After a great year of travel in gorilla parks for both the mountain gorillas, Eastern lowland gorilla in Kahuzi Biega, this has inspired me to write the adventure guide for double gorilla trekking adventure in Africa.
As well known that gorilla trekking is only done in Africa, there lies the best destinations for Mountain gorillas and Eastern lowland gorillas in Democratic republic of Congo, western lowland gorillas in Congo, Cameroon and many more.
Mountain gorilla trekking in Africa is mostly popular in the greater Virunga national park which was subdivided to create the prominent Volcanoes National park in Rwanda, Mgahinga National park in Uganda and Bwindi impenetrable National park. These lie along the western arm of the Great East African rift valley.
Gorillas live in their natural habitat at an altitude of 2,400km to 4,507km with Karisimbi being the highest point. These also inhabit the beautiful green bamboo zone in the Virunga. Bwindi Impenetrable National park makes it quite challenging to track these due to the fact that the fact that the forest is very thick and hard to penetrate through making photography very challenging and difficult. Therefore,
While making a comparative analysis on going for a single gorilla trek would mean one can only secure one gorilla pass varied for a single day, this is a bit cheaper (US $750) as one would get their expectations to the fullest for gorillas would be gorillas. There would be no bottom line as to why one would need a second trek but on the other hand, I would give a thumb to the one who would go see the gorillas twice as this would give you an opportunity to have a comparative advantage. For the first trek, you may find some gorillas lazy and resting or feeding in the dense vegetation/ un accessible bushes that make taking photos very challenging/ difficult hence making you miss out on the best encounters. However, when you proceed the next day for another Gorilla trekking experience, you can be compensated by going on the second gorilla trek through its expensive but at least one would have more opportunities and more memories to share as you only visit once.
Reasons why a photographer should go for double gorilla trekking.
From my observation as a tourist driver guide, most client who go on s ingle gorilla trekking stand high risks of missing flights or a summing one falls sick or ill, there would be on chance to retrieve your gorillas pass in case you don’t show up at kinigi park office at the time of gorilla briefing in this case your gorilla permit would be regarded as No show or wasted gorilla permit .a lovely example is when we had a client who booked a one day gorilla trekking in volcanoes park with the flight that arrives from Arusha and had to land in kigali on time unfortunately he missed the flight in Arusha this resulted him in missing his gorilla permit thus a double trekking is worthwhile, on 1 day gorilla trek you may see a huge group, 2 silver backs, black backs, moms, small babies and juveniles, one gorilla hugged me, everyone said I was lucky while on the second trek, you may see less gorillas.
Not all guerrilla groups have the same members in number s in family size , some gorilla families are bigger than others in size therefore ,you may be unlucky to find yourself going on gorilla family that has few females, or black backs or babies, this may limit your chances of having more fun in the jungle compared to Someone who did 2 gorilla treks , such person would stand a high chances of much fun and good photographs of the jungle and the mountain gorillas.
Much as everyone would wish to go on double gorilla trek but it’s more expensive compared to a single trekking, in this case it would require one to have $750 x2 which would be $1500 minus adding the extra costs for accommodation and ground transport.
Someone who goes on second gorilla trekking, offers one the first choice to choose the group to be trekked after going on the first trek for example some groups like Sabinyo is very competitive to get it as everyone would be fighting for it, but in this case if one did the first trek then on the second trek, it can be given to you thus going on double gorilla trek is worthwhile.
Gorilla trekking is really un comparable to any trekking , being it the incar trail in macho pinchu or trekking mountain Everest or trekking in Naples, but gorilla trekking is a unique experience that one would wish to take part , to the extent that one would go for the second time , irrespective of the exercise being a hard adventure . two days of gorillas that one would go on the primarily reason to have a second day of trekking is , mainly in case one day was a bust due to rain or a bad sighting. I’m glad could enjoy on the second day. my self being part of the second gorilla trek I saw completely different terrain thick scrub vs. bamboo forest which was really awesome and good spot for taking photographs also entirely different interactions with the gorillas. The challenges we had on the first trek were all washed away when we went on the kwitonda group was amazing ,thee funny part of it is that which was complicated our main issue of trekking was to be entertained by the juveniles seeing a very lazy and hardly active group would be an awesome story to talk all over . Trekking an active gorilla family is the most adorable thing to see the gorillas in their natural habitat.
As most who chose to have 2 treks say that the first day is for taking pictures and the second is for really just watching the gorillas and that is probably very true and myself I would be on their side but to a few individuals with limited time and those that move on tight budget I must say that one day is fine and I feel like I really got a sense of these magical animals and their family units in their natural habitat. This makes fee the magical creatures as babies touches you, playfully and the large adults walks right by side by side this would be a story to talk about in your life.
Gorilla trekking adventure in the volcanoes park is really something to talk about in a real life time among the few who have had a chance to go gorilla trekking with the most trustable travel agency (active African vacations has owned a great reputation in offering reliable services on lucky day while gorilla trekking, you would enjoy seeing gorillas all around you playing and mating! I’m glad I took the chance to go double gorilla trekking on both experiences for both memories and photographic reasons in the African jungle doing both trekking in arrow.