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Compare Gorilla Trekking and Gorilla tracking

Differences Between Gorilla trekking and Gorilla Tracking | Comparison

Many times the words Gorilla trekking and Gorilla tracking are used interchangeably by different travelers and bloggers as many believe they mean the same thing, however the two words mean two different activities, but having the Gorillas in common.  Bellow are the different explanations of the two activities.

Gorilla trekking and Gorilla tracking

Gorilla tracking

Gorilla tracking is done by expert ranger guides, park staff and researchers. This involves tracking down specific Gorilla families, and loacting them based on their last known location, where they spent the night, and their feeding area. The Gorilla trackers do this for different reasons, for instance the researchers do  the tracking for research purposes, for census etc while the expert rangers do the Gorilla tracking to ensure that the visitors who come to see the gorillas get to see them and as such gaurantee a 99% chance of seeing the gorillas despite the fact that the gorillas are ever moving about in their different locations within their respective parks. Gorilla tracking is similar across the different gorilla tracking parks of Uganda (Bwindi and Mgahinga national parks), Rwanda (volcanoees national park) and Congo (virunga national park)

Gorilla trekking

Gorilla trekking is when visitors go into the thick rain forests of Bwindi, Mgahinga, Volcanoes and Virunga to look for the Mountain Gorillas with help of the expert ranger guides. The terrain in Bwindi National park, Mgahinga national park (Uganda), volcanoees national park (Rwanda) and the Virunga national park (Democratic Republic of Congo) are all the same, composed of thick tropical raainforests and bamboo, this means that the experience here is the same. The variations are very minimal, based on the steepness of some parks of the mountains, and hills of the virunga masif.

Gorilla trekking usually starts very early in the morning, the guests have to have an ealrly morning breakfast then report to the respective briefing points by 7:30 am where they are taught about the gorilla tracking rules before being assigned to a gorilla family  to track, with a maximum of 8 guest assigened per gorilla family / groups. The gorilla trekking activity itself takes between 1 to 8 hours before the travellers get to meet the gorilla family. The Gorilla trekking time differs based on several factors ranging from terrain, movement of the gorilla families, strength and skill of the travellers etc.  However its indeed very thrilling to finally meet the mountain gorillas no matter howlong the trek has been. You are allowed a maximum of 1 hour to observe and take photos of the mountain gorillas. During this time, you can be able to ask the ranger guides any information you want to know about these gentle giant gorillas. After the Mountain Gorilla trek, you meet up with your Driver/ Guide and return to your lodge for lunch or depart for your scheduled flight

Difficulty of Gorilla trekking

Different guests have different preferences of how difficult they want the Gorilla trek to be, some prefer long hikes of adventure through the thick forests, and others prefer the shorter hikes while others may be constrained to chose shorter hikes because of age and or medical conditions. At adventure in the wild safaris, we ensure that we find out as much as we can about the guest right from the time they send the inquiry to when they book their gorilla trekking tour.  We therefore help choose the best sector for each guest or group of guests to ensure that they get the best out of their gorilla trek, based on their preferences. We are able to even talk with the park wardens / rangers on trekking day of your trip such that you assigned to Gorilla families based on your preference.

Booking Gorilla trekking tours

We have several Uganda Gorilla trekking tour packages, Rwanda gorilla trekking safari packages and Congo Gorilla trekking tours. Browse our website and select your preferred gorilla trekking package and request for a quote. We shall send you a reply with a quote within at 1 hour after receiving your inquiry. If you need to read some of our reviews about gorilla trekking with our previous clients, please check our TripAdvisor page.

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