There are two parks in Uganda where you are able to go gorilla tracking, the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
Mgahinga is situated on the extreme southwest corner of Uganda on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains. It borders the DRC and Rwanda. The park only covers 28 square miles so it's quite small, but besides gorillas you can also see leopard, buffalo, bushbuck and golden monkeys.
Bwindi is in south-western Uganda and is home to about half of all mountain gorillas. The park covers 200 square miles of extremely dense rainforest and is a proclaimed World Heritage site. Part of the fun of tracking gorillas here is trying to follow them through the dense foliage. You can also get to see chimpanzees as well as some spectacular bird life.
Where to Stay
The partners that we use have created an unrivalled and integrated set of ecotourism services to share with clients the great apes of Africa. Their visionary approach to ecotourism offers a special insight into the complex gorilla-human world through the eco-lodges they have created near the gorilla parks. In Uganda this is Mgahinga and Bwindi.
The properties are the best in the region and are sensitive to the post-conflict context, the culture of local communities, the fragility of the environment and the need to use resources in a sustainable way.
Bwindi Lodge
Mount Gahinga Lodge
Other things to do in Uganda
Uganda is a small country, at least by African standards; Uganda has a very different feel to the rest of the continent. It is a fertile, land locked gem that has much more to offer than gorilla tracking, the main reason most people visit. Uganda is truly, in the words of Sir Winston Churchill, The Pearl of Africa.
In Uganda you will find some of Africa's most unique animals; including the Ugandan Kob, tree-climbing lions and the poacher-adapted elephants that have lost their tusks, as well of course the gorillas.
In the West lie the Mountains of the Moon and the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, while Mount Elgon and the beautiful Sipi Falls lie in the East. Further South are the great Virunga Mountains, where it is possible to see some of the last 650 of the world's Mountain Gorillas.
Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees, man's closest relation, are found in a number of forests in Uganda - most notably Kyambura Gorge in QENP and Kibale Forest.
Chimp tracking in the wild is exhilarating. Whilst the chance of sightings are not as assured as with Mountain Gorillas (largely because chimps are arboreal and move quickly over much larger territories), if and when you do make contact with a group it is invariably noisy and fun to watch.
Chimpanzees are highly social creatures and some of the interesting activities you may see include social grooming (hand-clasp, chain, mutual), copulation, aggression, mother-infant interaction and play.