the number of Congo nine years ago due to the then going civil war in Congo whereby the rebels used to hide in the forest and killed very many gorillas for food and also the outbreak of Ebola in Congo lead to the drastic decline of these gorillas. however, the past few years it has been making a comeback as efforts have been made to protect the gorillas in this gem so that people can enjoy them.
How to access the Virunga national park
Through the DRC, there is a 32 km distance to reach the Virunga from Goma, the capital of North Kivu province. Transport to access the park is normally organised by the management itself of the Virunga national park. it is recommendable to go by the guided tour or get someone who knows the area that is the local guide since the roads accessing the park are in sorry state and also the infrastructures at large around the park are not well developed as opposed to their counter parts of Rwanda and Uganda.
There is also a better way of reaching Goma is through traveling from Kigali on well conditioned roads to the DRC and Rwanda border near Goma which is almost a three hour drive. Crossing the borders is hectic free and from there it is about 10 minutes to Goma on foot. There is also an option of getting to Goma then to the national park through Uganda. This done by crossing over through the border of Bunagana where one has to acquire an affordable local visa.