Winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park
Winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park: From December to February, continents in the northern hemisphere like North America, South America, Europe, and Asia experience extreme weather conditions. Sometimes the temperature does reduce to 5 to 10 degrees Celsius which forces people, especially travelers to move out of their homes. Some people especially tourists end up visiting Africa to enjoy the good weather.
During winter, one of the places tourists need to visit is Uganda. For travelers that have always dreamt of seeing mountain gorillas then why not organize a winter break gorilla safari to Mgahinga national park? Mgahinga national park is one of the areas where travelers meet mountain gorillas in their natural habitats. The national park is located in southwestern Uganda in Kisoro district in the Virunga conservation area.
Winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park
Gorilla trekking safaris in Uganda are only possible in Mgahinga national park and Bwindi impenetrable forest national park. Mgahinga national park is the smallest national park in the country but it harbors endangered mountain gorillas that can’t be seen in most of the parks in the country.
Mgahinga national park was gazetted in 1991 and a mountain gorilla family named Nyakagezi was habituated. It’s still the only mountain gorilla family open for trekking in Mgahinga national park and tourists can visit it any time of the year. With a gorilla trekking permit, tourists from different countries can go gorilla trekking in Mgahinga national park.
On your winter break gorilla safari in Mgahinga national park, your major activity is always gorilla trekking. Your dream of seeing mountain gorillas in their natural habitat will come true on the day of gorilla trekking. There are more than 99% chances of seeing mountain gorillas on a trek in Mgahinga national park.
The gorilla trekking exercise in Mgahinga national park
Mountain gorilla trekking in Mgahinga national park does start in the morning as early as 7:30 am. The activity starts at Ntebeko Visitors Centre with a briefing where trekkers learn about the rules and regulations of the activity. After the briefing, trekkers head into the jungle where they start to search for mountain gorillas using different trekking trails.
The search goes to different trees, areas where they normally hang, and other few places until they are located. Rangers at some point follow fresh footprints and food that the mountain gorillas could have eaten a few minutes or hours ago. To locate the mountain gorilla family, it can take you 2 to 7 hours and time depends on the location of the gorilla family as well as the speed of trekkers.
When Nyakagezi mountain gorilla family is located, trekkers are given 1 hour to be around the members, take photos and watch them carry out their daily activities like nesting, coupling, hunting, playing, and grooming among others. Later trekkers trek out of the jungle and drive to Ntebeko where they are awarded gorilla trekking certificates.
Apart from mountain gorilla trekking during winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park, tourists can always take part in activities organized inside and outside the park. Other activities that can be done in Mgahinga national park other than gorilla trekking include bird watching where tourists get to see over 180 bird species, golden monkey trekking, Batwa community tour, and nature walks among others.
What is the best time to book winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park?
Since the winter in most countries happens from December to February, tourists should know that it’s always a high season in Uganda. That is when most of the tourists visit the park so there is a need of doing the advance booking. Tourists should book their winter break gorilla safaris in Mgahinga national park 3 to 4 months or more to avoid last-minute booking disappointments.
A gorilla safari needs a gorilla permit therefore tourists need to book their trip so early when the permits are still available. With no gorilla trekking permit, a gorilla safari can’t happen in Mgahinga national park. Early safari booking will enable tourists to secure gorilla permits and also be assured of gorilla trekking during their winter break gorilla safari in Mgahinga national park.
To book your gorilla trekking permit for winter break, you need to use a local tour operator or contact the reservations office at UWA. Using a local tour operator is the best option when it comes to booking gorilla permits because they are quick and don’t charge extra fees. A local tour operator needs the dates of the month and year you want to trek to book the gorilla permit.
A local tour operator does send the information to the reservation’s office at UWA and they check for the availability of the permits. When the permits are available, the tourists are asked to pay and they send different banking details to use. As soon as you have paid, it’s better to send proof of payment for your permits to be secured.
The price of a gorilla permit
Only trekking permits are available in Mgahinga national park because there are fully habituated mountain gorillas of Nyakagezi family. To trek them you need a gorilla trekking permit which is bought from Uganda Wildlife Authority at a fee used for conservation, paying workers, and community projects around the park. A single Mgahinga gorilla permit does cost $700 for foreign non-residents, $600 for foreign residents, and UGX250,000 citizens of East African Member states.
