It is very important to prepare yourself for a gorilla trek in Bwindi Forest. You need to know the right clothing to pack, the right gear needed for your trek and how a trek is conducted.
Organised Tours
After sorting every thing with your tour operator, ensure that your flights are booked and you have all the necessary travel documents – Passports, Visas, Yellow Fever Certificate. Please note that gorilla permits are not transferable and cannot easily be rescheduled most especially during the peak season. Prepare all your trekking gear as instructed by your tour operator – Trekking gears include study shoes, long sleeved wear, rain jackets,garden gloves, insect repellent among others.
On the Gorilla Trekking Day
This is what you should expect on the trekking day.
- You can hire porters at USD10
- Buy a walking stick (if necessary), among others,
- Don’t forget to carry some snacks and packed lunch (at times supplied by the lodge)
It’s also advisable to hire a porter to carry your luggage and help weak, aged and sick people meet Gorillas- if it’s discovered that the client will not make it to the gorilla group, porters can carry him or her on stretchers to meet the Gorillas. Porters are hired between $ 15 to $ 20 depending on what he is going to carry.
Carry your valid passport as you head to the park headquarters for an early morning pre-tracking briefing by park officials. Your gorilla permits will be crosschecked with your passports to verify that you are the right owner of the permit. At this moment, you are expected to be ready with your packed lunch since no one is certain about the time you will take to see these gorillas.
At the Briefing Point
At the briefing point, a cup of tea/ coffee is served as you are being entertained by the local traditional dancers to give you a good start of a strenuous yet exciting day, before the ranger guide gives you tips on how to conduct yourself on this trek.
At around 7am, the rangers will start briefing you for 30 minutes and there after, you will be grouped in a maximum of 8 people who are authorized to visit each Gorilla group. It should be noted that, ten Gorilla groups are currently visited by tourists and each group is located in a different location thus trekkers are allocated to a gorilla group depending on their health status and age. Weak, sick and aged people are allowed to trek nearby Gorilla group and the stronger do longer treks.
The Actual Gorilla Trek
The time taken while searching for Gorillas is unpredictable because Gorillas move from one place to another while searching for food – if you find them far, then you will take time to meet them. To cut the long distance short, there is a group of rangers who predict where the Gorillas are basing on where they stayed the previous day. More so, some rangers go before the clients to ensure that they meet Gorillas and communicate where they are.
Each gorilla tracking group consists of a main guide and two scouts who carry AK-47 guns, one walking in front and another behind the group. The reason for armed scouts is for protection in the forest against wild dangerous animals like elephants, hyenas and wild gorillas among others. The scouts are trained to fire shots into the air first in order to scare away the animals but this is only done on rarest occasions when all other options like hiding away from such dangerous animals have been done. We’ve never heard of any case where such animals attacked the tourists and the scouts had to fire bullets though on many occasions, they advise to hide or remain still until the animals go away. However the policy of the National Park is to be safe rather than sorry.
The length of your overall gorilla expedition and the amount of time it will take to actually meet your gorilla family is said to vary widely. It may take as little as 30 minutes to find your gorilla family and as long as five to seven hours.
The forest is verdant, humid and somehow light and there are no discernible trekking paths. The terrain is full of hills and steep volcano slopes where you will be required to pull yourself up steep grades by grasping onto branches, plant roots, bushes and more. Follow the lead of the guide as to the best path and form to take. If you need a break, let your guide know. It is also advisable that you carry with you some energy giving snacks and bottled mineral water to quench your thirst and give you more energy.