Uganda Mountain Gorilla Trekking From Nairobi

Goril­las live in many parts of Africa, but Ugan­da, Rwan­da and D.R. Con­go still stand out as the most pre­ferred goril­la trekking des­ti­na­tions in the world. The three coun­tries are lying with­in the East-Cen­tral Africa, and it is where 1063 endan­gered moun­tain goril­las only live.

Trekking moun­tain goril­las in the 3 coun­tries is pos­si­ble in the two sec­tions, the Virun­ga Con­ser­va­tion Area ‑an exten­sive pro­tect­ed area which is com­prised of Virun­ga Nation­al Park (Con­go), Mgahin­ga Goril­la Nation­al Park (Ugan­da) and Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park (Rwan­da). A huge pro­fu­sion of these rare apes also resides with­in Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park, South­west­ern Uganda.

Goril­la trekking with no doubt has been become a buck­et-list adven­ture on almost all African safaris. In Ugan­da, over half of the remain­ing 1063 moun­tain goril­la do reside with­in the two parks- Bwin­di and Mgahin­ga. What is amaz­ing is that vis­i­tors can begin their jour­ney from oth­er coun­tries and they can be enjoy the best of the lifechang­ing moun­tain goril­la trekking expe­ri­ence in Ugan­da. This means, it is pos­si­ble to go Ugan­da goril­la trekking from Nairo­bi Kenya.

Yes, Kenya by itself is a pre­mier wildlife/big game/wildebeest migra­tion des­ti­na­tion and it has NO moun­tain goril­las. The beau­ty about start­ing your goril­la trekking tour from Nairo­bi is that, it is pos­si­ble to incor­po­rate wildlife safaris in Kenya’s top des­ti­na­tions such as the Maa­sai Mara Nation­al Reserve/Nairobi Nation­al Park and moun­tain goril­la safaris in Uganda’s Bwin­di Impen­e­tra­ble Nation­al Park or Mgahin­ga Nation­al Park.

Where to find Ugan­da moun­tain gorillas?

Ugan­da prides itself as the lead­ing goril­la safari des­ti­na­tion for a good rea­son. With about half of the world’s moun­tain goril­las all resid­ing in the Pearl of Africa, a vis­it to this splen­did land­locked coun­try on goril­la safari tour guar­an­tees you a remark­able goril­la encounter in the wild. In Ugan­da, moun­tain goril­las can be encoun­tered while in the 5 loca­tions or sec­tors, each con­sist­ing of ful­ly habit­u­at­ed goril­la families.

Four sec­tors for goril­la trekking are avail­able in Bwin­di Nation­al Park and one is found in Mgahin­ga. The four regions/gorilla trekking sec­tors in Bwin­di include Buhoma, Nkuringo, Ruhi­ja and Rusha­ga. At Mgahin­ga, there is Nte­beko- where brief­ing starts before you vis­it Nyak­agezi goril­la fam­i­ly group.

When to trav­el for Ugan­da goril­la trekking tour

Ugan­dan parks entire­ly enjoy favor­able weath­er and cli­mat­ic con­di­tions, mak­ing it pos­si­ble for tourists to orga­nize goril­la safaris at any time of the year. June, July, August, Sep­tem­ber, Decem­ber, Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary are dri­er months of the year, and they are the most pre­ferred months by vis­i­tors on Ugan­da goril­la tour. It is dur­ing these months when Bwin­di or Mgahin­ga record low or no rains, and the steep slopes remain dry while the veg­e­ta­tion isn’t thick unlike dur­ing the wet or rainy sea­son (March to May/October to November).

What do you need to vis­it Ugan­da goril­las from Nairobi?

With intro­duc­tion of sin­gle tourist visa, it is pos­si­ble for clients to cross from Nairo­bi, Kenya to Ugan­da to track moun­tain goril­las. You can obtain the East African tourist visa which serves as a mul­ti­ple entry visa for Rwan­da, Kenya and Ugan­da.  You can secure the East African tourist visa via https://www.immigration.go.ug or con­sult your tour oper­a­tor for fur­ther assistance.

Oth­er than the East African tourist visa, you need a goril­la per­mit and each for­eign non­res­i­dent pays USD700, for­eign res­i­dents USD600 and shs. 250000 for the East African cit­i­zens. Book­ing a goril­la per­mit for Ugan­da is very easy because your tour oper­a­tor can do it on your behalf, just get in touch with reser­va­tion team and avail the required details, and all is done.

Where to stay

Trekking goril­las in Ugan­da is nev­er dis­ap­points when it comes to places to stay. All the 5 sec­tors for goril­la trekking have accom­mo­da­tion options rang­ing from bud­get to lux­u­ry, and in Bwin­di, the top places to stay include Chameleon Hill Lodge, Clouds Moun­tain Lodge, Goril­la Val­ley Lodge, Buhoma Lodge, Nkuringo Bwin­di Goril­la Lodge, Sanc­tu­ary Retreat Goril­la For­est Lodge, etc.

At Mgahin­ga Park, the avail­able places for overnight stay include Mount Gahin­ga Lodge, Virun­ga Hotel & Camp­sites, Ama­jam­bere Iwacu Com­mu­ni­ty Camp, Kisoro Tourist Hotel, Traveler’s Rest Hotel, Mutan­da Lake Resort, and others.

Trav­el­ing from Nairo­bi to Ugan­da for goril­la trekking

It is pos­si­ble to trav­el from Nairo­bi to Ugan­da and you track moun­tain goril­las. There are many air­lines that fly from Nairo­bi and land in at Entebbe Air­port. From Entebbe, there are 2 options to reach to your dream goril­la des­ti­na­tion (Bwin­di or Mgahin­ga) that is by road or air. By air, domes­tic flights/chartered or sched­uled flight ser­vices from Aero Link are avail­able which start from Kaj­jan­si air­field or Entebbe air­port to Kisoro/Kihihi airstrip.

By road, you will take long hours dri­ving but it is worth as you have mul­ti­ple spots to make a stopover which means, huge oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore Ugan­da, the Pearl of Africa. From Entebbe to Bwindi/Mgahinga takes 8–10 hours’ dri­ve, through Masa­ka-Mbarara-Kabale-Kisoro route. Along this route, Equa­tor cross­ing is a must to stopover loca­tion or you can branch off to Lake Mburo NP for wildlife view­ing espe­cial­ly if you are on a long tour.