Reason to book your gorilla habituation experience permit in advance during high season

Reason to book your gorilla habituation experience permit in advance during high season. The number of gorilla habituation permits is limited to 4 per family daily. With this meager number of gorilla permits, the demand for gorilla permits is high, especially during the peak season. The gorilla habituation experience was added to the Uganda safari activities in 2014. Each year, tourists' demand for gorilla habituation experience is rising.

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The gorilla habituation experience is an adventure where tourists follow a team of researchers and trackers in the wilderness to follow a semi-habituated gorilla family and stay with them for 4 hours. Gorilla trekking allows tourists to stay in the company of fully habituated gorilla families for one hour, which leaves many yearning for more time with these serene primates.

In Uganda, gorilla habituation experience is only known to happen in the southern part of Bwindi's impenetrable National Park. The Bwindi forest is the southern sector that comprises the Nkuringo and Rushaga areas.

Securing accommodation during the gorilla habituation experience is important in planning this exclusive African safari. The options of accommodations to use during gorilla safaris in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are limited. 

During the peak season of June, July, August, September, December, and January, demands get high on the gorilla permits and accommodations facilities for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. 

Booking other Uganda safari activities to accompany the gorilla habituation experience in advance gives you a better roadmap for preparing for this safari.

Why book gorilla habituation experience permits for the high season in advance?

Avoid last-minute gorilla permit availability panic

The gorilla habituation experience permits the peak season to sell out in advance because of their extreme demand, yet supply is limited to four per family. The high Uganda tourist season is from June to September and December to January, but despite increasing gorilla permit demand, supply is constant, with a maximum of four gorilla permits.

Towards the peak season, gorilla permits sell out, and finding availability becomes rarer as the season unfolds. 

When booking gorilla permits, a first come, first served basis is used, and none of these permits is reserved without payment. 

Book the accommodation to use during the gorilla safari in time.

The gorilla habituation experience safari can only be confirmed upon securing a permit, and then the need to reserve where to spend the nights arises. The vast size of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which covers about 327 square kilometers, prompted the Uganda Wildlife Authority to partition the park into four areas: Buhoma area, Ruhija area, Nkuringo, and Rushaga area.

Since gorilla habituation experience happens in the southern part of the Bwindi forest, tourists are recommended to reserve accommodations in this sector. 

Overnighting in another area before gorilla habituation day may necessitate driving early to catch up with briefing before the habituation adventure. The drive from one area to another may have some obstacles, like poor visibility due to heavy mist, falling logs across the road, and slippery roads, to mention but a few.

Accommodations in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park are graded into Luxury, Mid-range, and budget facilities.

Accommodations In Southern Bwindi: Rushaga Gorilla safari Lodge, clouds Lodge, Nkuringo Gorilla Lodge, Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge, Bwindi Backpacker's Camp, Nshongi Camp.

Chances To Instalment Gorilla Permit Purchase

Although purchasing your gorilla habituation permit fully would be the best approach, sometimes it may be inevitable, and you opt for paying for the permit in installments. Uganda Wildlife Authority accepts gorilla permit purchase installments of 30% and 70%.

To qualify for this, you must purchase your gorilla permit 90 days before the trekking day and remember to top up 90 days before the trekking day. Failure to honor your top-up period amounts to a penalty.

In case of a gorilla permit, reschedule

When you purchase your gorilla permit in advance, but due to unforeseen circumstances, you may wish to reschedule the date. This plan may be possible with advance gorilla permit purchase. Procedure

Write to Uganda Wildlife Authority requesting to reschedule your gorilla permit. Attach accompanying reasons to back up your request, if any.

When finally accepted, your gorilla permit is rescheduled to a new date, depending on the prevailing status of the gorilla permits.

Secure Additional Uganda Safari Activities

A combo of gorilla habituation experience with other Uganda safari activities gives you one of the best holiday feelings on an African safari. Uganda is a land gifted by nature whose beauties you can explore during your holidays in Africa. Some other Uganda safari activities include chimpanzee trekking, game drives, launch trips, visiting the source of the river Nile, white water rafting, and cultural experiences, to mention but a few.

When Is The Best Time To Book Gorilla Habituation Experience In Uganda?

The gorilla habituation experience is open throughout the year; however, the dry season is the most preferred. The dry season for the Virunga area usually is June, July, August, September, December, and January, but this doesn't mean the rains stop.

 The Virunga area receives heavy rains yearly and sometimes falls without warning. The dry season, however, is known for lesser rains. The mountain gorillas are more active, and other forest dwellers are more visible, like other primates, birds, butterflies, and so much more. 

Even the mountain gorillas feed closer to the ground during the dry season because there is plenty to feast on.

During the severe rainy seasons, the mountain gorillas and other forest inhabitants spend most of their time up in the trees, on the slopes, or deep in the valleys. This makes the experience more challenging because you may be required to hike.

The rainy season of the Virunga area is usually March, April, May and November.

How Sure Can I Be To See The Mountain Gorillas During Gorilla Habituation Experience?

There is a 98% chance of spotting mountain gorillas during the gorilla habituation experience. Although the mountain gorillas under the habituation adventure are semi-habituated, be sure to find them.

During the gorilla habituation experience, you follow a team of 

researchers and tackers who, by now, understand some of the traits of the gorilla family. They even know their possible ways because they have spent some reasonable time in their company.

Having some patience and following the rules of the gorilla habituation experience helps you get to these gentle giants. When you make noise while trekking to find the mountain gorillas, you may push them into the deeper parts of the forest, prolonging the return time from the gorilla habituation experience. When you locate them during gorilla habituation, four hours are allowed with the mountain gorillas.

How aggressive are mountain gorillas during habituation Experience?

Even though they are semi-habituated mountain gorillas, expect no violence from them. Mountain gorillas are naturally calm primates despite their vast bodies. Their outlook seems scared at a glance because of their fully covered, furred bodies.

When you immerse into their daily life during those four hours of gorilla habituation, you realize how gentle and serene these primates are. They are shy, too, when you look deep into their sunken brown eyes.

The mountain gorillas in the history of gorilla habituation experience or gorilla trekking have never violated any tourists. 

When angry, mountain gorillas show behaviors like hooting, thumping their chests hard, pulling grass around them, and so much more. When you observe such behaviors, do not panic but wait for advice from the researchers as they, by now, know how to respond to these traits. 

Sometimes, the matter is a family feud or an attack from other gorilla families due to territorial ownership.

What Challenge Can I Expect During Gorilla Habituation Experience?

You must know that the topography of the gorilla habituation experience destination, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, is volcanic, with remains of ridges and plateaus. Over these highlands, tangled vegetation drapes, and sometimes you have to creep beneath to access the mountain gorillas.

Sometimes mountain gorillas spend their days on the slopes, so you must hike to find them. Sometimes, the trek is strenuous, especially when you are not in shape. You must possess some level of fitness to enjoy the gorilla habituation experience.

Bwindi forest has other primates you may encounter during the gorilla habituation experience. Some of the other primates may include black and white colobus, vervet monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabey, blue monkeys, olive baboons, and chimpanzees, to mention but a few. To enjoy all these, you must abide by the rules of gorilla habituation experience or cause a stampede in the wilderness.

These semi-habituated mountain gorillas still possess wild traits like running into hiding, hooting unnecessarily, and others. You must be ready to encounter such behaviors.

Four hours with unstable gorillas may be hectic but prepare for a long time in the jungle. There is no return to the lodge before completing the trek.

The gorilla habituation experience is done with other trekkers whose pace may be slower than yours, but you must stay in harmony to enjoy the entire safari.

No washrooms are in the jungle, so try to ease before starting the trek. Expect to have your long or short call in the jungle. Ask the ranger guide to dig a hole for you at least 30 centimeters deep and cover it well afterward before it is beyond recognition.

What to pack for gorilla habituation experience?

• Safari trekking boots will withstand the soggy ground, especially when there is intense rainfall, yet the ground has volcanic soils that get boggy.
• Safari Long-sleeved shirt and trousers in colors friendly to the wilderness. The camouflaged clothes are not allowed in Uganda for security reasons. It would be best to carry clothes that protect your body from pricking surfaces and biting nettles.
• A camera that does produce flash lighting during photography. Carry one with a great lens that can catch a good photo amidst dripping water from the tree and surfaces of leaves.
• A pair of garden gloves to grip the creepers you pass by tightly.
• An extra fully charged battery to exchange with when one runs low.
• A poncho or sweater to keep you warm because this area is generally cold throughout the day and night
• Energy snacks to feed on when you get hungry in the forest. Trekking sometimes gets challenging and tiresome, so you need some energizers.
• A torch for extra light during the night when lights go out.
• A waterproof backpack to carry with your belongings and to keep them from getting scattered in the forest in case you fall while trekking in the wilderness.
• Some cash to change into local currency if you wish to do any transactions while on the ground, like buying souvenirs. In Africa, credit cards are rarely used as a means of transaction because the procedure of collecting money from them is long.
• Toiletries, just in case your lodge doesn't provide
• Travel adapter and charger in case your electronic gadgets need to be recharged
• Warm Flipf lops to use while in the room because the floors get cold in most rooms, yet the slippers available may be cold, too.
• Pajamas to wear at night and keep warm because this area gets cold at night
• A cap or large brim hat to cover your hair from dripping water from the tree branches and leaves. Even stinging flying insects in the forest may fall on your hair.
• A pair of stockings to tack in your trousers and offer protection during the walk
• Another pair of batteries to exchange with in case some run low in power.
• Insect repellant is friendly to your skin to protect your skin from stinging insects in the wilderness.
• Sunscreen Because Africa is a tropical continent, you need to protect your skin from sun rays that may affect your skin.
• A water bottle to carry drinking water to quench thirst while you trek to locate the mountain gorillas.
• Sunglasses protect your eyes from buzzing insects in the wilderness.
• Binoculars to see far-ranging features that exist in the wilderness
• A notebook or journal to put down your moments with the mountain gorillas
• Duffel bag to carry in your belongings when traveling for gorilla habituation.
• Bug spray in case your room has these bugs

Contact us for more information about gorilla habituation.