4 Days Gorilla habituation experience is a unique way to enjoy watching gorillas in the wild that can only be enjoyed in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park which is the only park in the world that permits habituation visits by tourists.
On a gorilla habituation experience, visitors can spend an extended period of time with a group of wild mountain gorillas to habituate them to human presence. Unlike traditional gorilla trekking, where groups of tourists are allowed only a brief one-hour encounter with habituated gorilla families, gorilla habituation experiences involve spending several hours with researchers and trackers as they gradually acclimate a wild gorilla group to human observers.
Visitors will learn a great deal about the gorillas, including research facts, behavior, and ecology. The experience typically begins by meeting the trackers at 6am before setting out to find the gorillas. This experience is often described as intimate and awe-inspiring, with visitors feeling a strong connection to the family of gorillas.
Destinations to cover.
4 Days Gorilla habituation experience Tour Program
Day 1: Transfer to Bwindi impenetrable national park
Set off in the morning from your hotel and drive to Bwindi impenetrable national park.
Cross the equator to the southern hemisphere of the universe as you proceed further south of the country
Drive through different tribes, different landscapes and rolling hills terraced with green fields of green plantain locally known as matoke, onions, corn, cassava and much more.
Check in the hotel for dinner and an overnight stay.
Day 2: Gorilla habituation experience in Bwindi impenetrable national park
Wake up very early in the morning, have your breakfast and pack your lunch for a gorilla habituation experience.
Unlike in the normal gorilla trekking where trackers have already found your gorillas and they take you directly to them, on a gorilla habituation trekking starts from where the gorillas were last seen the previous evening.
You will walk with the experienced rangers and trackers from Uganda Wildlife Authority, learning the tell-tale signs that eventually lead to the primates’ nests; such as knuckle prints in the mud, bent and broken vegetation and discarded food. Gorillas build new nests each night then move on looking for food: what they leave behind is vital for checking their health and numbers. At the nests, the team collects samples of hair and dung before continuing their search.
Gorillas aren’t always so placid in the presence of people: it takes time and effort to achieve this relaxed, almost nonchalant attitude in a process known as habituation.
This Bwindi’s exciting gorilla experience allows you to be part of this process by tracking a group that is only semi-habituated. During habituation, trackers visit wild gorilla groups every day for around three years, gradually getting closer and spending longer in their company. At the semi-habituated stage, the primates are familiar with trackers but not strangers, so this new experience can now help them get used to seeing different people.
On a habituation trek, you can spend up to 4 magical hours with these highly intelligent and emotional creatures! It is an incredibly humbling experience, and the habituation process is fundamental to the continued protection of the gorillas.
Later after your habituation, you will return back to the hotel and relax.
Tourists on a gorilla habituation experience in Bwindi impenetrable national park
Day 3: Relax and explore Lake Bunyonyi
After your breakfast, you will checkout and drive to Lake Bunyonyi just 2 hours away to relax and chill out after your successful gorilla habituation.
Lake Bunyonyi is the most beautiful lakes in Uganda. Visitors from near and far are simply awed by its mystical, magical beauty.
Bunyonyi – means the “place of little birds,” not only is it a place for birds but a restorative place, a place of solace, of rest, of quietness, reflection, and tranquility.
What make Lake Bunyonyi jaw dropping is as you approach it, you see it snaking along the Ugandan landscape. It is dotted by 29 islands of various shapes and sizes, surrounded by a ring of terraced farms, their greenery accenting this mystical lake like a lovely frame and is no wonder that Lonely Planet called it “A scene from Lord of the Rings.”
You spend your day on Lake Bunyonyi exploring the islands with their amazing history and cultural relations, swimming and nature walks around the hills surrounding the lake.
Dinner and an overnight stay at the hotel.
Day 4: Drive back to Entebbe or Kampala
After your breakfast, you will set off for Entebbe or Kampala.
Lunch on the way you will communicate the drop off point to your guide
END OF TOUR