Many people travel to Africa for mountain gorilla tracking but in most cases they lack knowledge about where to go or which country to go to such that they get out of African continent while satisfied. In Africa, Uganda is ranked first in being a great conservative of half of the world’s left gorillas; this is joined by Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As a person who is too curious, I partnered with my fellow colleagues and we organized a journey to these African countries.
Gorilla permits in Uganda costs $600 and they are discounted to $450 in the months of April, May and November whereas permits in DR. Congo costs $400 and discounted permit at $ 200 USD and Rwanda having the most expensive permit at $1500. From these three countries, we opted to travel in two only that’s Uganda and DR.Congo. Nature Adventure Africa safaris hosted us at Entebbe airport form where we were taken to Airport view hotel in Entebbe. In the morning we started our journey to the western Uganda using Kampala-Mbarara-Kabale road.
This took us around 8 – 9 hours on the way to reach Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park at Rushaga Gorilla Camp where we slept that day. Very early in the morning we were taken to Uganda wildlife station at Bwindi forest for a briefing about the mountain gorilla trekking safari adventure and the forest. After being briefed, at exactly 8am and grouped 08 tourists we were given two game rangers who escorted us while gorilla trekking to ensure our safety in the park. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park protects around fourteen gorilla groups and these include Busingye, Oruzogo, Nkuringo, Nshongi and Kahungye among others all dispersed in four sectors of Buhoma, Nkuringo, Ruhija and Rushaga.
We trekked the Rushaga gorilla group along the forests trails, fortunately we did not take a lot of time since they had slept around the nearby places. For one hour we spent with them, we took photos and we also watched the gorilla babies playing around their mothers while leaping.
After wards we went back to the station and we awarded gorilla trekking certificates and we went to Travelers Rest Hotel in Kisoro, all the payments we made in these hotels included feeding.
Early in the morning, we entered Mgahinga Gorilla National Park to trek the endangered golden monkeys in this park, and along on the way we got advantage and we spotted again a male silver backs gorillas dominates the park, the way they relate with their families, associate with one another and how the female ones feed their babies. While trekking, we encountered also other primates such as the monkeys which are rare in the whole of Africa leaping over the trees. In the evening after enjoying these large giants, we drove to our lodge of rest in the Gisenyi – Goma border as we wait for the following day to cross to DRC Congo.
In the morning Moses took us to Virunga National Park in DR. Congo which is an immediate park adjacent to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. We passed via Goma to Mikeno Lodge where we slept on full board. The next day, we tracked mountain gorillas at Bukima point and relax at Bukima Tented Camp, the drama indeed is here in this camp since some gorillas used to flock into the camps and this gave us more opportunities to have a nice entertainment from them.
While in this Mikeno Lodge, one cannot go away minus observing the most Africa’s active volcano of Nyiragongo which adds beauty to the sky at night due to its exciting eruption activities which turns the sky red. Early in the morning, we were brought back to Kigali – Rwanda and with en-route lunch and after drive to Kigali Airport for your our return flight back home and I highly recommend Moses and Emma and the company made our journey a success and this became our best safaris about gorilla trekking ever in Africa.
