Our 3 days gorilla habituation safari in Uganda takes you to the great Bwindi Impenetrable National park in southwestern Uganda for a memorable encounter with mountain gorillas. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was the first national park to begin organizing mountain gorilla trekking in 1991. The park has highest population of mountain gorillas in Africa. It is the only park where tourists can take part in the gorilla habituation experience. About 18 gorilla groups have now been habituated and open to standard gorilla tracking. What is gorilla habituation experience? The gorilla habituation experience allows tourists to take part in the process of habituating gorillas. Gorilla habituation refers to the process of making the primates used human presence. A suitable gorilla group is identified for study by a group of researchers, conservationists and local trackers. Once the researchers learn their feeding and nesting timetable, they come up with strategies to gain their trust. The process takes about 3 years and by that time, the primates would be able to tolerate humans in their midst. Researchers used to do everything behind the scenes but the Uganda Wildlife Authority begun allowing tourists to see what goes on in 2014.
Our safari Guide/Driver will meet you at the airport or hotel for pick up. You will be briefed on the details about the safari before embarking on a 480 kilometer journey to Bwindi impenetrable national park. While traveling, you will make stopovers to spot some road side attractions like equator crossing point and Igongo Cultural Centre just to mention a few. The Western park of Uganda has beautiful landscape, national parks and forests. All these features can be spotted on your way to Bwindi. Lunch will be at the Igongo Cultural Centre in Mbarara before proceeding to Bwindi. Expect to reach Bwindi late in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Nkuringo Gorilla Camp, Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge or Lake Mulehe Lodge.
You will rise up very early, have a cup of tea and wait for the driver to take you to Rushaga sector head offices. At the head offices, you will undergo a briefing about the rules for gorilla tracking and then be handed over to a team of researchers/Park Rangers who will lead you to the dense forests of Bwindi. The activity is similar to normal gorilla trekking in Bwindi but you will be with a team of experts. The interaction may be a bit different and you might be required to keep a longer distance to the primates because they are not yet certified as suitable for closer encounters. The Researchers and Park Rangers may get closer to the primates before allowing you to get nearer. You will observe the gorillas for 4 hours. This would be enough time to take all the photos and videos you want. Expect to come out of the forest late in the afternoon very tired but happy to have learnt a lot about mountain gorillas and what is being done to protect them in Africa.
Wake up at your own time but taking into consideration if you have a flight or program later in the Afternoon. The driver will start the long journey to Entebbe in case you are departing through Uganda or Kigali in Rwanda. There will be stops along the way for lunch and photography. The Driver will drop you at a hotel in one of the mentioned cities or straight at the airport in case you have a departure flight.
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