Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Tracking mountain gorilla is one of Africa's most superb wildlife experiences. It is difficult to describe the exhilaration attached to first setting eyes on a wild mountain gorilla.

The three gorilla groups in the Buhoma area of Bwindi are Habinyanja, Mubare and Rushegura. After a full briefing, you depart on the gorilla tracking. Trackers will have left at dawn to locate the gorillas and will direct your guides via handheld walkie-talkies to the troop. The walk to the gorillas can be strenuous climbing steep hills and passing through thick vegetation, and may take anywhere from an hour to all day. The guides do their best to get you to your allocated gorilla family during one of their rest periods, so you can watch them relaxing, eating, grooming and playing.

You will be permitted to spend one hour with the gorillas and it is forbidden to eat or smoke in their presence. It is also forbidden to approach within seven meters of the gorillas. Gorillas are susceptible to human diseases and if one ill tourist infects a gorilla they will have no resistance and this could cause the death of the whole group. Never track gorillas if you have a cold or flu.