Bwindi Forest National Park is also located in south western Uganda and its ranked one of the best world tourist destinations due to the massive number of tourist who visits the park every year, the park harbours the world’s endangered mountain gorillas and it’s noted that Bwindi only has over half of the world’s left mountain gorillas approximately 400 of them.
This was earlier gazetted as a forest reserve due to its thickness which even prompted the local people to name it as Bwindi which means “Darkness”, it was fully recognized as a national park in 1991 and it seats on 321 km.
It has got a type of vegetation which is draped in steep valley and it’s always chilly around the park hence making the place cold with a mixture of mist and fog which flows over the forest to form a cloudy environment. the park can be accessed via the road and it’s about 530km from Kampala city most especially to the visitors who have used the Entebbe international airport, other directions include the Kampala – Kabale – Kanungu to Buhoma sector and this takes around 7hours of driving. However by Air, visitors can reach the park from Entebbe airport or Kajjansi airfield to the airstrip in Kisoro town and prior booking is always preferred.
The park is visited throughout the year and some of the activities which can be performed here includes, gorilla trekking which is the highest done activity, these were structured in groups for easy identifications and also according to the person who invented or rescued or depending on the name of the place. Bwindi safaris can satisfy any visitor who wishes to have an experiential tour to the pearl of Africa due to their way of looks and being the largest primates, in the four sectors, the Rushaga sector has got the highest number of gorilla groups including the Nshongi and Mishaya among others, in Ruhija sector the Bitukula gorilla group is common.
In Nkuringo sector there is Nkuringo group and in Buhoma sector is the Rushegura, Habinyanja and the Mubare gorilla group which is the first gorilla group to be tracked from this park. Gorilla trekkers strictly spend one hour with the gorillas compared to those who does gorilla habituation experience who spend a full day with the gorilla. Gorilla trekking permits here costs $600 USD and Habituation experience $1500USD. Other primates that can be seen from this amazing park include the red tailed, blue monkey, baboons, Chimpanzees, black and white Colobus and bush babies.
Birding is also another major activity which can be done from here, being one of the oldest forests in Uganda, it has harboured a number of bird species with over 350 species recorded including about 23 which are endemic, some of the bird species that can be seen here include, Crimson wing, short tailed warbler, blue headed sun bird, African green Broad bills, African Emerald Cuckoo, Red headed Blue bill among others bird species. Mountains such as Sabyinyo
The park is located in a place with a vast hotels, lodges and camping sites and is the list of some of them you can stay before or after your gorilla trekking tours in Uganda.
