Howdy all, it’s time on my summation of last year’s trip to detail my day gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda last year. I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about how I was going to approach this experience, and have decided today I will recount the day in some detail, next time I will write more about the logistics and planning as well as talking about other options in East Africa for gorilla trekking.

So, let’s begin the day of mirth from the start of it, I staying at the mid-range option of Bunyonyi Safaris Resort outside Kabale. It cost $50USD a night and has poor reviews but wasn’t too bad all said especially for the price, the main issue was the WiFi.

430am. I was up and getting ready to go. Cold cold morning and we would be driving through the mist. I organised my tour through Big Apes Africa, I was by myself so the price included pick up, two hours drive, then I would join a group of 7 at the entrance to the park and head out for the trekking experience, and then get driven back. All for under $1000USD which included the $800 Gorilla Trekking Permit, so really the drive was around 2 hours each way and the company organised the permit and to be on the trek, so they did almost all the leg work as well as the transportation so it’s actually a really good price when you think about it.

I was picked up by Brian (whose name I misheard initially as ‘Ryan’ – if you watch the full video you’ll hear my mistake) at 5am and we drove on, waiting for the sun to show itself. When it did we were getting much closer to Bwindi and were in the mountains. The clouds were low and we were above some, and it was a really magical journey.

There was a brief stop at a lodge (Rushaga Camp). Brian went in and made copies of my permit and did some paperwork whilst I waited by the car, then it was on to Rushaga Village, and at the end of the village was a hut and a separate toilet which was the spot where we would embark on our trek into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Here I met with all the other foreigners here for their Gorilla trek, there is a daily limit and it was probably around 60 – 80 people in total. Here we received a briefing and broke into groups of 6 to 8 people, each would trek looking for a different family of gorillas. A group from the village sang and danced to welcome the group and most people left a small tip of $5 – 10USD.

I was part of the Mishaya Group – the Mishaya Family of Gorillas were the ones we were trekking. I think there were seven or eight in the family, and we would see five or six of them. Our guide for the trek was Jen – the guides work in the forest, so typically any tour you won’t be led by someone from outside the forest as they need to be experts in what they do and know the gorillas. We had a couple from Sydney, Australia who were in their 70s, a couple from Venezuela, and a couple of guys from the States (I think).

The trekking then began, we were all given tall walking sticks with carved gorillas at the top. Sadly, we couldn’t keep them because they were very cool. Mostly the tracks were clear. The hiking was not super difficult, there was a bit of up and down about it, and sometimes the paths were narrow. The guide is on the radio to trackers out in the forest who were searching for the gorillas before we arrived. They keep in contact with the guides who have the trekkers and guide them to the gorilla families. In our group we also had porters, which we paid $20USD each for. I didn’t have much except my day pack and a couple of large bottles of water, I carried my DSLR and action camera with me so as not to miss a good shot, but we were heavily encouraged to engage a porter as it provides some income to locals who have done this many times.

The older couple were not as fast as the younger members of the group, and struggled at times but their porters helped them out too. They felt that they were holding the group back and at one point offered to return, but thankfully everyone in the group encouraged them on and we said we would go at their pace. Everyone had come a long way for one of the most unique and special experiences we would have in our lives, and we didn’t want anyone to miss out. I was really happy with our group and our guide. We had the day to trek gorillas, there was no rush and the thought of someone missing out was not one that sat well with anyone in our group.

The trek was not overly challenging, but we must have walked for two and a half or three hours before we stopped in a clearing whilst Jen chatted on the radio. The Mishaya Family weren’t too far away! From here we were off the track. We also had a couple of guards with us with guns and machetes. The guns were in the very rare case of mountain elephants which we didn’t encounter. The macheted their way through the jungle and made a track and we all followed.

Then we met up with early trackers who had located the family, they too had machetes and hacked their way with us following through the dense foliage, for around five minutes, until we found them.

We then spent most of the next hour with the gorillas. There was the Silverback (basically the Dad), the mum and three or four young gorillas, a couple of them very young. They played fought and even had the courage to run up to a couple of the watchers and tapped one lady on the leg. Twice!

The gorillas are conditioned to accept humans. There are programs where they are approached and become to tolerate humans as not a threat but just, well passive character with cameras who watch and observe them. Through this initiative people are able to come to Uganda and other African countries and trek to see gorillas in their natural environment. Numbers were dangerously low, and are still very low, but because of the money this initiative has brought to the region gorillas are protected and live in an environment where their numbers are now slowly improving. In 2018 the census of mountain gorillas had numbers at dwindled to 1063 in the whole world. Half of that population was found in Bwindi. There has not been a census since. But it is believed that numbers have been increasing.

So we watched the family for an hour interacting, eating, playing, from up in the trees then down to the forest floor where they chilled a little. The Silverback was very restful and didn’t do much, trying to get in a nap or two. The youngest gorillas played a lot.

And then, well tips for the guards and trackers who found the gorillas, and we hiked back to the starting spot, which only took an hour or so, much quicker than the way in because this time we knew exactly where we were going.

Once back at Rushaga we had a debrief, paid the porters and tipped the guide and then it was a two-hour drive back to Bunyonyi. What a day! It’s one of the greatest experiences of my life!! I was back by about 4pm, so the whole trekking experience was about five and a half hours I think. From memory we started the trekking around 830am.

Another post with a bit more of the information coming your way very soon! For now, thanks for popping by and reading! Take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!