Top safari activities in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park ; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a main stopping safari destination for Gorilla trekking tours and renown as a home to the world’s highest concentration of great mountain gorillas with over 600 individuals out of the total of 1065 mountain gorillas that are still exist in the world. The park was gazetted as a national park in 1991 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and never ought to miss a visit here on Uganda Safaris.
Meanwhile, Bwindi National Park is Uganda’s most explored safari destination as tourists yearn to meet up with our closest related cousins whom we share 98% of DNA. More so, the park is located in southwestern region of Uganda, covering an area of about 331 square kilometers comprising of both montane and lowland vegetation with remarkable number of activities to do while in the park where one needs a safari visit at least 3 to 5 days’ exploration.
Here are unforgettable and memorable safari top done activities by the tourists on their visit to Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park as listed below;
Gorilla Trekking Experience – half day with one hour’s life experience
Gorilla Habituation Experience –full day with four-hour life adventure with gorillas
Visit Batwa Cultural Experience
Nature Walking-Hiking
Mountain biking
Buhoma Community Walks
Lake Mutanda Visit
Gorilla trekking experience
This is the main key done activities in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Gorilla trekking is an incredible activity that attracts number of visitors all over the world and without doubt gorilla trekking is worthwhile. Before you set off for gorilla trekking here, you need to buy a gorilla permit at USD700 to enable you meet up with unique mountain gorillas. This activity is done through hiking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in search of the endangered mountain gorillas accompanied with park rangers –guides and trackers. Note, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has 22 habituated gorilla families where travelers can track in four different stunning sectors within the park including; Buhoma gorilla sector in north, Ruhija gorilla sector in east, Nkuringo gorilla sector in south while Rushaga gorilla sector in the south a home for gorilla habituation.
Gorilla trekking experience starts early in the morning after breakfast and then go for briefing at the park headquarters for enlighten you about dos and don’ts of gorilla trekking in the forest. The activity can take 30 to 6 hours searching for the assigned in gorilla family in a group of 8 people and once you locate the gorilla family, you will be given one hour to spend with them learn how they survive in the forest, feed, play, build their nest on the ground in the evening time for their night rest as well as enjoying memorable photography. After back to the lodge.
Gorilla Habituation
Gorilla habituation is one of the top done activities in Bwindi Impenetrable national park done in Rushaga sector one of the four gorilla sector. After briefing, meet up your park ranger guide who will help you allocate the gorilla family where this activity is done. The guide will group you in four groups of people and leads you to habituated gorilla family, remember is a full day experience inclusive with four-hour drive to watch them, enjoy your packed lunch boxes and memorable photo shoot. Once you locate the gorilla family lead by the researchers, doctors, park ranger’s fours hour will be given to you as collect samples from gorillas, have rewardable sight-seeing, learn about their amazing lifestyle among others. All you need to do is to book your valid gorilla trekking permits in advance if you’re to visit in peak season, meaning permits can be on high sell and for you not being disappointed book your permit early of which you can do 3 to 6 months booking. Peak seasons starts from June to September and December to February.
Gorilla habituation permits costs USD1,500 for foreign non-resident, USD1,000 for foreign residents and UGX750,000 for East African citizens per person.
Bird watching
Bwindi Impenetrable forest a great inhabits to see various species and it’s a truly birder’s paradise with over 350 bird species with 23 endemic Albertine Rift among others. Bwindi destination is a truly a birding destination where you can be able to view beautiful bird species such as ;Giant Kingfisher ,African harrier hawk ,African green pigeon ,Cinnamon –chested bee –eater ,crowned horn bill, Ruwenzori apalis ,Regal sunbirds ,Neumann’s warbler ,Handsome francolin ,mountain ,Ruwenzori apalis ,Purple –breasted sunbird , Mountain masked apalis , Many-colored bush –shrike ,Blue-headed sunbird , Black-faced warbler ,Black-faced rufous warbler , Black bee eater ,African broadbill mentioned but few . Birding can be best done in month of March to September and June to July during this period there can be plenty of food in the park while migratory bird species are present from November to April.
Visit Batwa Cultural Experience
Before the existing of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park this forest was home resident for Batwa people who used to live with mountain gorillas in peace but later on they had to be shifted to other area near the park. So on visit to the park lot of tourists make it a must to visit the Batwa people and enjoy their amazing culture through sharing their historical life, demonstrate how they lived on hunt, teach you how to prepare traditional –local food, make fire, how they collect wild honey and share on their knowledge of the plant that they used to survive on both food and medicine as herbal, Top Safari Activities in Bwindi National Park .
Batwa people their live was dependent on the forest and had for a long time co-existed with the mammals and plant life. You will also enjoy their interesting traditional dance and songs.
Forest Walks –Guided nature walk
Along Bwindi Impenetrable forest you can enjoy guided nature walk through interesting trail heads within the park with help of the guide. You can take Munyaga River trails a beautiful area with waterfall in the park and a place for great sight-seeing of abundant of flora and fauna within the park. The trail starts from Buhoma gate or Rushaga gate which can take 3 to 4 hours.
Mountain Biking
Mountain biking is best done from the Buhoma sector that gives the best biking experience to provide you a ride in stunning surrounding trails. In Bwindi National park ‘s some lodge offers mountain biking. Booking can be done in advance.
Community Walks
This activity is best done in Buhoma community walk where visitors can be accompanied by the guide, walk through the village visit the local school, visit health center, view bird species among others.
Visit Lake Mutanda visit
A visit to Lake Mutanda will definitely rewards you with beautiful scenic land scape, enjoy breezing fresh air as you can unwind the nature around. This activity is best done after gorilla trekking experience. The lake offers various stunning island which can be reach out on a dugout canoe with the help of a guide.
All the above mentioned activities in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park will give you awesome life encounter and this must be done by help of a trust worth tour operator who is knowledgeable enough about Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and a visit made up here you will surely live to remember it.
