UWA to give AUTO free gorilla permits as commission.
Uganda Wildlife Authority wants to establish a fantastic working environment by strengthening their link with the Uganda travel companies. Uganda Tour operators have been the main marketing vehicle for Uganda Wildlife Authority’s goods; so, both of them are necessary for improved business and service delivery.
The Uganda Wildlife Authority suggested in 2015 to provide free licenses to tour companies selling more than thirty gorilla permits daily. By then chairperson of the Association of Uganda Tour Operators, this was brought up at their annual general meeting on June 25, 2015 at Serena Hotel.
The Chairperson Mrs. Babra Adoso claims Uganda Wildlife Authority was supposed to begin granting free permits for every thirty permits reserved by Association of Uganda Tour Operators. This was done as one of the means of returning the gratitude to tour operators from Uganda for their efforts.
Members of The Uganda Association of Tour Operators were to get free mountain gorilla permits as commission for the permits they booked on behalf of their customers from Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Book Uganda Gorilla Trekking Permits: How
You have to know the date you want to go gorilla treking in Uganda. Our tours consultant has to verify availability per your preferred dates when you email us an inquiry.
He or she returns to you as soon as availability is assigned. Should its be positive and you know the date, it would be advisable to get your gorilla permission right away. This is true because the gorilla permits go so quickly.
Their sales follow first come first served principle. Nobody without payment receives a permission. This is so because to the great international demand for the licenses however only 8 per gorilla per family are published for public usage. You demonstrate some dedication to visiting the safari by buying the gorilla trekking permit.
Sales of Uganda gorilla permits for Bwindi Impenetrable National park follow region. The great national park of Bwindi is split into four sections: Buhoma, Rushaga, Ruhijah, and Nkuringo.
To arrange lodging for your gorilla trip evenings, you have to know where your gorilla permit is purchased. Should you reserve lodging somewhere else, you may have to get up early in the morning to travel great miles to make it to the briefing elsewhere.
Finding a log across the road, flat tire, others, the huddles you negotiate from one region to another are erratic like extremely slick roads. For such reasons, you do not have to miss your gorilla trekking adventure.
With only one gorilla family named Nyakagezi, Mgahinga National Park in Uganda is also a gorilla trekking site. This wanders, nevertheless, sometimes into Rwanda or D.R. Congo, therefore its licenses are offered based on gorilla availability.
Because it is least frequented among all the mountain gorilla habitats, this one is the most isolated and yet pristine. Check the availability of the mountain gorillas before scheduling gorilla permits for Mgahinga National Park.
You must provide certain personal information to be included on your gorilla trekking card after securing the gorilla permit. These cover your complete names as shown on the passport, nationality, date of birth, passport expiration date, and other details.
These are put on your certificate of gorilla trekking safari achievement and submitted to the personnel of Uganda wildlife reserves for record keeping.
The Cost of a Gorilla Trekking Permit
Right now, each person’s Uganda gorilla trekking expenses come at $800. Among other things, this money help pay the ranger guide, medical treatment for the endangered mountain gorillas, and protection of these animals.
Twenty percent of the overall revenues is returned to the local community annually from the sales of mountain gorilla licenses to help their initiatives. One approach to include the local people in the gorilla protection program is this one.
The money the residents pay to be recruited as porters to carry the goods is utilized for their daily needs like medicine, school tuition, food purchases, other expenses.
The gorilla permit determines the cost of the whole gorilla trekking trip.
The entire safari cost depends much more on the number of people heading for gorilla trekking, the number of days to spend on safari, lodging to stay at while on safari and much more.
When To Book A gorilla permit in Uganda
Book ahead as the gorilla permits become sold rapidly, particularly during the busy seasons of June to September and December to January.
The least time you might have to be safe booking a gorilla permit is ninety days from the day of your gorilla trekking. Though they may be purchased in instalments at least pay 30% of the entire cost of the gorilla permit and top up later, sometimes visitors acquire gorilla permits as early as a year in advance.
Though prospects of obtaining a last-minute gorilla permit might be there, finding room at lodging facilities may be difficult as they are often over booked. Particularly in the busiest seasons, there are less chances of choosing where to stay.
Booking gorilla permits in the low season, either March to May or November, increases your chances of finding affordable prices on additional safari facilities like lodging. This is so because the seasons are not that busy at times you can have a gorilla family as a solitary customer.
How deadly are the Mountain Gorillas?
Mountain gorillas are calm animals despite their dark eyes and great bulk. They are gentle and adore their families in nature. Every gorilla family is run by a silverback, the general manager of most events including family lineage expansion.
The mountain gorillas mostly eat bamboo as their delicacy; leaves, soft stems, fruits, and supplements come from other sources like ants.
Clients instructed not to harass the mountain gorillas even if the terrain is calm while gorilla trekking. This is so because mountain gorillas might hide when they get irritated. With the mountain gorillas just one hour is permitted; hence, avoid doing anything that would destroy this hour.
Once you find the mountain gorillas, you should not encircle them so as to cause ambushed feelings. These very sensitive primates only follow gorilla trekking guidelines to be successful in finding the mountain gorillas.
Finding the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda
The free mobility of the mountain gorillas makes it unknown when one should search for them. Wild creatures like them have to hunt for their own sustenance. Finding the mountain gorillas might take two hours to three quarters of the day at times.
One needs a little patience to locate the mountain gorillas. This is so related to the circumstances in the forest and the unrestrained mobility.
Should the gorilla family you are tracking lose a member, they hide to grieve. There is celebration all around as a family welcomes a new baby. Usually, the gorillas are happy after winning a fight from a wild gorilla family; so, their location may be simpler.
The mountain gorillas often eat from the slopes during the heavy rainy seasons as food around the base of mountains may be submerged in water. The Virunga region has a rich river network that may overflow on the ground level.
You have to have the correct safari footwear that won’t slide down hill slopes. Sometimes the mountain gorillas like feeding from the hillsides.
Which National Park—Mgahinga or Gorilla Trekking of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park—is the best one?
With over eighteen gorilla families, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has the most number of gorilla trekking families. Mgahinga on the other side only has one extremely mobile gorilla family.
While Mgahinga National Park is restricted with the lodging to stay at while gorilla trekking, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park offers a great range of options.
Mgahinga National Park is seldom visited, hence its environment is still pristine; Bwindi Impenetrable National Park often attracts people and paths are built to let them pass through the jungle to the gorillas.
Birding in both Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park is very fascinating for keen birders as both parks have Albertine endemics such as shelley’s Crimmsonwing.
How Difficult Is Ugandan Gorilla Trekking?
Depending on their feeding or lounging spot, getting to the mountain gorillas might be taxing. They feed at the bottom some times and from the hills at others. To really appreciate the whole experience, you must be somewhat physically fit.
While wildlife drives take you around in a vehicle, gorilla trekking is walking—something different. Your level of physical fitness dictates much about when you should search for the mountain gorillas.
To help our customers stretch their muscles and prepare them for the lengthy journey, at Katland safaris we suggest some little activities. Starting easy walks in your property, your pace will get up with time.
You may work your muscles outside of the gym.
Because sedan chairs are accessible to physically challenged customers, gorilla trekking does not discriminate in physical appearance. You must pay for the sedan chair ahead of time to be able to pay porters to transport it as well.
Why, for Gorilla Trekking, employ a porter?
One of the ways you may directly help the community is by hiring a porter to carry your stuff. They pay for household requirements such medicine, school fees, clothes and other items using the money they are paid for.
While you walk freely to locate the gorillas, the porter carries your stuff and could push you when fatigued from climbing. Once you find the mountain gorillas, your baggage stay with the porter so you may get better pictures of the mountain gorillas.
The age limit for gorilla trekking safaris in Uganda
The age restriction for gorilla trekking is 15 years and above as the exact moment of mountain gorilla discovery is uncertain. Young children may not be able to survive the lifetime of untamed living.
The young people below this age may find the first view of the mountain gorillas terrifying. The gorillas find you suspect, hence you do not have to present your cargo to them.
Try to maintain quiet voices no matter what may terrify you; shouting in the jungle disturbs the mountain gorillas. A youngster less than this age finds difficult to hold.
Sometimes the gorillas stroll up and touch you, which may not be appropriate for a youngster under this age.
Young children get disturbed by their surroundings and launch a tantrum that might start a stampede in the forest.
Other Than Gorilla Trekking in the Impenetrable National Park
In Bwindi Impenetrable National Park or Mgahinga National Park, birding is among the most fascinating pursuits available. Among the roughly 350 bird species Bwindi hosts are Shelley’s Crimsonwing, African Green Broadbill, Mountain and Yellow streaked Greenbuls, Rwenzori Batis and others. There are around 115 bird species in Mgahinga National Park; the list is still being compiled.
Another fascinating hobby you may engage in is mountaineering inside Mgahinga national park. Among the mountains you might climb in one day are Muhavura Mountain, Sabyinyo Mountain, Gahinga Mountain.
Primate sightings include olive baboons, vervet monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey, black and white colobus and others may provide opportunities in both Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga National Park.
Cultural hikes in Mgahinga National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park transport you to the way of life of the indigenous people.Garama cave and Batwa cultural walk transport you into the past of the Batwa people with mysteries of the Virunga forest. The Buhoma community stroll offers you an opportunity to view local beer making, local medicine men, and others.
