The experience of a safari is in essence a thrill of the senses. It’s seeing the drama of a lion kill or a pack of wild dogs onWhile Rwanda is famously the home of the Virunga Mountains, where Dian Fossey researched and habituated mountain gorillas in the 1960s, this country has a lot more to offer than gorilla trekking alone. In fact, if gorilla trekking is beyond your budget, Rwanda is still worth visiting as an up-and-coming destination offering primate walks, volcano hikes and bird-watching in Volcanoes National Park and Nyungwe Forest National Park, plus boat trips on Lake Kivu in the Rift Valley and a classic safari in search of the Big Five in low-key Akagera National Park.

a hunt, it’s being woken to the sound of a fish eagle or grunting hippos, it’s the smell of the camp fire, the taste of your gin and tonic and it is being touched to the core by Africa’s untamed beauty.