Mountain gorilla tracking has been high on my wish list. This fall I flew all the way to Entebbe, Uganda (the pearl of Africa) to do a three day safari to get up close and personal with mountain gorillas.

I did my safari with a company called MercyLinah Wild Sarafi’s. The company is owned by a local woman who recently started the company after being in the business for years. Some perks of being with a local guide and a small safari company is the flexibility, the personal touch, etc. Mercy was able to work around my short schedule and fit in all I wanted to do within my limited time in Uganda. Also it was really cool to get to eat Ugandan street food vs the normal buffet most larger sarfari companies organize. I definately recommend MercyLinah Wild Sarafi’s.

I did a 3 day Safari the itinerary of my trip was:

Day 1

I landed at the airport where Mercy and the driver Atlas were there to greet me outside. My flight was delayed and so we set off immediately towards our destination Kisoro. Kisoro is a city in Uganda not too far from Bwindi Impenetrable forrest. The drive itself took roughly 9/10 hours including stops. One of our main stops on this day was at the Ugandan Equator Line, this was a bonus for me as I had no idea we were doing that.

After a short break at the equator we continued our journey. A bit later we stopped somewhere to get some street food. We had the opportunity to get some grilled meat and chicken on a stick. The meat was grilled really well and it was really tasty. From there we continued our drive towards our destination. Our day ended with our arrival at our lodge for the night.

Day 2

The day to do our gorilla trek finally arrived. We started our day with breakfast, then we headed off towards the national park Bwindi Impenetrable Forrest. The drive there was very windy with lots of switchbacks up and down the mountain. It was also very misty in the mountains which I thought was really cool.

We arrived at the park entrance and were greeted with song and dance. Once the song and dance finished we were split into our groups. The park we were at housed 10 gorilla families. Trekking groups were grouped into 8-10 guests per gorilla family, one ranger guide, one armed ranger, and a porter for each of those who needed one. Our assigned gorilla family was named Kutu.

Once all organized we started our trek. The trek itself from my point of view was easy to moderate, it was a bit slippery in some areas, but overall i thought it wasn’t too difficult. There were three trackers who went into the park a couple hours ahead of us in order to get a head start on tracking them. Once the trackers located the family they radioed back to the ranger guide to inform us where to go. After a few hours of trekking in the jumgle we made it to where the mountain gorillas were. The family had around 19 members, we saw probably 12 members total throughout our 1 hour of time we spent with them. We were able to get extremely close, one of the babies even came up to me and grabbed my leg as if to suggest he wanted to play (I didn’t of course).

After completing the visit we trekked back out of the jungle, got in our van for our journey north to our next lodge. Our next lodge was just inside Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is where we were doing out Chimpanzee Tracking the next morning. On our way we stopped at a street stand to get some food. This time we got to try a rolex (rolled eggs). A rolex is a national Ugandan street food with eggs rolled up with veggies inside a chapati. The street vendor was kind enough to allow me to make one of them, which I think was not half bad, lol. After a few more hours of driving we made it to our destination. The lodge we stayed at that night was really cool we even saw a huge silhouette of a large elephant walking along side our van as we entered the lodge.

Day 3

This was my last and final day in Uganda. We started our day with breakfast. After breakfast we made our way to the park where we were trekking with the chimps. Near the entrance of our trek we got to see another elephant grazing in the field.

After taking a few photos of the elephant we started our trek. Very similar to the Gorilla trekking there were two trackers who went ahead of us by a couple hours to try and speed up the tracking process. This worked out very well for us as we found where the chimps were within an hour. This time there were only 5 in our group so a bit more intimate. Being as close as we were to the chimps was an experience I will never forget.

Once we finished our hour with the chimps we got back in our van and headed towards the airport. We had quite a long drive ahead of us (roughly 7 hours). By the time we arrived back in Entebbe we had 4/5 hours until our flight back home. Feeling a bit dirty from our trek we asked our guide Mercy if she knew of a place we could take a quick hot shower before getting on a long flight. Our guide called a few of her contacts and found a really cool eco lodge called Viavia which offered a hot outdoor shower for only a couple bucks a person. They also had full spa service. This place was actually really cool the showers were made of bamboo, and the water was nice and hot. If I had more time it would have been really cool to stay there.

My trip to Uganda was short, but jam packed with adventure. Thanks for stopping by to read all about it, and as always Saif Travels.