Because this was a family trip, Francis and I were totally okay with going along for whatever, and figured no summits or big hikes were involved. However when we arrived in Rwanda we found out there was an extra day set aside in the plan for exactly that! We of course jumped at the chance, immediately looking at gaia and trip reports to scope out our options. 

There are five big volcanoes in Volcano National Park, and they all border either the DRC, Uganda, or both. We immediately ruled out the biggest one: Kirisimbi, since it’s a mandatory two days, and then subsequently ruled out Bisoke since despite the amazing views, the true summit is across the border and you can only get to a lookout. There was a similar issue with Subenyo: despite being a cool scramble, there was sadly no trail from the Rwandan side. This left us with two options: Gahinga, or Muhabura. 

Muhabura is the second tallest volcano, and Gahinga is the smallest. By doing Gahinga, we’d get a summit, not much altitude sickness, a fun and easier day out, and probably be able to avoid the mid afternoon heavy rain storms. That said, Muhabura provided a much more exciting challenge.

By chosing Muhabura though, we faced an extra restriction. Despite it being an absolutely massive day, there is a time limit: if you’re not on the summit by 1pm, you must turn around. I suppose this is due to the guides not having headlamps or wanting to be out past dark. This time limit is made even harder by the fact that you can’t actually start hiking until 9am when the guides are ready at the National Park check-in area. This means you must be able to complete 1800m elevation in less than 4 hours. I’ve done many days this big back home, but certainly not at high altitude, or in that short time frame.

That said, we were still super keen. When we told our trip guide and hotel staff though, they laughed at us, saying that apparently many tourists try to go up it and are simply too tired or not fit enough to do it in time. “Their hearts just give out” they told us. This only made me want to do it more, but of course I didn’t want to pay all the money to hike the mountain only to be turned around. 

In Rwanda, unlike Canada, you definitely can’t show up and just hike. It’s mandatory to hire a driver, a guide, and to go with escorts from the Rwandan army! For those curious, this set us back 150USD (cash) for the driver, 100USD for the hiking permit (paid by card at the park entrance), and around $30-$40 in tips for guides etc. We’d better go and make it worth it!

On the morning of our hike, we showed up as early as possible. The rest of my family met up with their group for Bisoke Mountain hike, while Francis and were unsurprisingly the only ones assigned to our guide. Our guide’s name was Jon, and gave us all the necessary warnings we’d already heard, before excitedly telling us he was so happy we’d signed up – we were the first group to do so in 4 months!

We then hurriedly met up with our driver so we could start heading over to the trailhead. Our driver, Alex, was very friendly, and quickly made friends with our guide who he’d never met before either. On the drive, him and Jon told us that the mountain name “Muhabura” means “The Guide” in their local language: Kinyarwanda. It got its name because despite being the second highest, it’s the one that’s the easiest to see from all nearby towns in Rwanda, so many groups through history have used it for navigation.

We began our hike (as expected) around 9am, allowing our guide Jon to set the pace through the farmland until we reached the forest. The edge of the forest marks the beginning of Volcanos National Park, and it’s there that we met up with our army escorts as well. It wasn’t very clear to me why they were necessary since Rwanda is on friendly terms with Uganda, but from the sounds of it, the hikers from the Ugandan side also do the same, and we wouldn’t want to be the only ones unarmed.