Can I Trek Gorillas Twice?
Can I Trek Gorillas Twice?
Can I trek gorillas Twice? Definitely yes, you can trek gorillas in Uganda, even Rwanda, twice on the same safari trip! The gorilla trekking experience is too exhilarating to settle for a one-time encounter. If you have the chance, get out there and try for the second time.
Double gorilla trekking comes with a bunch of advantages experiential travelers would love to bag. One of the prominent advantages is that you spend more time with the gorillas, which offers a chance to get familiar with their intricate social structures, physical appearances, and behaviors.
Photographers would want to trek the gorillas more than once to allow familiarity with the jungle scenes and the intricacies of photographing creatures under the forest canopy with minimal light and restricted flash photography. They get to shoot better photos the second time around.
Nevertheless, you don’t have to be a photographer to appreciate the advantages of trekking gorillas twice. Take your camera or phone the first time and shoot everything your excitement of being in the jungle attracts. The second time around, leave everything that would distract your experience and just sit with the gentle creatures. Allow the moment to transport you through prehistoric times when humans and beasts shared the same spaces and lived side-by-side. It’s an experience not many get to enjoy.
So if you’re considering to trek gorillas twice, either in Uganda or Rwanda, let’s dissect a couple of things you need to understand before you book your gorilla trekking safari journey into the deep misty vines of Africa.
Two Gorilla Permits.
If you’ve already looked around for information on gorilla permits, you must know that the permit is like a ticket that gives you access to the mountain gorillas. Each gorilla permit allows one person to spend one hour with the gorillas per day. It will also enable you shared armed escorts (with other seven trekkers) and a professional guide who walks around with a walkie-talkie communication with other rangers that stay with the gorillas for bearings and guides you through the activity.
The gorilla permit in Uganda costs $700 per person per day for all foreign non-residents. Residents and citizens get discounted rates. The one of Rwanda costs $1,500 per person per day.
UWA & RDB allow an individual to purchase as many gorilla permits as possible depending on the availability of the permits. Depending on how much you can spend on on this experience, purchase two gorilla permits to allow you to trek gorillas twice on a gorilla trekking safari.
You can purchase your two gorilla permits directly from UWA or RDB. However, most tourists don’t take this road and use the services of the local tour operators to get the permits on their behalf. That way, the operator can deal with all bureaucratic processes of purchase, reschedule and advise on which trailheads are best for trekking gorillas twice.
Encounter Africa is licensed to offer this service at a 30% fee. Sometimes the permits may not be available at the authority office, and yet we have a couple in our stores for such emergencies.
Should You Trek Gorillas Twice in Different Sections?
Uganda offers five trailheads for gorilla treks, and one can trek twice in either one or two different sections of the park. With 19 gorilla groups available for tourism and spread all over Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda subdivided the park to make it easy for tourists to access the gorillas. Rwanda has only one trailhead where trekkers can access all the 10 gorilla families available for tourism.
One can trek in Buhoma, the northern section of the park with four gorilla groups, and transfer to Nkuringo, the southern sector with three gorilla groups, for the second gorilla trek. All sectors are about 2 to 3-hours drive apart on unpaved dirt roads. So, put that in perspective when you choose to trek gorillas twice in different sectors.
However, some trekkers prefer to trek gorillas twice in one sector to avoid transfer costs between sectors.
Trek One or Two Different Gorilla Groups
The abundance of habituated gorilla groups in Uganda makes it easy to trek two gorilla groups on a single gorilla safari tour. Most trekkers don’t understand the distribution of gorilla groups in the park and usually leave it to the lead guide at the trailhead to assign them a gorilla group on d-day.
However, for a traveled trekker like you, you’ll allow the guide to assign you a group on your first trek but for your second trek at the same trailhead, ask them to assign you another one if you didn’t like the first one. They’ll probably oblige.
Despite all the difficulties of reaching a gorilla family, Encounter would recommend that you trek the same group twice because of the enormous advantages that come with familiarity or repetitive experience.
The first trek may leave you overwhelmed with the indescribable scenery, the unexpected time-span to reach the gorillas that seemed longer when in reality it wasn’t, and your obsession with photography. The second trek with the same gorilla family may be more realistic, keeping you in a state of calm to enjoy the gorillas and the scenery.
You Need Two Days To Trek Gorillas Twice
Since a gorilla group can only be visited once a day by only eight people, all gorilla trekking excursions go out early in the morning. Gorilla permits are usually sold out each day, which means all the gorilla families have received visitors on a particular day. Therefore, to trek gorilla twice, you’ll have to secure permits for two different days.
You can trek the first time on the first day after check-in to your gorilla lodge and take the second trek on the second day or space them out to relax your muscles. Although, that would require spending more on lodging accommodation and meals.
Essentially, you need at least four days on the double gorilla trekking safari to pull this off. That is two days for transfers between Entebbe and Bwindi, Mgahinga, or Volcanoes National Park. And Two days to trek gorillas twice.
Gorilla Trekking and Gorilla Gorilla Habituation
Have you heard of the Gorilla Habituation Experience? If you want to trek gorillas twice, you’re most probably looking to spend more time in the rainforest jungle with the mountain gorillas. Habituation allows at least four hours with a wild gorilla family.
Although it’s a little pricier than the trek ($1,500 per person), the Habituation experience is worth the four hours you spend with the gorillas. You can choose to take the experience with the wild primates and for your, second time, trek a habituated gorilla family.
Habituation Experience occurs only in the Rushaga sector in the southeastern region of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Rushaga is the only trailhead with two gorilla families available for gorilla research, where you’re allowed to accompany researchers on their daily excursions for four hours.
How Difficult is It To Trek Gorillas Twice?
Well, I’m glad you asked because trekking gorillas is a bit challenging, and doing it twice may eat a bit of your muscle energy reserves. You’re going to need moderate physical fitness to pull it off twice, especially if you’re doing it back-to-back without a day or two for relaxing between the treks.
Most trekkers can pull off the first trek, but if you don’t trust your hiking abilities, we suggest you renew your gym membership for at least a month before your trip or take those walks your neighbor has for years tried to convince you to join.
Be that as it may, it’s not too tricky to pull off the double gorilla trek challenge. Besides, there are porters you can pay $20 to help you out during your trek.
Booking A Double Gorilla Trek
Now that you have all the information you need to decide on a double e gorilla trek, will you book with Encounter Africa Safaris? We’ll get you the two gorilla permits without sweat, and our gorilla trekking safari packages are highly rated by travelers around the world.
Be rest assured that the double trekking experience is incomparable. If you throw in the habituation experience in the mix, your jungle dreams will replay for a lifetime. We recommend this safari to all photographers and nature lovers.
Reach out to our consultants at info@gorilla-tracking-uganda.com, and they’ll be excited to give more information to the questions that are still lingering around your mind. Use any of our numbers below to call or chat with the big green button in the bottom right corner. Either way, we’ll be excited to trek with you.
