The trek starts at 8 am in the morning. Accordingly, you should plan to be on site by 07:45 at the latest. It is important to be at the right entrance gate. There are 4 different gates in Bwindi, so when buying your Gorilla Permit make sure that you buy it for the correct gate. If you buy the ticket locally from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, they will also be happy to help you organise a suitable driver for Bwindi or Mgahinga.
The gorillas are observed by the rangers every day until the evening hours to make sure that no poacher kills them and to know approximately where the last gorilla group stayed the next morning. Therefore, the rangers go to the last observation point at 7 am in the morning to look for the gorillas and to guide the guides with the tourists to the right place.
At the beginning, you are divided into groups with the other visitors. A group consists of up to 8 people. Since Covid began, it is also possible to be alone in a group with the guides. After a short briefing, the guides are in constant contact with the rangers and wait for a positive signal and directions as soon as they have spotted the gorillas. As soon as this is done via walkie-talkie, the visitors can be led to the gorillas. Depending on how far the gorillas have moved during the night, this can mean a few hours of walking through the rainforest to the gorillas.
Once the guides have led you to the gorillas, you have one hour to accompany the gorillas and take photos or videos. The gorillas are peaceful and are used to having people around with a little distance, as they are visited on an almost daily basis. Here you follow the gorillas further into the rainforest and mainly see them feeding in the rainforest. It is an amazing experience to see these animals so close and in the wild. The rangers are armed in case of emergency. However, the rifles are not used to protect against an attack by gorillas, as they are generally peaceful. Since wild elephants also roam the rainforests, they serve as a scare gun to drive away aggressive wild elephants, as they pose a higher danger to the visitors. After an hour with the gorillas, you make your way back to the starting point. Depending on how far you have followed the gorillas and how far you are already in the rainforest, the mountainous way back can take another 2-3 hours, so that you need a total of up to 4-8 hours for the excursion, depending on the range of the gorillas. In any case, it is an incredibly impressive experience. And if you don’t have the energy for the way back because of the long hike, you can still treat yourself with an African helicopter.
Here you can see a video of my adventure during the trek:
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