Uganda provides two unique opportunities for gorilla tours. The most popular one allows travelers to spend an hour with a completely human-habituated troop of gorillas and is a regular guided gorilla trekking adventure. The Gorilla Habituation Experience is an alternative that enables travelers to spend at least four hours in the company of a semi-habituated (wild) gorilla group while being accompanied by researchers and rangers. For each, you must reserve (and pay for) a permit that includes guide and tracking services.

 

The huge apes of tropical Africa are undoubtedly fascinating in some way. Even a tired eye can't help but be impressed by such a massive beast. Seeing mountain gorillas is both a charming and intense experience.

 

Visitors can admire their incredible power and great kindness, the strength of their social ties, their sensitivity to their surroundings, and their vulnerability and survival battle. Perhaps the reason for the fascination with the mountain gorillas is that you see them.

 

Even though we share up to 99% of our genetic makeup with gorillas, for many years, the majority of our interactions with them took place behind inches-thick Perspex in zoo enclosures or as a slapstick joke in a subpar horror film. Get ready to observe the gorilla in its native habitat, people are now making increasingly more trips to Uganda's mountain gorilla destination.

 

Gorilla trekking starts from the park’s administration buildings, operated by UWA. It begins in the early, misty morning hours. Guests would have to have spent the night in one of the neighboring lodges in order to make it to the briefing site by 7:30 a.m. To ensure that you arrive in time for the gorilla trekking adventure, a gorilla trekking tour operator will arrange for your permit and check you into a safari lodge close to the starting location listed on your ticket.

 

Trekkers will receive a briefing from a park warden on the fundamental guidelines they must follow while on the trek and around gorillas. Depending on the number of gorilla families in the area, they will then divide the trekkers into small groups of eight, with two armed rangers and a tracker guide.

The walk to the gorillas is difficult due to the muddy, damp, and steep terrain as well as the dense, high-altitude forest. When you start having trouble raising your body, a porter may come in handy. Nobody knows for sure where gorillas are located within the two to fifty square kilometer (0.75 to 16 square miles) range, so the travel time to get there could take anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours. Your guide will be using a sharp-edged machete to carve a route for you while communicating with other rangers on a walkie-talkie to follow GPS coordinates.

 

The dark-furred apes are typically having a mid-morning foraging break and relaxing in an area the size of a football field when you come across them. The rangers and guides will assist you in choosing a decent vantage point from which to observe and snap pictures without upsetting the silverback, the leader of the pack. You'll be viewing the unit silently from a distance of at least 10 meters (32 feet) for one precious hour. The gorillas may, however, disregard the safe-distance rule, in which case you must abide by your guide's instructions. You'll observe their social behaviors and tight ties to nature, which are very similar to our own.

 

Mountain gorillas groom each other, have light and manly moments, and homeschool the kids in all things primal. Your guide will lead you out of the 25,000-year-old Eden in what looks like 10 minutes after an hour has passed by like a quiet desert breeze. Uganda hosts more than 400 mountain gorillas in two different protected areas.

 

The best gorilla trekking tours can be found in Uganda's two protected forest reserves in the extreme southwest: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which is home to the largest gorilla population, and Mgahinga National Park, which shares a border with Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park and the Virunga National Parks of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda is a tantalizing window into the past and is arguably one of the oldest "last Edens" left on the African continent. It has some of the most pristine natural woods still present in Africa. Mountain gorillas, other primates, forest elephants, hundreds of bird species, reptiles, and 120 different animal species call it home. Around half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas are fiercely safeguarded within this breathtaking, "impenetrable" rainforest. The gorillas create a beautiful backdrop amidst rich emerald green foliage and a colorful swirl of birds and butterflies as they eat the healthful roots, leaves, and fruits of the park's tree and fern species.

 

Bwindi Forest, one of Africa's oldest rainforests, is thought to have served as a haven for species during the Pleistocene epoch's glaciations. Walking through this dense, overgrown thicket is an engrossing experience, made even more amazing when you silently encounter these regal beauties. You will never forget this spectacularly humble experience.