What is in a Gorilla Trek?
Gorilla Trekking is an unforgettable, life-changing safari experience – a unique adventure in the heart of Africa’s most spectacular rain forests. The treks take you deep into the rain forest in search of the magnificent mountain gorillas.
Basing on our attained experience, the trek can take anything from 30 minutes to a full adventure, as you wander through the forest to locate the gorillas. No matter how short or long the gorilla trek, spending time in the company of the gorillas, guarantees that the journey will be extraordinary. All our tours start either from Kampala, the Capital of Uganda or Kigali in Rwanda and take you deep into the natural tropical rain forests, homes to the few remaining rare and endangered mountain gorillas in the world.
Gorilla Trekking D-Day
A typical gorilla trekking starts with assigning the visitors to the respective habituated gorilla groups. In Rwanda the Park Authorities will assign them on site the day of the trekking.
After this formality the Rangers will give you a briefing of the way they will conduct this fantastic guided nature walk to the gorillas. They will give you extensive information on the environment, the gorilla family you will visit and the way you should behave with them. The so named gorilla rules will be clearly set out because its a corner stone in the conservation of the gorillas. There is not only a high risk of disease transmission to gorillas and vice versa, but the daily visits can cause behavioral disturbance and stress to gorillas. Please respect the rules!
Gorilla trekking is unpredictable and its difficult to foresee how many hours you will hike. In Bwindi the hiking time are generally much challenging. The terrain is usually more difficult in the rain forest and hiking times are longer because when looking for food Bwindi gorillas tend to travel longer distances per day. In Rwanda the gorilla trekking is usually easier except for the challenging Susa group located at the Karisimbi volcano.
This doesn’t mean that you don’t need a good physical condition in Rwanda. We have seen several times that visitors had some problems during their trekking. Rain can get you by surprise and during the dry season gorilla tend to climb higher for their preferred bamboo shoots. It has to be said that the park rangers and the porters are extremely helpful and will do everything they can to make sure that visitors can see the gorillas.
For conservation purposed the time spend with the gorillas is limited to one hour. The daily visits have an impact on gorilla activity patterns. The daily visits are a source of animal stress and less feeding is a strong justification for the one-hour rule.
Gorilla trekking is the strongest animal experience ever! Tracking the gorillas is a unique experience – it leads you to meet unusual creatures on their own terms and its a very intense and trilling experience! You will be rewarded with a certificate of the National Park!
