GORILLA TREKKING IN UGANDA

Seeing these wild and rare primates is once in a life time experience. There are very few mountain gorillas left in the world - around only 1000 located in the mountains in Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo. They are endangered species and seeing them in their natural habitat is not a cheap experience. You will first need to secure a permit of USD 800 to see them in Uganda or USD 1500 in Rwanda. It is to be said that permits get booked up very quickly and months in advance, especially in a peak season (which includes July, when I went there), however I managed to find a company “Kawira Safaris” that were able to get the permits. You will need to transfer the money via secure link and it may feel like unsafe thing, but I read that it is a common practice. It is allowed to see gorillas only in the group of max 8 people and spend time with them for 1 hour. You also have to wear a mask in order not to pass any disease or illness to these endangered primates.

There are a few ways of seeing mountain gorillas in Bwindi National Park or Mgahinga Gorilla National Park that is just south of Bwindi (that has a large population of mountain gorillas). You can fly into Uganda and travel from Kampala capital or also from Rwanda capital Kigali that is actually closer to the park. As I had not been to Rwanda, I thought ‘let’s shoot 2 births at once’ and also visit Rwanda. I spent 2 days in Kigali visiting some local areas such as Genocide Memorial, Inema Arts Center and Kimironko Market. Kigali truly surprised me now green, clean and safe it felt. The whole country felt very developed and modern which is not what I expected at all. Lots of western style coffee shops too - the region is known as a coffee producing so that is no surprise I guess, but also a lot of vegetarian and vegan food options which is not what I usually would expect in Africa.

After spending time time in Kigali, we went on 2 day adventure to Uganda. We were picked up at 9am from our hotel in a safari type jeep and after driving through mountainous roads for 4 hours we reached Rwanda-Uganda border. As we had not bought Uganda visa, we paid USD 50 on the border. The process was very smooth and quick - probably around 20min. From the border it was another 30min to town called Kisoro, where we spent an afternoon at the lodge. As the town is in the mountains, it does get chilly. 

The next day we were picked up at 6am and after driving for around 45min we started our trek to find mountain gorillas. The trekking can take anywhere between 1-8h as gorillas are moving freely and as the day goes, they tend to move higher up in the mountains.

We needed up being lucky finding them after an hour thanks to ‘the trekkers’ - a group of local guys that are trekking gorillas from very early during the night so they can lead the way. 

We then were able to spend 1 hour with gorilla family. They are completely wild animals however this particular family is used to humans so is safe to be around with. At first, I am not going to lie, I felt a little bit nervous - gorillas are huge and at the end of the day wild animals, but they are also known to have friendly and gentle nature. After some time observing them I realised they are not bothered about us at all. You have to keep some distance but at times they were passing by us and we were only a meter a way from these b beautiful animals. 

After an hour with gorillas, we made our way down and we had a flight to catch from Kigali so made our journey back to the airport which took 5 hours in total. This trip is also doable in a day or you can stay longer and hike some volcanoes.

We paid $400 for 2 for transport, a night at the lodge and 3 meals + $800 each for the permit. It is certainly not a cheap experience but definitely worth the money.