Gorilla habituation is different from tracking by allowing you to spend four hours with gorillas instead of the normal one hour. With gorilla habituation, only four people visit a mountain gorilla family group instead of the usual eight. This package emphasises ample quality time. The gorilla families are less disturbed by restricting the number of visitors.
There are only two gorilla families available for this experience. This activity is only carried out in Ruhija, a sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Gorilla habituation permits cost $1500 each.
3 Days Ruhija Gorilla Habituation Trip
Day 1: Kampala to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park
Pick up from your hotel in Kampala and transfer about 540km to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, located in the western part of Uganda. At this point of crossing the Equator, we make a stopover for photography and demonstration of the Coriolis effect in the respective hemisphere. In Mbarara town, we make a stopover for our lunch. Arrive later in the evening for dinner and overnight.
Uganda is among the 13 countries in the world where the equator passes through. Ascertaining this is easy by setting up the experiment. All you need is a jug with a hole at the bottom, an empty bowl, some water, and 2 floating pointer sticks.
Demonstrating the Coriolis Effect.
- We’re a few metres north of the supposed equator, steps beside the sign. Pour water into the funnel, water begins to rotate as it exits by the bottom and drops into the bucket, and put a match in the moving water. The sticks turn right { clockwise}. Well, we are in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Move a few metres to the other side of the sign, where it is supposed to be the Southern Hemisphere. Redo the same process. Puts the match in moving water, and… the match turns left {anticlockwise}… Wow, it will be true that the imaginary line passes more or less where the sign is placed.
Stand by the sign where, theoretically, the line of the equator is. Pours water, but… the water begins to come down with no movement, neither right nor left. Put the match in the water, and the match is stagnant!
Day 2: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park Experience.
After an early morning breakfast and armed with a picnic lunch, we drive to the park headquarters. Park formalities are done while the briefing is done by the rangers or guides. Our search mode is activated as we enter deep into the forest for your habituation experience. The whole day’s activity will be looking for semi-habituated gorillas that can hide upon finding them or behave in unusual ways. Depending on the gorillas’ location and movement, expect to thereupon spend 2–8 hours.
This vast forest is their home, they explicitly roam freely, looking for food. Upon finding them, you will be allowed to spend four (4) hours with them. Eventually, study and appreciate them as you take memorable photos and videos. Descend back to the start of the transfer to your hotel. Dine and stay overnight.
Day 3: Back to Kampala
After an early breakfast, we embark on a de-tour to Kampala with a stopover in Mbarara town for lunch. Thereafter, you will be dropped off at your hotel in Kampala in the late afternoon, where the Ruhija gorilla habituation trip ends.
Options are, of course, many and varied, and in many cases, we can be flexible about the itinerary for accommodation facilities and the extension of the safari destinations.
