Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Gorilla Trekking

From Ishasha we headed through Kihihi and called in at Buhoma to see what it was like, meet a few of Emma Casson’s contacts and to have lunch ... and of course sell solar!! The first view of the forest was pretty beautiful but it really is incredible how many hundreds and hundreds of people live in the area. Each square km supports 400 people!! The park boundary is stark: Like half of someone’s head shaved.

We stayed in Ruhija which was another three hour drive from Buhoma, mostly through the forest so a lovely drive. Once in Ruhija at Friends of Gorillas campsite we had dinner with an absolutely beautiful sunset. Then it was up early and gorilla trekking.

We trekked the Bitukura group who sadly were less than an hour walk away and were on the park boundary so there was not much impenetrable forest hacking for us! Still it was incredible and very special ... but very hard to get good photos. 

Gorillas though, were not as active as the chimps and really just sat and lazed and farted.. except the youngsters who played all the hour.

The next day we did a three hour walk to the lookout over the Bwindi Swamp, after which the forest was named, with our armed guard who was to protect us from aggressive forest elephant but who scared us slightly tripping up with this gun! We did however, for those avid birders, spot an African Broadbill!!