Gorilla and Golden monkey tracking in Uganda-Rwanda – The best experience – Guaranteed Gorilla trekking permits
Gorilla and golden monkey tracking in Uganda-Rwanda – If you have an extra day on safari after watching mountain gorillas, you can enjoy to trek the beautiful creatures called golden monkeys and in this blog post, we give you a detailed information about gorilla and golden monkey tracking holiday, – A Gorilla permit buys you one hour stay with the Mountain Gorillas and covers the cost of park entrance and guiding. Only 8 visitors aged 15 years or above are allowed to track each habituated Gorilla family per day and they all set off early and the morning and usually return by midday or late afternoon.
Depending on where the great apes are, tracking can be easy or strenuous. Mountain Gorilla movements are followed daily, so unsuccessful tracking is almost unheard of. Half of the fee would be returned in such an unlikely case.
In Uganda, Gorilla tracking can be done in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks at a cost of USD700 for foreigners; USD700 for foreign residents; UGX 250,000 for East Africans).
In Rwanda, the Gorilla tracking is done in the Volcanoes National Park at a cost of USD1500 for all visitors.
The deeper version of the experience is called Gorilla habituation experience USD1500 for foreigners, USD1000 for foreign residents, UGX 750,000 for East Africans) and means departing with Gorilla trackers at 7:00am, spending 4 hours with the semi-habituated Gorilla family and observing the process of habituation, getting them used to humans. You can do it only in Bwindi Forest, in Rushaga the southern sector of the National Park.
Gorilla permits for Rwanda can be bought from Rwanda Development Board and in Uganda Gorilla permits are purchased and issued at the Uganda Wildlife Authority in Kampala. It is wise to do it months in advance. Between June and September obtaining a Gorilla permit becomes hard but Great Adventure Safaris will purchase them for you in advance.
In Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park there are 18 habituated Gorilla families ready for tourism and one for research, with four Gorilla tracking regions. The Buhoma region, the park headquarters, is the oldest among them and hence most known and developed in terms of tourism.
Gorillas here are often most accessible. However, it would be wrong to ignore the other three regions. If nothing else, they are closer to towns that offer a wider selection of more modestly priced accommodation.
In Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, there is only 1 habituated Gorilla family ready for tourism. It has a reputation of occasionally crossing into Rwanda but in reality that has not happened for years. The major advantage of doing your tracking in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park compared to Bwindi Forest is that you are more likely to find the Gorillas in the open.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park also offers the amazing Gorilla and Golden Monkey tracking experience and this is the only National Park where you can find these endangered species of monkeys in Uganda.
In Volcanoes National Park, there 10 habituated Gorilla families ready for tracking. The park gate for all of them is in Kinigi near Musanze, by far the most accessible location in the Gorilla highlands. This is where you will find the amazing Golden Monkeys in Rwanda.
For those interested in Gorillas and Golden Monkey tracking, contact Great Adventure Safaris for more information so that we help you plan your African safari accordingly
