Gorillas – mountain gorillas are perhaps the major tourist attraction in the ‘Pearl of Africa’’ – Uganda. Mountain gorillas in Uganda thrive in two national parks – Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, all lying in the southwestern region of the country.
Bwindi resides the largest portion of these endangered species – mountain gorillas. The Park comprises of almost 500 mountain gorillas – which is nearly half a population of these precious creatures in total – worldwide. Mgahinga alone also inhabits over 100 mountain gorillas – thus making Uganda the best country for mountain gorilla expeditions; with two mountain gorilla refuges.
Mountain gorillas in Uganda are trekked in groups of an utmost of 8 individuals per trekking group. Each trekking group is accompanied by an experienced park ranger to help it find gorillas quickly and easier. Like humans, mountain gorillas live in families and each gorilla family comprises of over ten individuals. During the trekking session, each group will have to visit/trek one particular gorilla family that you will watch for strictly one hour.
Gorilla expeditions in both of Uganda’s mountain gorilla national parks start with briefings about the activity – briefings are conducted at the starting point where you will meet your fellow trekkers whom you will be grouped with to go for the trekking process inside the natural habitats of these beautiful and amazing creatures.
With gorilla trekking, you will spend one hour watching the gorillas exhibiting their amazing daily activities. The trekking session however can last for one hour or more, depending on where the gorillas might have spent their previous night from. But after trekking and finding them, you will only view them for one magical and memorable hour. In case you want to spend much time with the gorillas, you can opt going for the gorilla habituation experience where you spend almost a full day in the gorilla territories. The gorilla habituation experience is only offered in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Best time to go for gorilla safaris in Uganda:
Meanwhile, most gorilla lovers will ask themselves that what the best time to visit gorillas in Uganda is? Well, visiting gorillas in Uganda is an all-year-round activity – the Parks are always open through-out the year. However, during the dry months of June to August, and then December to February, gorilla trekking expeditions in Uganda are at the peak as this is certainly the best time for trekking gorillas. It is the best time simply because during the dry season, the forest is dry; enabling trekkers to trek the gorillas comfortably unlike during the rainy season where by the forest is so muddy and wet.
Being the peak season, by that time gorilla permits are on a very high demand and tourists who wish to trek gorillas by that time are highly emphasized to book their permits as early as possible to avoid inconveniences.
But also, the phrase ‘’best time to visit gorillas’’ can be interpreted differently depending on different types of people. There are some people / tourists who want so much privacy – for those kinds of people their best time to visit the mountain gorilla parks for this memorable safari activity is automatically during the low season (rainy season) of March to May, and in November.
During that time, also most of the things be on discount; ranging from the rental car, tour agency’s rates, and even accommodation in the Parks. Therefore, the best time for visiting mountain gorillas in Uganda depends on the kind of person you are and what you want – if you wish to save some money and also have privacy, then the low season is better but if you just want to trek these gorillas comfortably then the dry season is better – but all in all gorilla trekking in Uganda is an all-year-round activity.