Last Minute Gorilla Trekking in Uganda

Goril­la trekking is car­ried out in the moun­tain goril­las of Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble and Mgahin­ga Nation­al Parks. All these are in South West­ern Ugan­da. They have a com­bi­na­tion of about half the moun­tain goril­las in the Virun­ga. Hun­dreds of tourists flock Ugan­da annu­al­ly to expe­ri­ence inter­ac­tion and view­ing of these pri­mates and that activ­i­ty is known as moun­tain goril­la trekking. Because the trekking areas are high­ly moun­tain­ous, it’s com­mon to hike the jun­gles while track­ing the moun­tain gorillas.

This there­fore requires a tourist to be men­tal­ly and phys­i­cal­ly fit before they embark on a moun­tain goril­la trek in Ugan­da. The tourists are guid­ed by rangers who addi­tion­al­ly pro­vide secu­ri­ty while in the jun­gle. In Ugan­da, trekking the moun­tain goril­las requires a trekking per­mit. It’s a doc­u­ment that acts as a pass for one to take part in the trekking. It goes for $700 per trekker. These per­mits can be acquired at the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty office. Moun­tain Goril­la trekking is a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence because these crea­tures can only be toured in Cen­tral Africa.

Last minute goril­la trekking in Uganda.

Where­as a tourist may have much enthu­si­asm to tour Ugan­da, they should be aware of last-minute trekking. It so hap­pens that some­times a tourist has lim­it­ed time to car­ry out their desired tour around the moun­tain goril­las, or the tourist changes their mind and wants to shift from their ini­tial tour itin­er­ary for moun­tain goril­la trekking moments towards the exe­cu­tion of their ini­tial tour choices.

That’s what’s referred to as last minute goril­la trekking. The plain fact is that YES, it is pos­si­ble to secure a last-minute goril­la trek. So, the prospec­tive tourists should know that their choic­es aren’t lim­it­ed yet. They only have to choose an effi­cient tour oper­a­tor to secure prop­er arrange­ments with­in such lim­it­ed time available.

Book­ing goril­la permits.

This includes secur­ing a moun­tain goril­la trekking per­mit. The goril­la per­mit is essen­tial as it’s the entry require­ment for one to engage in the trekking. Book­ing of the goril­la per­mits is a main­ly done at the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty office. How­ev­er, non-res­i­dent for­eign­ers, and res­i­dent for­eign­ers, are rec­om­mend­ed to make these book­ings through their tour oper­a­tors. The rea­son is sim­ply that the tour oper­a­tors are more famil­iar with the local tourism con­text and this sim­pli­fies the whole process of goril­la per­mit acquisition.

Depend­ing on how the tourist and the tour oper­a­tor agree, they should be aware that such extra ser­vice comes at a fee. The for­eign tourist will also be required to car­ry a pass­port to the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty offices, or asked for a copy of the pass­port infor­ma­tion if they choose a tour oper­a­tor. The rea­son for that infor­ma­tion is for ver­i­fi­ca­tion at the Ugan­da Wildlife Author­i­ty about the nation­al­i­ty and whether the tourist meets the age require­ment for moun­tain goril­la trekking. The tourists are also advised to make ear­ly book­ings pri­or to tak­ing part in the trekking. Could be 3 to 4 weeks pri­or. The rea­son is that there’s a lot of com­pe­ti­tion for the trekking per­mits dur­ing the peak season.

Per­mit costs.

The moun­tain goril­la trekking per­mit in Ugan­da costs $700. This cost may always change from time to time depend­ing on the admin­is­tra­tive deci­sions of the man­ag­ing tourism body. It’s there­fore pru­dent to always con­firm before embark­ing on the moun­tain goril­la tourism in Uganda.

Best time to vis­it goril­las in Uganda.

The dry sea­son of Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park is often from June-August, and Decem­ber-Feb­ru­ary. These are the best months for a tourist to engage in the moun­tain goril­la trekking. The rains are min­i­mal or total­ly absent and there­fore reg­is­ter­ing min­i­mal to no inter­rup­tions at all while trekking.