Wilderness African Tours

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Gorilla Habituation experience

Day 1: Arrival, meet greet and transfer to Boma Guest house BB

 

Day 2: After early morning breakfast, transfer to the Airport for the light Aircraft to Kisoro, you will be met by your Guide who will transfer you to your hotel-Overnight Clouds Lodge,

Day 3: After breakfast, you will be transferred the Park offices for briefing there after, together with the trackers, Guides and Porters you start gorilla habituation experience.o  This may take 4 to 6 hours then return to your Lodge for an over night.

Gorilla habituation is where wild mountain gorillas are trained to get used to people.. Gorilla Habituation may take between two to three years to be completed and during this time, researchers keep on visiting an identified Wild gorilla group on a daily basis. They get to learn more about individual gorillas and the way they behave. With time, these gorillas get used to these researchers and in the long run, each individual gorilla is given a name. Once researchers are sure that these mountain gorillas can be trekked, they then introduce a mock exercise where some few people who may include scientists, journalists start visiting it. Once such a gorilla family has passed mock exercise, then it is opened for trekking

Day 4: After breakfast, transfer to Mgahinga National park, visit crater lakes en-route, that is Lake Mutanda -Overnight Mgahinga Lodge (BLD)

Day 5: Breakfast, and go for the golden monkey trekking experience -Overnight Mgahinga lodge (BLD)

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is the best place to  trek golden monkeys, spend one hour with the Golden Monkeys or on a Habituation Experience where you are with the Monkeys for four hours along with researchers and trackers and your personal guide .

The golden monkeys, are a rare primate species, but they have been given more attention by researchers and by Visitors to Mgahinga Gorilla Park . Golden monkeys are small in size, get their name from the long golden hair on their backs, and move around the bamboo forest like they are court jesters.

They have been declared an endangered species and even protected their number seems to be declining.
Golden Monkey Trekking takes a bit of effort but is a lot easier than Gorilla Trekking and you will enjoy your Time with the charismatic Monkeys of Uganda

Golden Monkey are very attractive monkeys with color, their playful ways.

They have been habituated  so they are used to Humans – what you need to note is that they are very fast in their movements  in the bamboo,so you need to very alert with your camera

Day 6: After breakfast, we go for pygmies, Batwa experience. -overnight Mgahinga lodge (BLD)

The Batwa Trail is a one day experienceee with the batwa, showing how they used to live in the forest, the experience WIll take you into how, they used to hunt, harvest honey, and their encounter with wildlife and more so with mountain gorillas and how they used to fetch water with bamboo made mugs.

The tour ends with a culture show by the Batwa community at the entrance of the Garama cave, which used to be  the ceremonial place for Batwa cultural leaders. The cave was such a symbolic place in the Batwa culture. The cave 200 meters long, 100 meters wide and 6 meters high.  The cultural performance inside the cave WIth the local women, with their voices coming coming from deep in the cave will take your breath away.

This visit is authentic and local

For generations, Mgahinga's dense forests were home to the indigenous Batwa: hunter-gatherers and fierce warriors who depended on the forest for shelter, food and medicine. 

When the national park was established the Batwa were evicted from the forest and abandoned their low-impact, nomadic lifestyle. The only time they are permitted to re-enter their cherished forest is as tour guides on the Batwa Trail, on which visitors will discover the magic of the Batwa's ancient home while enjoying nature walks and learning about the cultural heritage.

The Batwa demonstrate hunting techniques, gather honey, point out medicinal plants and demonstrate how to make bamboo cups. Guests are invited to the sacred Garama Cave, once a refuge for the Batwa, where the women of the community perform a sorrowful song which echoes eerily around the depths of the dark cave, and leaves guests with a moving sense of the richness of this fading culture.

Part of the tour fee goes directly to the guides and musicians and the rest goes to the Batwa community fund to cover school fees and books, and improve their livelihoods.

Day 7: Transfer to Kisoro for the light aircraft to Entebbe

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