Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Simply stunning surroundings and completely unspoilt. The development around the park HQ seems tasteful and the Gorilla trekking experience itself is one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Fantastic opportunity to see the endangered mountain gorillas. We spent two days here tracking gorillas and both days resulted in different interactions with the animals. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

The mountain gorillas are the only real reason to visit the park, but on their own they make it an amazing destination.

How often do you have to step out of the path of an oncoming Mountain Gorilla and have him look you in the eyes as he goes by?

We went gorilla trekking in Bwindi. It's an incredibly lush rainforest filled with exotic sounds and smells. We found the Mubare group of gorilla’s after about 2 hours of trekking and spent a blissful hour among the gentle giants.

Gorilla's are the biggest reason to go to Bwindi for most people tough just driving through the Forest is a pure pleasure.

I have rated this very highly however the only wildlife we saw were the Gorillas. We trekked as a group of 8, ages between 22 and 65, and we call made it the 3 hours to get to see the Gorillas. The rangers and porters were very professional, and took great care of us, and even better care of the Gorillas which I was pleased to see.

A magical place. If you don't get a huge adrenaline rush here, there is something wrong with you.

Great for gorilla tracking. Close accommodation available to start point of gorilla tracking. Great mountain views from The Gorilla Resort.

Gorilla Tracking Day at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

The day started very early at our campsite on the border of Bwindi Forest. Around 4am we were guided towards one of these Toyota people carriers, Hiace. Not very comfortable, but heey, it was only going to last for 1 hour or so. The reason we needed transportation is that the Gorillaclan we were tracking (something you don't decide yourself, you get assigned to a group of Gorilla's) were on the North-Western side of the Forest (close to the Entrance Gate) and we were lodged on the South-Western side. The name of the clan we were about to meet was Nkuringo.

Now, the forest is only about 10K wide and the quickest way around was clearly through DRC, this being far too dangerous and the forest being "impenetrable" (a 6 hour hike), we had no other option then to go all the way round in what later became known as the "torture Toyota". All the way around a park which is an estimated 20K wide, couldn't take much longer than 1, maybe 2 hours. So after 3 hours of incredibly windy and headbashing dirt gravel roads on a seat that made your bum sleep, we started asking where we were going. The answers were served in true african style: "we a almos the", "just a littel bit furder"... Anyway, it took more than another hour to get there! So after this we were convinced that we had to rewarded with something incredible, something that would far exceed all expectations.

At the entrance we were briefed and asked to put our trousers in our socks to avoid termites and to use mosquito repellant. The whole entrance area has guarded by military men. We set off with a few trackers / guides and carriers into the impenetrable rain forest. It was absolutely astonishing to enter a microcosm full of birds, flowers and trees. We saw other monkeys high up in the trees and listened to several very special birds. The news came that Nkoringo, our Gorilla hosts for the day, had been seen not very far from where we were (I assume the eye that saw this, circles somewhere around the earth). Soon enough the guides halted the group and we were let very close to them to take some pictures. Family Nkoringo did not pay much attention to us as they were feeding. Circling around the big family feedfest, we found an older Silverback on the border of a small creek resting after his lunch, together with a baby gorilla that clearly was in playmode, amazing spectacle. Anyhow, as tourists can't stay longer than 1 hour we had to make a move, and seemingly the gorillas were doing the same. Most of them had left the feeding site and were waiting on the path we came from, when a few older boys and a Silverback that had stayed behind join up with the group! Whis particular scene can be seen in the video. The guides said we were very lucky to catch this.

Fully Recommended, including the car-ride!

Nick