Gorilla Trek: how difficult?
 

Hi it will be my first africa this year and I am going to see, or better, I hope to see gorillas.
Reading this forum I got scared, because a lot of you talked about rock climbing and vertical path to pass with both hands and feet.
Is it so difficult to trek there? Thank you for your answers.

Rock climbing, vertical paths - rubbish. Steep forest trails are quite likely and may be slippery and/or muddy. Hire a porter, he will help get you to the gorillas.

I agree with the poster - my husband has back issues and was able to do it. The Porter was a great help and our guide was able to get us in a group that was the shortest hike (our hike was under an hour - much of that on flat/sloping ground --- only the last 100 metres or so was steep/wet)

No guarantee on the shortest hike group - though.

My husband and I went to Bwindi in April and it was mostly steep forest trails. But there were some rocky areas where we needed to grab on to trees to climb up. We also crossed over some streams by stepping on rocks. It had rained the night before, so it was bit wet and muddy in some areas. Do hire a porter! My porter gave me a hand several times and was so helpful. We exercise a lot and are in good shape, but were surprised that the altitude made us not as energetic as usual. But there were people of all ages in our group and everyone did fine. The terrain you will cross depends on the location of the gorilla group you are tracking that day - there's no way to know until you start out. We were lucky and found our group in one hour. But another couple at the lodge went the following day hiked for several hours and didn't get back until late evening. Here's our blog post about our trip if you'd like to read more,http://latitudeb.com/uganda/ and photos of the gorilla trek, http://latitudeb.com/gorilla-trek-bwindi-photos/.

Street_sadu,

I agree with all the above posts. I visited Bwindi in Dec. 2005. It's steep, can be slippery and muddy, and thick with vegetation. Do hire a porter. You definitely need to be in good physical shape. My trek lasted over 5 hrs. because the troop of gorillas we were tracking was constantly on the move. We were always trying to catch up to them. I was almost at the point where I was ready to say "I don't care if I ever see a gorilla, I'm tired, take me back to the lodge." When we did finally catch up with the troop, they were absolutely beautiful and breath-taking. It was well worth the effort.

"I hope to see gorillas." To increase your odds, book 2 visits.

All good advice. Be sure you can walk a couple of miles before you leave home. If stairs are available, do some climbing.

It is scaring when you see the mountains but you can penetrate the impenetrable..