Gorilla trekking in Uganda

Gorilla trekking in Uganda is one of the most interesting and most rewarding activity and its mostly done in Bwindi impenetrable national park and mgahinga national park. Tourists that have been on a Uganda safaris rate highly this activity as the best in Uganda because it makes them to spend more time with the mountain gorillas face to face.

Mountain gorillas rarely survive outside the natural habitat especially in the zoo that is to say they only live in the rainforest jungles and thus the name mountain gorilla.

As said earlier that there are only 2 gorilla trekking  destinations in Uganda and that’s  mgahinga national park and Bwindi impenetrable national park. With that they also offer 5 rootage’s such as nkuringo, rushaga, buhoma, ruhija all these are in Bwindi and ntebeko in mgahinga. All these are managed by Uganda wildlife authority.

There are 20 habituated mountain gorilla families and 160 gorilla trekking permits every day.

1.BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK

Bwindi national park is a home to half of the worlds mountain gorillas and the treks are done basically for 7hours and more. A maximum of 500 mountain gorillas are split into 36 social groups, 11 habituated gorilla groups that are visited daily plus one group that is reserved for research. The gorilla trekking sectors include

BUHOMA SECTOR

This sector is found in the north of Bwindi in Kanungu district and that’s where every visitor first visits due to its amazing past and current history.

This is the most adorable region for gorilla trekking. While in buhoma tourists can participate in other activities such as game drives in ishasha, forest walks among others.

Buhoma Sector

It’s a home to 3 mountain gorilla families which are already habituated and these are rushegura, habinyanja and mubare family and each have their own history.

Mubare was the first group to be habituated in 1992 and its known as the oldest family with 9 members.

Habinyanja was habituated in 1997 with 17 members and rushegura family in 2000 with 19 members

These three gorilla families are visited by 8 people every day.

RUHIJA SECTOR

The sector is a home to 3 mountain gorilla families that is oruogo, kyaguiro and bitukura. All those are available for trekking and only 8 people are allowed to trek the mountain gorillas.

Tourists can also enjoy birding while in this region and that’s why they are required to move with binoculars.

NKURINGO SECTOR

This sector is found in the south part of Bwindi National Park. This is a home to the nkuringo gorilla family which is headed by Rafiki. The family has 19 members who are later joined by the bushaho gorilla family which crosses from rushaga sector.

This family was first habituated in 1997 and in the sectors its only nkuringo that has given birth to twins in 2004 in December.

RUSHAGA SECTOR

In the rushaga sector there are 5 families and it’s the only sector for habituation. This is recommended as the best area for gorilla trekking in Bwindi impenetrable park. Within this region the habituation experience takes 4 hours and only 4 people are allowed

The gorilla permits for habituation goes for 1,500 USD and 600 USD for gorilla trekking.

2. MGAHINGA NATIONAL PARK

The mgahinga national park is also known to be a home of mountain gorillas as well as golden monkeys which are believed to only be in Uganda

Besides wildlife there’s a cultural heritage such as the Batwa pygmies who inhabited the forest with the mountain gorillas

Gorilla trekking in mgahinga starts from ntebeko at around 8am in the morning and it takes 4 hours. This is because the paths are clear and accessible.

Therefore, for one to engage in mountain gorilla trekking safari, they have to look at the 2 national parks in order to have an amazing tour