Nyandungu Eco Park is the latest addition to the beautiful places to visit and enjoy nature in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city. A formerly degraded wetland has been superbly restored and turned into an eco-tourism park with a lush jungle of grasslands, bushes, woodland and forest, interspersed with swamps, small ponds and water streams. Nyandungu Eco-tourism Park covers a total of 121.7 hectares that majorly comprises of 70 hectares of wetland and 50 hectares of growing forest.
These diverse habitats of Nyandungu teem with excellent birdlife, offering an excellent place for birdwatching in Kigali City with more than 100 species thought to be inhabiting the park. If you are a visiting birdwatcher in Kigali, Nyandungu is as convenient as is very productive and spending a day will give you a good count of local species. And, if you are planning a long birding tour in Rwanda, a Nyandungu will offer you an excellent place to start your tour that you can combine with Umusambi Village – another restored wetland in Kigali. The Common Stonechat will welcome you as soon as you step on the paved trail into the wetland. The woodlands and bushes provide a good chance of spotting the elusive & striking Black Cuckoo-shrike. The grasslands are alive with flocks of mannikins, waxbills, finches. The swamps and ponds are a beehive of weavers, kingfishers, herons, bee-eaters, cisticolas, etc…
Nyandungu – a beautiful space to escape the bustle and enjoy nature in the city
Nyundung Eco Park has been superbly set for a lovely nature immersion with 10 kilometers of neat paved walking and cycling trails accessing all the habitats and areas of the park. You can walk to a pond and enjoy the water birds and other aquatic wildlife, or escape away into the forest interior and enjoy the tranquility while listening to the soothing sounds of birds singing.
A great family outing in Nyandungu
The park is great for weekend family outings as the young ones can learn a lot about nature and birds. The biking trails will provide a wonderful cycling adventure around the park. Bikes are also available at the park for hire.
Kids activities such as painting competitions are often organized by the park.
A nice place to start your gorilla trip and safari in Rwanda
Your gorilla trekking trip in Rwanda can start at Nyandungu with an early morning walk at the park to appreciate and support this incredible conservation effort while enjoying a beautiful early morning nature experience. You can allow 1 – 2 hours here as your part of Kigali city tour before heading off to the gorilla mountains.
Nyandungu is also nice and convenient stopover on your safari trip to Akagera National Park in the east of the country. You can visit the wetland on your to the Akagera or have it as a lunch stop on your back.
The Restaurant
At the end of a beautiful walk or cycling the park has nice restaurant to refresh and enjoy a meal. Meanwhile your birding and nature experience is halted when you sit down at the restaurant as it is well set up overlooking swamp, thickets and woodlands that keep providing more birds and beautiful nature views.
Getting to Nyandungu eco-tourism park
Enter via the main Entrance on the highway to Eastern Rwanda.
