Gorilla trekking is the process by which people search the mountain gorillas in their natural habitat. Both Uganda and Rwanda are gifted with Mountain Gorillas which are found in Bwindi Impenetrable forest, Mgahinga National park and Volcanoes national park.
In both countries, gorilla trekking starts with 30 minutes briefing which starts at 7:30am. Briefing is done to equip trekkers with dos and don’ts during the trekking process.
After briefing, trekkers are led by rangers to search gorillas in their natural habitat.
On the way to the colonies of gorillas, rangers goes on providing necessary information about flora and fauna, relief, drainage features among others.
A maximum of eight people are allowed to trek a group of gorillas. It case of few trekkers available, a group can be trekked by one, two three, four, five, six or seven people.
Gorillas are seen for only one hour to avoid stressing them which can make them upset. Once gorilla gets annoyed, they turn violent and harmful to human being. And in case violence is detected among group members, the rangers can request trekkers to leave the group even before one hour elapse.
Gorillas can be found swinging on the tree climbing plants, feeding, mothers taking care of their babies, silverbacks guarding the group and so on.
You are allowed to take photos, films but cameras with flash are not allowed to avoid upsetting Gorillas.
You are allowed to view gorillas and maintain 7 meters distance from gorillas – once gorillas come near you, please extend behind. This is done to prevent the spread of disease like cough, flu among others.
In most cases, if a trekker is discovered to have infectious disease, he or she can be stopped from meet Gorillas.
While on a primate safari, all trekkers are advised not to dump harmful materials like plastics, pollythen bags among others.
All trekkers are advised to move with tracking gears and packed lunch because the time taken while searching gorillas is unpredictable and sometimes take a full day.
Game rangers move with armed guards to provide security to all trekkers. In case they meet dangerous animals like lions, leopards, he can be forced to shoot to save the lives of people.
Ranger guide can easily know where a group of Gorillas is located depending on where it was trekked on the previous day.
The sick, aged and weak people are given the easy trek with the shortest distance to enable them meet gorillas.
Do not touch on the gorillas and if it came near you, please reduce your height by kneeling down. Gorillas do not like challengers and if you remain standing, they may think you want to challenge them and can be forced to attack you.
