Canadian Geographic Travel, Marcello Di Cintio, June 2019
My butler woke me by singing a “good morning” song as he approached my banda at Mount Gahinga Lodge in Uganda. He tapped on my door, placed a tray with my morning coffee on the table and stepped back into the darkness. It was two hours before dawn.
I’d spent time at three of the four luxury lodges Volcanoes Safaris operates in the Great Lakes region of Uganda and Rwanda (see “Lodge life,” below), and my favourite part of each stay were these sung wake-up calls. None of these were as early as on this particular morning, though. And none seemed as important. After nearly a week in the region, I was finally going to penetrate the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. I was finally going to see gorillas.
After morning coffee, our posse of five drowsy travellers drove for two hours on a rough road to reach the park entrance at Rushaga in time for a briefing by park officials. Our group was assigned to visit the Bikingi gorilla family, a habituated group of about 15 gorillas. Armed with walking sticks, we followed our guide into the forest accompanied by three enthusiastic porters and a black-uniformed Ugandan soldier with an assault rifle. We hadn’t made it far before our guide received a radio call from our tracker. He had good news. I’d heard stories of people hiking for hours, sometimes in the pouring rain, to reach their assigned gorilla groups. On this morning, however, the Bikingi clan was on the move. And they were coming toward us.
We plunged off the trail and down into the forest proper. Our guide hacked a path for us with a small scythe while our porters helped the less sure-footed among us navigate the slippery logs and tripwire vines. We hiked for about half an hour. Then, at the bottom of the valley, we found our gorillas.
Receive news and insights from our lodges and conservation & community projects.
Write to us on [email protected] or send us a message via the form on our contact page.
Rwanda: +250 (0) 252 502 452
Uganda: +256 (0) 414 346 464
Tracking chimpanzees in their natural habitat, as they swing from the branches in the canopy high above the forest floor is nothing short of exhilarating. The chimps effortlessly cross and scamper through the trees above the gorge, and visitors on the other hand must cross the river using natural bridges in order to keep up with the chimps. So although the walk usually lasts only 2–3 hours, descending the steep gorge and crossing the log bridges over the river requires some agility and fitness.
Chimpanzee tracking is also available in nearby Kalinzu, a forest reserve 30 minutes drive from Kyambura Gorge Lodge where there is a community of about 40 habituated chimpanzees.
