Fun facts about mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda : Mountain gorilla trekking is a fun that takes you to a mountainous forest to look for mountain gorillas and spend an hour in their presence. This fun safari activity is done all year round in Uganda, Rwanda and the democratic republic of Congo. These are the three countries in the region and the world that are known to have these creatures.
The gorilla parks in these countries are Bwindi national park and mgahinga national park in Uganda, Volcanoes national park in Rwanda and Virunga National park in the democratic republic of Congo.
Mountain gorilla trekking experiences in these parks are similar and they all start early in the morning with a brief and there after you head into the forest to look for the animals, when you find them spend an hour with them and then exit the forest.
Uganda with two mountain gorilla parks and the highest number of the mountain gorillas in the region gets the most trekkers through the year that’s why in this article we want to share the fun facts about mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda.
- 9 – 10 hour drive to the gorilla parks
It’s a 9 – 10 hour drive from Uganda’s capital Kampala to any of the mountain gorilla parks in Uganda. Yes you heard right! To get to either Bwindi national park or mgahinga national by road from Kampala you will spend 9 to 10 hours on the road. But be of good cheer this road trip is quite fun, you get to enjoy beautiful scenery on your way and you get to have stops along way to views some magnificent sights and interact with communities which is pretty worthwhile.
And if the long road trip ha scared you, there are other alternatives to getting to the park. You can fly to the park from Entebbe or kajjansi and you will be assured to get to the park in less than three hours.
Or if you still want to use road, you can go through Kigali to any of the parks, which is about 5 to 6 hours, long but better than the 9-10 hour drive.
- Bwindi National park has four sectors
Well if you are trekking in Bwindi, you will notice early on that first Bwindi forest where the gorillas live is quite a big big forest; so you can trek all of it in one go. That’s why Bwindi is divided into sectors – four sectors to be precise buhoma, ruhija, rushaga and Nkuringo where the different gorilla families live and you get to trek one family from one sector.
You may be wondering which of the four is the better sector; well all of them are good and give you a great experience
- Mgahinga has only one gorilla family
Unlike Bwindi that has over 10 gorilla families, Mgahinga has one gorilla family and its that family that you get trek when you visit this amazing gorilla park. You may be wondering if it has only one family, what advantage does it have over Bwindi; well we don’t want to say advantage but when you visit mgahinga national park you trek the gorillas, go bird watching, hike one of the Virunga mountains, visit the lake Bunyonyi that is nearby and visit the batwa community among other things.
- Book permits in advance
For mountain gorilla trekking in Uganda, you have to book your trekking permits way in advance about 3 to 1 month in advance for you to get a chance to trek the gorillas.
- A Whole day experience
Mountain gorilla trekking is a whole day experience – in most cases, so as you plan for it cut out the whole day for it, to be on a safe side. The activity usually starts with a briefing in the morning, then you enter the forest where you trek to find the gorillas and when you find them you spend an hour before you trek to exit. Totaling up to about 6 to 8 hours or more.
