Easiest Gorilla Family to Hike: Travelers always want to make sure they will see the Gorillas on a gorilla trekking trip; all the gorilla parks have several habituated gorilla groups/ families which are known are like the easiest and hard to trek, this all depends on the where they are usually allocated most times. In Bwindi forest national park, there are gorilla groups that are too used to humans and can often be seen roaming the gardens of some safari lodges.
Gorilla tracking as an experience involves trekking through the tropical moist forest, slippery steep slopes crossing water until where you find the allocated gorilla family. The ability to trek depends on one’s physical fitness, what is hard for the other may be easy for another.
Gorillas live at high altitudes in the mountains where they derived the name, mountain gorillas live in four national parks, Bwindi forest national park and Mgahinga gorilla national park in Uganda, volcanoes national park in Rwanda, and Virunga national park in Congo. The parks are characterized by rugged terrain, sometimes the trails can be too slippery and muddy making it difficult to trek hence taking more time to reach the gorilla family even when it’s near.
To ease the trekking experience, Easiest Gorilla Family to Hike, make sure you have good sturdy hiking boots, comfortable clothing like long pants and long sweater tops and shirts don’t forget to have your walking stick for support, this will ease movement and stability on the slippery ground as you trek.
It is also not true that some gorilla families are easier to trek while others are out rightly hard to locate. Gorillas are wild animals whose actions are spontaneous. It is possible to trek and find the gorilla family on one allocated spot while another group may find when it had moved further therefore the ease of seeing the gorillas depends on the movements of the gorilla family that day.
Gorillas mainly move in search of food though there are other factors that may influence their movements as threat from invasion of wild gorillas. Though it is true some gorilla families live around less strenuous elevations, they also at times move deeper in the valleys. Sometimes you may be able to see gorillas within 15 minutes of your trek while it may also take over 6 hours to locate the same gorilla family on another day.
Despite the movement of gorillas there are some gorilla families that have been known to fore range close in the park for example Rushegura Gorilla family in Buhoma (Bwindi forest national park – Uganda) has often been easy to meet a good number of times but can also be so hard to find some days. Bitukura family in Ruhija sector is also often located near and Nshongi in Rushaga is relatively near and easy to track.
In Mgahinga National park, there two gorilla families Nyakagenzi and Hirwa often very near. It all depends on the movements of the day thus there is no guarantee that this gorilla family is actually easy to trek. More so the terrain in Mgahinga is a bit flat which makes it easy to trek with easy and flexibility.
In Volcanoes National park-Rwanda, there are 2 gorilla families which are a bit less strenuous to track is include Amahoro group but as earlier said it’s not a guaranteed, on the other had the family could move further than expected. Other gorilla families in volcanoes include; Kwitonda, Agashya, Bwenge, Susa A, Susa B, sabyinyo and Umubano family.
Most important and advisable is to make sure you choose a well-informed travel company to arrange your gorilla safari because there is a common mistake of one booking accommodation that is far away from the start point of the gorilla trek and this makes it slightly hard to enjoy your gorilla trek as you will have to travel long distances to reach y
our trekking area.
Please note that Bwindi Impenetrable forest National park has four sections; Buhoma, Rushaga, Nkuringo and Ruhija sectors and each area has appropriate safari lodges to use depending on the gorilla family you are to trek, Easiest Gorilla Family to Hike, therefore if you happen to choose you or have the desired gorilla family you wish to trek it’s important to inform your tour consultant to book accommodation close to the tracking where that gorilla family belongs.
In Uganda there are more than 20 gorilla families in at different tracking sectors, Buhoma, Ruhija, Nkuringo, and Rushaga, the gorilla families include;
Rushegura, Mubare, Habinyanja and katwe in Buhoma, Bitukura, Kyaguriro, Oruzogo and Mukiza which just disintegrated from Kyaguriro family in Ruhija, Bweza, Nshongi, Kahungye, Mishaya, Bwengye, kutu, mucugunzi, Rwigi, Busingye and Bikyingi in Rushaga where as Nkuringo gorilla family, Christmas and Bushaho in Nkuringo.
Mgahinga gorilla national park has two gorilla families, Nyakagenzi and Hirwa that migrated from the neighbor volcanoes national park for a year now. All these gorilla families are open for tourism.
One other frequently looming question is – “why did this tour company book me on a hard to track gorilla family?”
This happens when you reserve your gorilla permit late and the operator has few options to consider because all good tour operators know the preferred locations regarding safari lodges, gorilla trekking areas and Gorilla families. However, all gorilla families are spontaneous in behavior – none is simple to trace or hard to see.
In brief; a gorilla trek is sometimes strenuous and a good level of physical fitness is required and any of the above issues should not pop-up during your Gorilla Trek!
