Gorilla Trekking in Uganda
 

I'm on the verge of booking two gorilla treks in Uganda for October 2019. I've picked up intimations that it is possible to specify a particular area in Bwindi for your trek (assuming availability) and am wondering what the differences are. I have a ways to go getting fit enough for this, so if one area is somewhat easier than the others, that's where I want to be. Any input?

Hi arts, I’ve not done gorilla trekking in Uganda, but I did research it before ultimately deciding on Rwanda. What I learned though was that your choice of lodge may be quite a ways away from where your trek starts, so may be a much earlier morning to get up and get there before you start (whereas in Rwanda, they all start at about the same place and all the lodges are around there). Also if you’re interested in the 4 hour gorilla habituation experience (or all day chimp experience) instead of just the 1 hour with them, that’s only in one place too. I’d first pick where you want to trek and then pick lodges nearest that location, unless you’re super interested in a lodge, then you’d want to ask for a trek near that, I would think. I found it a bit deceiving that not all the safari planners I talked to were open about the fact that there were separate places to trek and the lodges weren’t necessarily close, I discovered that from one very honest one, who told me I’d be wasting a lot of time driving around to trek.

Try to insure getting the Buhoma Sector departure point. But, is it possible to get it "guaranteed" ?
Good point AmyB makes about the distance from where you stay to where you start the trek--some involve a two hour drive!
If you trek from the Buhoma site, the wonderful Buhoma Lodge (note --that 's a different place from the Buhoma Community Lodge or Rest Camp) is less than a five minute walk from the trek instructions/starting point. They (and a couple other nearby lodges) occasionally get a gorilla visitor!
There are other nearby lodgings, but I think Buhoma Lodge is the only accommodation actually within the official borders of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.

Uganda and its people are fantastic in so many ways!

The Buhoma Community rest camp now has a beautiful new lodge attached, where we stayed last year and will stay again next year. Haven Lodge. We loved it. Our tour company last year screwed up and although we were booked into Haven Lodge in Buhoma, and paid for the permits 8 months in advance, we did not have our trek there and had to drive 2 hours to the trek site. I will make sure that that does not happen again this time. Apparently doing it in advance should guarantee you that particular area but not which family you will get. This time i will ask to have a confirmation photo of the permit emailed to me. this is the one that sells out first apparently

Hi, i did this tour 6 months ago, and the hike was not difficult at all. we found the gorillas after going downhill for 30minutes , and then stayed right there with them. After the whole experience, it was simply the same way uphill. But not too steep. There is no sure knowing of how long it will take you to find them but in general the rangers bring you to the closest group and in Bwindi there are many.
I wrote more about the experience here, take a look if you like: https://tripcrafting.com/how-to-go-t...las-in-uganda/
and feel free to ask me any questions you might have
Theo

I only hope I get such a short hike. I have been working on getting in shape for a year now. I started out with a 3-mile walk on the flat. Yesterday I did a 9-mile hike with a 900-foot elevation change. I have a year to go, which I hope will be enough to get me where I need to be.

Did you do the gorilla trek? Wondering how you made out

Not going until next October. That's good, because I need the intervening months to achieve the appropriate level of fitness - hard at work on that.