Gorillas & Hiking Uganda's Rwenzori Mountains

Bordering Uganda and the Congo, rise the mysterious Rwenzori Mountains, which Roman astronomer and cartographer Ptolemy famously named the 'Mountains of the Moon', and for centuries were mistakenly considered to be the source of the River Nile, which actually originates in Sudan & Ethiopia, further north.



This incredible wildlife adventure takes you hiking in this wondrous outpost of the world; including Mountain Gorilla tracking in Bwindi National Park, game drives and immersive experiences with local communities.



The Rwenzori National Park, covering nearly 100,000ha in Western Uganda, is a designated UNESCO World Heritage site and is home to Africa's third highest peak, Mount Margherita at 5109m. 70% of the park is over 2500m in height and is renowned as one of Africa's most beautiful alpine areas, with glaciers, waterfalls and lakes. Rich in biodiversity thanks to the nearly constant temperatures, humidity and high insolation, the mountains are home to many endangered and endemic plant species, such as giant heathers, groundsels and lobelias.



Managed by Uganda Wildlife Authority, Rwenzori National Park is considered a model for the integration of cultural values into the Protected Area Management framework, as an innovative approach to resource management - the first of its kind in Africa. The name Rwenzori stems from ‘nzururu’, which means 'place of snow' in the Bakonzo language. 217 bird species have been recorded and the montane forests are home to threatened animals such as the African forest elephant, eastern chimpanzee and L'Hoest's monkey.



Gorilla Permits:

Gorilla permits cost $700 per person (not included) and are issued by the UWA on a first come, first served basis. For this reason, you need to book this holiday as far in advance as possible to ensure we can secure you a permit. In addition to your £300 or $350 deposit, we will ask you for a £600 or $700 downpayment on your adventure to purchase your permit once the departure is confirmed. This is refundable (on cancellation by you) only if our partner agency is able to re-sell the permit on to another operator (which they make every effort to do). We fully believe in, and practice Responsible Tourism, using local hotels, owned and run by locals. We put time and effort into building our relationship with them to ensure you have a a great trip.

We choose hotels based on cleanliness, comfort, safety, proximity to our route (to avoid unnecessary extra road travel), and a warm client welcome, as well as reliability in their service to us. Some hotels will be basic, in modern buildings or in town centres. Wherever we can, we will choose smaller more characterful, individual hotels, but in areas where tourism is still developing, this may not be available. An aspect of our adventures is to escape the ‘trappings’ of modern Western lifestyles and to experience new things which are exciting and memorable, and reflects the countries we are visiting.

This is adventure travel and on occasion the advertised services at a hotel (eg wifi, or hot showers, or continuous power) may not be functional on our arrival. This tends to occur in the smaller, more remote hotels. Very rarely a hotel lets us down and we are required to find alternative suitable accommodation that might not be our first choice. This trip involves a range of guesthouses, eco safari lodges and thatched roof riverside tents

The list below gives information on our first choice of accommodation for this adventure; where hotels and hostels are fully booked or unavailable, we will use an alternative of a similar standard, and equally well situated. We will provide you with an accurate list of accommodation, with contact information to leave with relatives, prior to departure on your adventure.

Entebbe (Day 1 & 11): Paypyrus Guesthouse

Kilembe (Day 2): Trekkers Hostel

Rwenzori Mountains (Day 3 & 4 & 5): Mountain Refuges - dormitory style, basic.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park (Day 6 & 7): CTHPGorilla Conservation Camp

Lake Mulehe (Day 8 & 9): Lake Mulehe Lodge

Lake Mburo National Park (Day 10): Rwaboko Rock Lodge

Facilities: With the exception of some of the higher class hotels in Entebbe, hotels generally do not have heating or air conditioning. As nights can be chilly, please bring appropriate sleepwear if needed (see packing list for further information). In areas where malaria is a problem, hotel rooms come with mosquito nets.