Akagera National Park may be small by african standards, and it has often been labeled as ‘not the Serengeti’ due to its size and absence of massive wildlife concentrations—something rare outside of the actual Serengeti or Boma-Badingilo in South Sudan. However, Akagera is home to rich biodiversity, including several unique species, and it preserves Rwanda’s last remaining diverse savanna ecosystems. The park is renowned for its remarkable variety of landscapes, offering visitors a stunning mix of hills, plains, lakes, and an extensive wetland system. This diversity reveals itself over time, rewarding those who take the time to explore it, whether during a single multi-day visit or better, across different seasons. The shapes of the hills, the shifting colors of the landscape, the expansive skies, and the changing vegetation provide endless beauty for visitors who choose to make Akagera a destination of countless days.

The park’s diversity and beauty stand as a powerful testament to the importance of conserving landscapes. These, here and elsewhere, serves as ancient, millennia-old evidence of our shared history and provides one of the last opportunities to understand the long environmental history of our planet.

Here is an aerial glimpse, with images taken over the years.