Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is famous for its impeccable gorilla trekking experience. Gorilla trekking is hiking to the tropical rainforests in search of the mountain gorillas in their natural habitat with the lead of an experienced park ranger guide. The Gorilla trekking adventure is a daily activity starting at 8:00 am with a briefing at the park headquarters, then allocating the family you will track. The number of visitors is limited to 8 per day per group of gorillas because the primates must be kept safe. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park offers the best gorilla experience because it hosts over half of the total gorilla population in the whole world.

The trekking time varies based on several reasons, such as the fitness of the trekkers and the location where the gorillas spent their night. You must also note that the national parks are not fenced, and the gorillas can move freely across borders. On finding the gorillas, a maximum of 60 minutes is allocated to spend with them. Visitors can take excellent photos and short videos with non-flash cameras or phones. After seeing the mountain gorillas, visitors trek back to the park headquarters, where they are awarded certificates and transferred back to their respective lodges or destinations. The minimum age to track mountain gorillas is 15 years, and you should have secured a gorilla permit in advance before the day of tracking.

Gorilla Habituation Experience (GHEX)

Gorilla Habituation Experience involves training mountain gorillas to be able to stay or get used to people. The habituation process takes three years by trained rangers, conservationists and researchers. Unlike Gorilla tracking, Gorilla Habituation is a 4 hours experience with the mountain gorillas learning and exploring their behaviours in depth.

The number of visitors participating in this unique experience is limited to 4 daily.

The Batwa Cultural Experience

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was home to the Batwa (also referred to as the Pygmies). The Batwa originally dwelled in the old forest peacefully in harmony with nature and therefore called the “keepers of the forest”. Their food source was hunting and gathering fruits and plants for medicinal purposes.

When Bwindi Impenetrable Forest became a national park and UNESCO World Heritage, the Batwa were evicted from the park, and that marked a new life for them as they were homeless and could run to extinction. While the tribe of the Batwa was at the point of extinction in 2001, the American medical missionaries Dr Scott and Carol Kellermann stepped to their rescue. They improved the lives of these indigenous people by purchasing land for them and establishing life-improving programs, such as building a school and hospital for them, as well as improving water and sanitation.

Currently, BDP (Batwa Development Program) manages and works closely with the Batwa community to ensure their indigenous rights are respected and benefit from the impenetrable forest of Bwindi, a famous tourist attraction.

The Batwa Cultural Experience was created by the Batwa to educate their children and to share their unique culture and traditions with the rest of the world. A day spent with the Batwa offers you an opportunity to participate in and enjoy the following activities:

• • Walk and hike in the forest with the forest keepers. In the company of a Batwa guide, you will have a chance to explore the forest and its inhabitants through their eyes.

• • Have a glimpse of how they lived and hunted locally. Appreciate your hunting techniques with a bow and arrow under the guidance of the Batwa.

• • Visit a homestead of the Batwa and learn the local way of cooking by women and serving a meal. Have a chance to taste the local food.

• • Learn the African traditional way of healing from the medicine man. Know the different forest plants and their benefits.

• • Enjoy and dance to the traditional and ancient legends and traditional songs.

Birding in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Bwindi N/Park is a birder’s haven, hosting up to 360 bird species and during a birding tour, you have plenty of birds to search for, including several Albertine rift endemic species. The bird species to be identified while on bird watching trip are enormous including the red-throated alethe, Western green tinker bird, Archer’s robin-chat, Fine-banded woodpeckers, common bulbul, African blue and white-tailed flycatchers, short-tailed warblers, African emerald cuckoos, strange weavers, Shelley’s crimson wings, black-faced rufous warblers, cinnamon-chested bee-eaters,

African wood owl, dwarf honey guide, handsome francolins, mountain masked apalis, black-billed turacos, bush shrikes, western bronze-napped pigeon, Neumann’s warblers, and more. The important birding spots in Bwindi include the bamboo zone Ruhija sector, especially along the Mubwindi Swamp trail, Buhoma waterfall trail, and others.

Guided nature walks

Nature walks in Bwindi are done on the different trails, each exposing nature lovers to the opportunity to encounter the park’s diverse animal species, including primates, bird species and flora. The available trails to explore on a nature walk include Rushura, the Ivy River trail, the Mubwindi swamp, the Munyanga waterfall trail, the Bamboo trail, the Kashasha River trail, the Habinyanja trail and more.