Gorilla and Rwenzori expedition in Uganda. Helping Dreamers Do

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£3050

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16 Days excluding flights

More info:Price includes: Ground transportation, driver/guide, all the activities mentioned in the itinerary,park entrance fees, accommodation and meals mentioned. Price excludes: Tips, souvenirs, all beverages and items of personal nature.

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“Our only two week, small group trip that includes gorilla tracking in Uganda, combined with some superb hiking in the Rwenzori mountains. Staying in mountain huts and trekking camps. ”

Highlights

Description of Gorilla and Rwenzori expedition in Uganda

This two week gorilla tracking and Uganda hiking holiday is a small group tour, with guided expeditions into the spectacular Rwenzori Mountains National Park. The gorilla watching aspect of the tour is at the beginning of the trip, your full day trekking and tracking experience taking part in the Uganda mist-shrouded forests of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This is home to over half of the earth’s 800 or so mountain gorillas.

Your mountain adventure continues for eleven more days, with some magnificent hiking in the Rwenzori mountains with our expert trekking guides. These trekking days include Margherita Peak (5,109m), one of the subsidiary peaks of Mount Stanley, Uganda’s highest mountain. You will hike through myriad ecosystems, from Afro Montane Forest to Alpine Zones, with glacier walking part of this wonderful walking mix. Wildlife watching opportunities are endless, thanks to the many different habitats, and our guides are all experts in everything that can be seen, from Uganda’s beautiful birdlife to prolific primates such as blue, Colobus and more rare L’Hoest monkeys.

Primate viewing proffers the perfect finale to this trip too, as we take on some chimp tracking in Kibale Forest, a national park that boasts the highest concentration of primates in East Africa.

Travel Team

If you'd like to chat about this holiday or need help finding one we're very happy to help. The Travel Team.

01273 823 700 Calling from outside the UK? rosy@responsibletravel.com

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2019: 6 May, 20 May, 3 Jun, 17 Jun, 1 Jul, 15 Jul, 29 Jul, 12 Aug, 26 Aug, 9 Sep, 23 Sep, 7 Oct, 21 Oct, 4 Nov, 18 Nov

Top tip:

Get in training for this one. This is no walk in the park, but a magnificent trekking adventure of a lifetime. And every climb is worth it.

Trip type:

Small group tour, fully guided.

Activity level:

Fairly challenging.

Accomm:

Camps and eco lodges

Solo travellers:

Solo travellers welcome.

Included:

Gorilla permit, chimp permit, transport in 4WD, driver guide, accommodation, all meals, national park entrance fees, drinking water, all activities in itinerary.

About this holiday company:

This Uganda based tour operator has been in the gorilla trekking business since 2002, and is wholly dedicated to responsible gorilla trekking, in their home country and also in Rwanda. A member of the Uganda Association of Tour Operators, their leader guides are also experts in hiking, birding and rafting. You get the picture. They’ve got this.

Vouchers

Accepted

Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism: Gorilla and Rwenzori expedition in Uganda

Environment

“Bwindi” meaning a muddy swampy place full of darkness by the local community is a home of over 10 species of primate of which we find the endangered Mountain Gorillas which have since attracted conservation efforts driven by the tourism activities in the region. Whenever one visits the forest they contribute 60%of there park fees to the community projects, 20% to improve park management and 20% to ecological monitoring and research aimed at conserving the remaining wildlife in this forest. Therefore you directly contribute to the conservation of the primate species during this adventure.

Since this expedition involves a lot of trekking, we need to pack a lot of water and food most of the time. For environmental purposes we strictly use Recyclable containers or Biodegradable paper bags to carry food and Plastic recyclable bottles to carry our water. Throughout the whole trip, we provide water in these recyclable bottles and collect them regularly in particular places where they are collected back to the factories.

Most of these Mountainous regions do not have hydro electricity from the National grid and so we get involved in the use of renewable energy like solar power in our camping and overnight lodges. This is good for our environment and has proven to be much cheaper in Uganda especially after installation.

In most of these mountainous regions we will use local transport like bicycles and motor-bike especially in Bwindi and Virunga in cases where the trekking is longer and the visitors cannot manage to walk the whole distance. This is also an option during the village walks and tour to distant remote places from our camps or lodges.

Community

This trip provides a lot of employment opportunities to the local people in most of the regions we visit for example; Bwindi, Virunga and Rwenzori where we carry out a lot of trekking. We use local people as porters or helpers to carry the luggage for a small wage. They also work as local guides during village walks and local markets since they are considered to be well versed with the places more than us.

There are so many local craft markets that we will meet during this trip giving the visitor better bargaining power and an opportunity to see how these craft are manufacture by the locals. We also get the opportunity to visit local schools and clinics that need support from tourists like donation like in Bwindi Nkuringo. During the free day we visit either a school or there local clinic and part of the tours fees you pay is contributed to support the children with stationery, clothing and medicine for the community.