Gorilla Trekking Rwanda 3 months Pregnant

Old Jan 17th, 2016, 05:24 AM
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Gorilla Trekking Rwanda 3 months Pregnant

Hi All
I am considering visiting the Gorilla's in Rwanda. I am planning to go, as part of a work trip to Kigali, in early March. I have just found out that I'm pregnant and will be about 3 months by the time the trip comes around and I wondered if would still be manageable?I understnad that every pregnant body is different and that you can't advise from a medical perspective. But I'd just like to understand more about the trekking options and whether I would be able to opt to do an easier trek or is it completely dependant on where the Gorilla's are on the day?

Basically any advise would be much appreciated.


Thanks in advance
Salga is offline  
Old Jan 17th, 2016, 11:49 AM
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Salga - the guide that takes you up to the mountains will be your advocate at Park headquarters on the morning you start your trek. All the guides bring all 80 guests (there are 80 permits per day) to the park HQ around 7am and what seemed like a 45 minute process begins where your guide barters to get his client (you) into a group or 8 tourists appropriate for your interests/fitness. I was short of time on one of my trek days and I was put with some older folks that had a stated interest not to walk for more than an hour. We saw our gorilla family (22 of them) within an hour. My advice is not default and choose the cheapest guiding company as the guide won't have any leverage for you at park HQ. When I was there I noticed a distinct difference between the guides from Volcanoes, Primates, and Thousand Hills vs. the rest that mostly were driving old sedans and not wearing a uniform of any kind, smoking, disengaged from their guests etc. I am sure there are other ones but these three outfits I mentioned looked like the most professional that I saw. You will be fine!

Craig Beal
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Old Jan 17th, 2016, 11:50 AM
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I meant to say, for full disclosure, we book our clients mostly with Primates but I believe the other two companies I mentioned are exceptional as well.

Craig Beal
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Old Jan 18th, 2016, 05:31 AM
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great thank you for your help. It's really helpful
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Old Jan 21st, 2016, 08:39 AM
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"whether I would be able to opt to do an easier trek or is it completely dependant on where the Gorilla's are on the day?"

Yes and yes. Depending on where the gorillas are the previous day, the guides know which groups are likely to be closest the morning of the trek. You pick your group the morning of the hike.

Emphasis on likely because conditions can change and gorillas can be unpredictable.

Sometimes one of the groups has an older silverback for the leader so that group may tend to not venture up as high.

I'd suggest 2 things, both of them adding to your costs.

#1 Book more than one gorilla visit. I always suggest this and have always done this myself in case something interferes with the quality of the visit such as weather/rain, forest elephants that hinder your route or push the gorillas off, a leopard that scares the gorillas, your own illness, or anything else. In your case, there is the added reason if you found you could not carry on to the gorillas, you'd have another chance. Odds for a fantastic single visit are high (I'd unscientifically estimate 99%). But how sad to be part of that 1% with no second visit to look forward to. You can often sell an extra permit at cost if you decide once is enough, as there are waiting lists especially in high season of mid June- early Oct.

#2 The recommendation for "Volcanoes, Primates, and Thousand Hills" is a good one in your case. I have used Volcanoes and Primates on different trips. Churchill gets good reviews too, but those 3 mentioned are tops when I have asked various guides. You want all the extra pull and leverage you can get that might not be as important to other gorilla trekkers.

In fact, in a previous trip report on gorilla tracking, I wrote:

"I’d be careful about going too cheap, though. The mentoring roles that my two guides (Theo at Primates and Kirenga at Volcanoes) from my two Rwandan trips took on gave me a peek into the calamities that can occur with inexperienced guides or guides working for shoddy companies. Such things as guides getting lost. Theo had to head out in the dark one night after I’d been tucked in to escort a hapless guide and his guests to their PNV destination; breakdowns of poorly maintained vehicles; no chimp tracking permits because the company president never thought to acquire them; no gorilla permits due to oversight at best and fraud at worst; clients’ boots getting left behind in Uganda when the vehicle was cleaned requiring an all-night international journey by the guide via bus and motorbike to retrieve them, complete with diplomatic intervention when problems arose at the border. And that’s just what happened while I was there to hear about it."

I know both Theogene (Theo for short) of Primates and Kirenga of Volcanoes were able to get me the gorilla group I wanted--or the one they suggested in advance--each time. They were a combined 8 for 8.

Aside from the advice here, do consult your doctor, who should trump all this. I believe you need yellow fever vaccination proof for Rwanda, which could be a consideration, along with anti-malaria drugs.

Hope you go and have fun.
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Old Jan 25th, 2016, 12:59 PM
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Hello,

You've gotten some great advice, so I'll only chime in on the trek itself. We just returned in December, where we trekking gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda. Volcanoes is less steep than Bwindi and, while it was apparent to us, our guide later told us that you can request to go in an easier group if you've limitations, etc.
We did not do this, so this is what happens if you don't ask to be in an easier (or harder) group. The rangers assess all the people and put them into groups, from easy to hard. We were in the hard group and the easy group told us they were gone two hours tops. In Bwindi, the easy group walked a total of 15 minutes before seeing the gorillas!

Also remember that the elevation may or may not be a factor for you.

There are many, many reputable tour operators to use and it truly pays off to do some research and reach out to a few, not only for pricing, but to gauge how responsive they are.
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Old Apr 14th, 2016, 09:39 AM
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Hi Salga,

Are you back already from the trekking?
I'm in the same shoes as you are, we booked a gorilla trip and afterwards I got pregnant. I would love to know how your experience went!
If you have a chance, please share!

Best regards
pipilotta is offline  
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