Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

I think "Bwindi Impenetrable Forest" is my favorite park name in the world -- the most evocative of adventure. It lived up to its name and feeling for us with our gorilla trek. We visited to seek gorillas, of course, and had an amazing time. We chose to trek from Buhoma and were assigned to the Mubare group, which has one of the 3 biggest silverbacks in the forest. At around 195 kg, he is very impressive and looks even bigger in person. We hiked about two hours to reach our gorilla group. We started on a trail up one steep ridge past some farms and eventually diving into the forest full of very tall trees. The last part of the hike we had to leave any trail and the rangers were hacking through the thick (and thorny) underbrush with machetes to make a trail for us. The total hike was probably about two hours to reach the gorillas. Our group included the big silverback and 3 mother-baby pairs. As they were all pretty well-secreted in the bush, the rangers had to pull back vines in order for us to see them, and we also got much closer than the usual 7 meters in order to see them in the undergrowth. Our hour with them passed very quickly, but, as a treat, just before our time was up, we got to witness the silverback mating with one of the females. We were just astounded that this happened while we were …

There’s a reason the film wasn’t called Gorillas in the Dazzling Sunshine. My first view of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest was of a wall of foliage climbing the valley wall opposite, wreathed in skeins of spectral blue mist. The knowledge that the following day I would be setting off into the jungle on foot to search for mountain gorillas was thrilling.

I had booked my permit in advance – but not dramatically so. The whole trip to Uganda was fairly last minute and so I had only made my reservation a month ahead of time. There was the risk that all the permits would have been sold out. I was lucky. With hindsight, starting from Buhoma gave me the best chance of getting a place. At the time of my travel there were seven groups of Mountain Gorillas ‘habituated’ to human presence. One is in the southern Mgahinga Gorilla National Park (on the Tentative List) and the other six are located in Bwindi. There are four trailheads. From Ruhija in the east of the park the Bitakura group can be tracked. From Rushaga in the south the Shongi group can be tracked. Els visited Nkuringo in the south west, from where the Nkuringo group can be tracked. And in the north-west, from Buhoma, three groups – Mubare, Rushegura and Habinyanja – can be tracked. Buhoma was therefore ‘Gorilla Central’ and this was where I stayed in some community-run bandas just within the park gates.

When I arrived at …

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has been made a WHS for its high variety of tree and fern species, whose dense cover of the valley floors has led to the name ‘impenetrable’. It is the remnant of what once was a very large forest. To the general public, the park is mostly known as the number 1 place to see mountain gorillas. Bwindi welcomes over 20,000 visitors a year for that purpose.

Although the southern part of Bwindi lies only some 50km north of Mgahinga NP and the Virunga Massif, it is a separate mountain range. Both nature reserves were once connected via a corridor, but they got separated some 500 years ago. The mountain gorillas in Bwindi have evolved on their own since, that’s why they’re sometimes regarded as a different subspecies from the Virunga ones. According to research, they are more likely to feed on fruits, travel longer distances per day and build their nest in trees than their Virungan cousins.

As this was my second gorilla tracking after Virunga 5 days before, it is tempting to compare the two experiences. In hindsight, I am happy that I choose to put two gorilla visits on my schedule. Actually, quite a lot of people do so, often combining Rwanda and Uganda. My two visits complemented each other well: the gorillas in Virunga were extremely calm, just sitting around for 45 minutes so it was easy to take good photos and observe their enormous bodies. The gorillas in Bwindi …

Those who want to see Gorillas in the wild have relatively few choices. In Central Africa, Gabon is a possibility but, in 2001 after 2 days hard tracking there, we had only heard the creatures – they are not well “habituated”. Congo Brazzaville sounds to have some wonderful areas but is dangerous/unhealthy (Ebola?). The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is, as of Sept 2006 (when this review was written), still not really safe for travel outside Goma. Which leaves Rwanda and Uganda. Rwanda is well back in business and from our experience is the better place to go for anyone just wanting to see Gorillas - it has 7 habituated groups and most of these are usually easy to reach (but the cost is $375 per visit rising in 2007 to $500). However its Gorilla location is somewhat illogically not a UNESCO site - really the neighbouring Gorilla areas within the "Virungas" in all 3 countries (DRC, Uganda and Rwanda) should compromise a single WHS - the Rwanda gorilla sites are just a few kms from the boundary of the Virunga park in DRC.

In Uganda all recent reports suggest that sightings are to all intents and purposes unachievable now at Mgahinga Gorilla Park. Which just leaves Bwindi – which also has the unique advantage of also being a WHS! We visited it way back in summer 1995 - in 1999 the camp we stayed at was to be the site of terrorist attack which resulted in the …