Uganda - Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi
/In January we set off to Rwanda to only have our airplane break mid air and have to turn back. This little delay made us miss the most sought after part of our trip. Determined to make it happen we booked our trip again once home with an even larger agenda in mind.
Original Post: https://www.tripnwithtrina.com/blog/2019/1/27/roaming-in-rwanda
We decided this time to make an overnight trip of the hike instead of the day trip. I am completely glad we did as the views at Rushaga Lodge were a definite highlight. The lodge is tucked in the middle of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park close to all the gorilla trek start points. Our guide Christopher picked us up promptly at 8am from our Kigali guesthouse.
Below is a breakdown of the inclusions and itinerary. I do not add full costs as its dependent on the number of people, budget range and number of nights.
Permits in Uganda at this time are $600 per person versus $1500 in Rwanda. In July 2020 permits in Uganda will increase to $700 per person.
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Safari cost Includes
Gorilla permit
1 night accommodation (Budget/Mid-range) - Triple room
Meals
Bottled Water
4x4 Safari car to and from Kigali
Fuel
English speaking driver-guide
Hotel pickup and drop off in Kigali
A stop at Lake Bunyonyi/Lake Mutanda
Safari Itinerary
Transfer to Uganda
Our driver will meet you at the hotel to kick-start our safari. You will then head to Uganda through Katuna Border. Upon crossing, you will head to Kabale Town known as "The Switzerland of Africa". We can have a stop at lake Bunyonyi for relaxation (or stay there for the night) and pictures and then settle in our lodge for gorilla tracking the following day.
Day 2: Gorilla trekking and transfer back to Kigali
This is the gorilla trekking day. Early in the morning, you will gather at the park offices where you will find fellow trekkers.
Please make sure you let the ranger know your interests before attaching you to a group. Some gorilla groups require a certain amount of physical fitness and might not be favorable to every one. Therefore availing this information to your ranger will help him to organize the best gorilla group to track.
Here you will be grouped(8 people) and the ranger will take you through the rules or Do's and Dont's of gorilla trekking.and then he will lead you into the forest to track the gorillas. The ranger uses radio communication to stay in touch with the trackers who head into the forest way before you start on your way into the forest. The trackers inform your ranger about the whereabouts of the gorillas and direct him to the actual location of the gentle giants.
You will then spend a maximum of 1 Hour in the presence of the gorillas. Here you will be able to take pictures and observe the way of life of these primates. After the experience, you will trek back out of the forest. Our driver will be waiting for you and will take you back to Kigali.
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Now lets get back to the journey. The trip takes around 5 hours from Kigali to the Bwindi area. We came in rainy season this time so roads were washed out in places. Ebola has been found in the area so we did have to go through checkpoints both ways at the borders.
The lunch in route was impromptu as the Coffee Pot Cafe we intended to eat at was closed on Sundays. We stopped at the hostel across the street for a quick lunch. There are no complaints as the views of Volcanoes National Park were amazing from their courtyard. The roads take you into some remote villages overlooking numerous lakes around Bwindi.
As you can see in the itinerary its an early morning meeting with the rangers. The family we were assigned to was the Mucunguzi group which had 8 members; including 1 male silverback and 3 babies. There are ton of packing suggestions all over the internet, but personally the must have for the hike was a porter, walking stick, water, gloves, bug spray and gaiters.
The cost for the porter are around $15 each and it includes the trekking pole. Please tip your guides, rangers and trackers. This maybe the closest you get to helping someone who devotes their time and effort everyday to save these amazing animals. You will get two trackers, two guides and one ranger on your trek. Any tip is honestly welcome, but $5 each for a full day with them is standard for tipping.
Our car drove us to the start and we setoff into the jungle. About an hour into our trek we found out we accidentally started tracking the wrong family. All the food and drinks we packed and the porters were carrying were coming in handy. Plan for the worst and hope for the best in terms of length of hike. You could be out there for nearly 6 hours if the family is further into the forest.
The trackers located our group and we started off again around 11am. The hike was straight down the mountain through some crazy foliage; which took a lot of effort to stay upright. We slipped often and even with the best shoes it was hard to navigate through the wild vines they had recently hacked away with machetes. About an hour into the hike and we located the group. We left all our belongings with porters and went to meet the gorilla group.
We came upon the male silverback first. The first rule of gorilla trekking is do not run when the gorillas approach you. The trackers were hacking at some bushes around the very massive gorilla and lets just say it got agitated. He did charge us showing his teeth. It is something I will always remember, as most in the group tried to run. Its funny now, but in hindsight it was pretty scary in the moment. A real reminder that while they have been habituated to human contact over the last 20 years. They are still wild animals in the jungle.
After the silverback decided it was nap time we moved on to find the rest of the family. A few minutes later we located the mother and two of the babies. The babies were super playful and we really had to stay still as possible, as they became quite curious of our presence. You try to maintain at least 7 meters in distance between yourself and the gorillas at all times. The hour passed by so quickly as we moved positions for better views of the family.
The trek back out of the jungle was completely straight up. We used vines to pretty much swing ourselves up to higher levels, as the undergrowth was so thick you could barely place your feet on the ground below. We are given a completion certificate for all our efforts. We hugged our guides and thanked them for all the memories we made with their help. We headed back to the van where the rest of our packed lunch remained and drove onward to Kigali.
Happy Traveling,
Katrina
No fee was paid for this review by the company and my trip was not compensated for a review.
Tour operator:
https://gorillaandadventuresafaris.com
Photos are a combination of efforts from Debbie, Diane, Krystle and myself.
