For more than a decade or so, Mother continent Africa, renowned for its rich cultural heritage, has of no doubt remained an unrivaled tourist destination in the world at large. Talking of great lakes and Nile, ancient Egypt pyramids, to historical archeological sites, cave paintings and of course not leaving alone the Mandela legacy island, the Robben Island to mention but a few. Just in an easy journey, one wont fail to steal a glimpse of the breath taking sceneries of misty tropical mountains, with over a thousand species of birds, creatures both small and great living together down to the deserts where million herbivores in unending and risky search for grass.
Uganda, the pride of Africa so goes the slogan ‘the pearl of Africa’, is well known globally as a tourist destination, besides the largest Lake in Africa, the source of the Nile, beautiful scenery of green covered landscape, waterfalls, plantations, snow caped mountain crater lakes, all year round clear and bright skies to wildlife varieties ranging from gigantic Elephants, tree climbing Lions, Leopards, Hippopotamus, Chimpanzee, with half of the world`s remaining mountain gorilla, to countless bird species, to mention but a few.
Talk Uganda, talk tourism and of course talk of Mountain gorillas, the Great Apes Still an endangered species. Mountain gorillas are found in the heart of the Great Albertine Rift of East Africa in tropical rain forests of the Bwindi national park, Mgahinga gorilla national park in south west of Uganda, volcanoes National park in Rwanda to the northeast, and the Virunga Mountains in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Mountain gorillas attract thousands of tourists from all dimensions of the world annually.
Powerful, mighty and calm, Mountain Gorillas are among the rarest and fun to watch primates, one that will make your bucket of list a memorable one. A tour travel to the East of Africa without a trek with the mountain gorilla is not a visit worth keeping fresh in your memory. Covered with thick and long fur from head to feet, just to adapt to the ever cool temperate weathered conditions, Mountain gorillas are mainly terrestrial and quadrupedal, feeding majorly on green Vegetation, with the males weighing averagely 195kg twice as heavy as female. Adult males posses silver and grey colored hair that develop with age giving it the famous name; Silverback. Mountain Gorillas individually identified by the nose prints unique to each move in a knukle motion and supporting all its body weight by backs of its curved fingers on the powerful arms that are usually longer than its legs. This particular feature makes it stand out among other primate families.
Mountain gorilla trekking is usually done all year round, however for one to plan a tour travel, it is important to understand when the appropriate time to pay a visit is, not only seasons but also concerning the budget aspect of travels. Uganda has a modified equatorial climate, with average daytime temperatures at 21.5C and 71F dropping as low as 54F at night receiving rainfall ranges between 1000-2500mm annually. Rwanda climatic conditions are manly influenced by tropical and dry climate with average temperatures of 18C/64F, with day temperatures of 28C dropping to about 16C at night.
Despite changing times and Global warming that has made climatic forecast a challenge, Uganda and Rwanda are known to experience both rainy and dry seasons, with the former blessed to have two rainy seasons, longer running through the months of March to May and the short one in October and November. The rest of the months experience dry weather. These conditions in the two countries have subdivided gorillas trekking into two seasons;
Peak / High season
The longest of the two, running through the months of January, February, June, July, August September and December, a time of little or no rainfall is considered the most favoring time of the year for gorilla trekking in East Africa. This is because mountain gorillas prefer temperate weathered conditions that increase their chances to be seen during treks. There are also many dry days with longer and uninterrupted walks through the equatorial forests and hills, and accessibility of parks as roads are passable. However, visits during this time are naturally considered expensive, with regards to the high demand for gorilla permits which goes to excess of USD600 and as high as USD1500 in Rwanda. With expensive lodge prices, tourists the then required to make timely booking with an initial pay of 30% of total booking fees. Further still, treks are known for crowding tourists not on parks but also in the lodges, especially during the festive season in December as local tourists are also away for vacations and most likely destinations are the parks. This season is also known for harboring mosquitoes unlike in the rainy season where they are out to breed
Rainy / Low season
This is found in the months of March, April, May, and November and is characterized by heavy showers and droplets of rainfall. Despite having muddy and slippery roads that makes it hard to drive along roads making park accessibility difficult and seemingly less interesting for experienced walkers, visible and clear photography is also hard since the vegetations tend to grow long, and more dense. This season is however considered the most favoring for visitors who travel on a budget. Unlike in the high season, low seasons have a greatly low gorilla permit prices of 450USD with low lodge booking prices all done in the effort of encouraging more tourists during this time. These rains usually followed by warm sunny weather, make gorilla trekking a whole day experience as no day is completely lost to rains. Further still, low populations of tourists are then allocated to different gorilla groups for a closer and even more interesting treks and also less populated lodges.
In conclusion, mountain gorilla trekking is done all year round irrespective of weather conditions as tourist, more or less enjoy almost the same satisfaction of nature walks. And the other thing to note is unlike Uganda that maintains a constant charge for mountain gorilla permits at USD600 and as low as USD450, depending on conditions to encourage more tourists, Rwandan permits remain constant at US1500 all through.
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