BEST PRIMATES UGANDA SAFARI

Uganda is home to many different primate species, the diversity and density of primates in Kibale is the highest in Africa. The most famous of its 13 species is the chimpanzee, our closest relative. Kibale’s 1450 chimpanzees represent Uganda’s largest population of this endangered primate. The forest is also home to East Africa’s largest population of the threatened red colobus and the rare Hoest’s monkey. Other primates include the black-and-white colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabey, olive baboon, bush baby and potto.

As well as the chimpanzee and gorilla, the black-and-white colobus, red-tailed monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, l’Hoest’s and blue monkeys, and olive baboons can be seen during game drives, launch trips or nature walks, along with smaller nocturnal species such as the bush baby and potto. Mgahinga National Park also contains one of the last remaining habitats of the endangered golden monkey as well as Kyambura gorge in Queen Elizabeth national park Ten species of primates enjoy the park’s diverse habitats, the most popular of which is undoubtedly the chimpanzee. Vervet and black-and-white colobus monkeys are easily spotted in the trees, but the boldest of all are the baboons – be sure to keep car windows closed to avoid food thefts and then in Budongo forest in Murchison falls national park you can get a chance to see Olive baboons, Blue and red-tailed monkeys and black-and-white colobus can be found in the forested sectors. Around 800 chimpanzees live in the Kaniyo Pabidi and Budongo Forests.

Other primates can also be seen in Bwindi impenetrable national park that has a population of around 340 gorillas of which an estimated 116 are habituated. Gorillas are intelligent, majestic, gentle giants that share over 90% of their genetic material with humans. All of Bwindi’s habituated gorillas are known individually by the rangers and have been given names in order to identify them and you can trek them according to their families like mubare, rushegura, Habinyanja, Nkuringo, bikingi, bitukura, oruzogo, kyaguliro, busingye, bweza and among others.

Mgahinga national park gives you also a chance to enjoy yourself to see the primates and  is a home to the habituated Nyakagezi gorilla group – a fairly nomadic bunch that have been known to cross the border into Rwanda and the Congo. The family includes the lead silverback Bugingo and father to most of the group; his silverback sons, Mark and Marfia; and two blackbacks, Rukundo and Ndungutse, who love to pose and play in the trees. The two females, Nshuti and Nyiramwiza, both have babies Furraha and Nkanda respectively.

The dog-like baboons live in large groups and are regularly seen along roadsides where they wait to ambush cars in search of food. They spend more time on the ground than most other primate species, but sleep in trees at night. If water is scarce, they can survive for long periods by licking the dew from their fur

A LIFE TIME HIKING CONGO NILE TRAIL EXPERIENCE

A LIFE TIME HIKING CONGO NILE TRAIL EXPERIENCE
When talking about Congo Nile trail, most people cannot even point them out on a map. When deciding for hiking destinations, most people have in mind the Kilimanjaro trail in Tanzania or the eagle creek trial in Oregon, USA. I would advise you the Congo Nile trail, the best hiking destination and you will be overwhelmed by the beauty and unique scenery, you will never forget.
The hiking experience starting point, Gisenyi, rubavo district, the starting point of the congo nile trail, is one of the five districts in the western province linked by the trail. It features a resort on the shores of the lakes Kivu, with several hotels and sandy beaches. The area is best for water sports activities. The incredible congo nile journey will take you to a number of different amazing tourism attractions like the road side coffee and tea plantations with endless views, waterfalls and watershed.
Crossing 5 western provinces districts with more than eight amazing base camps and accommodation facilities, three bonus trails which offers diverse experiences, breath taking scenic views and a thousand of kids smiles up a hiking lifetime experience. The sub trails include:
• Pfunda sub trail with a distance of 30km hiking days 2 and it is easy to moderate.
• Gisovu with a distance of 52km and hiking days 2, rating is difficult.
• Shangi sub trail with a distance of 52km and hiking days 2 and rating is difficult.
Come and discover one of Africa’s most beautiful region while interacting and benefiting the local community. Some people prefer to experience the congo nile trail by a combined hiking, cycling, boat ride or 4×4 drive. The trail offers a thousand of amazing options depending on your time and budget.
From Kigali, drive towards Musanze to Gisenyi for 167km(3hours). After hiking all the way from Rubavu to rusizi back to Kigali one can either drive through Nyungwe national park, the biggest mountainous forest in africa 4 hours or get back to Gisenyi by boat ride through lake kivu and then take the bus to Kigali. The congo nail trail thousands of amazing options, depending on your time and budget. From one day trip to 10days full experience.
10days hiking journey on the Congo Nile trail
The congo nile trail 10days hiking journey is an all-inclusive spectaculars walk from the northern lake kivu shores to the southern park through the famous congo nile divide watershed that is suitable for a wide range of fitness levels. Unlike anyother walk, the scenery is geographically spectacular and ever changing village on top of hills, rivers and lakes, waterfalls, reef and sandy beaches. The experiences are diverse hiking, community interaction, historical tales, and a magnificent scenic walk along lake kivu shores.
The congo nile trail is all about about one main trail bridging the western corridor from volcanoes national park to Nyungwe national park and three sub trails.
Day 1: Gisenyi to Rwinyouni: you will journey overland to the village of Rwinyoni, agriculture community, northwest of the lake from here you will board enjoy the amazing sunset alighting the lake shores the village offers the first campsite.
Day 2: rwinyoni to kinunu next morning you will do another 2 hours to arrive at the Nora fishing village. From that point you can enjoy views of the surrounding, fish men coming back. From the tradition overnight fishing, kids playing in the lake then the lake leads up through coffee washing station. Arriving time to the kinunu coffee washing station base camp 3:00pm.
Day 3: kinunu to musasa: next day you will hike for 6 hours on lake shores interacting with the local community and enjoying the surrounding and scenic views and banana a plantations visiting the well-known kinunu catholic church. Follow the trail to bwimana coffee washing station of musasa, stop for a picnic on the edge of the lake. Overnight camping.
Day 4: musasa to rubengera junction: next day you have to wake up early as you will have to hike following the trail between community fields, crossing the river coko before getting to kibingo health centre. Picnic near by the gatunda village (commercial centre, with market on tuseday) and then climb the trail until the main Rubavu – Karongi road at mushubati and walk again for almost 2 hours along the main road to rubengera. At the rubengera asphalt junction the best option is to take a bus to Kibuye city centre. The high will be spent bin one of the hotels or guest houses of the city, near by the lake.
Day 5: relaxing day, visiting the surroundings of Kibuye(beaches, boat ride, visit of island and swimming)
Day 6: Kibuye to mugonero: after a good relaxing a day you are fit for an effective 8 hours hike starting from the cross road to the university on the methane gaz road, you will take the road along the lake until getting to electro gaz then turn left and climb until you get main Kibuye rusizi road. Turn right to the kamembe direction. Follow the main road stop for a picnic at the mubuga village centre. The next village centre where you can stop for cold refreshment is gishyita sector centre, follow the main road pass the mugonero health centre signpost until you get to the kigarama Esperance orphanage sign post and then turn right and follow the small track to the orphanage base camp. Overnight camping effective walking hours 8.
Day 7: mugonero to karengera: depart from the orphanage early in the morning for a 6 hours hike, take the way back to the main road and slop down to the lake edge to mugonero market centre then follow the road to kibingo, cross the kilimbi river bridge with ascenic view on the community rice field, follow the main road to the second base camp, at the karangera’s secondary school. Effectively, you will make lots of stops all along the road during the afternoon, because the temperature is always high in the area. Overnight camping at the karengera high school play ground. Effective walking 6 hours.
Day 8: today you will get the most beautiful scenic view over the lake which makes this part of the trail the best one. For 7 hours hike along the main road to kibogora hospital village, have a picnic stop at hanika village centre and then continue to birembo, kirambo market place, visit the kumbya peninsula, a Rwandan natural treasure owned by African missionaries. After kirambo market place on lake shores, follow the main road to approximately 30minutes to kibogora hospital and follow the signpost to the kibogora guest house base camp. Overnight camping. Effective hour walking is 7:30
Day 9: departure time 6:40am, arriving to the main road at tyazo market place, follow the road to kagano village at 9:00am and nyamasheke town centre at 10:00am relax at café de l’ovest bar restaurant with awonderful scenic view on lake kivu isiands. Depart at 11:00am and walk down the evcalyptus plantation, turn right at kagano secondary schooland take the track to shangi, arriving at shangi village at 4:00pm, turn left at the shangi sector office and follow the road to kamembe 30minutes later, turn right and follow the track through a small village to the historical peninsula of shangi arriving shangi base camp at 5:00pm. Effective walking hours 8
Day 10: departure time 7:00am, return at the road to kamembe, turn right and follow the road down to community rice field along lake shores, pass the nyagahembe river bridge through the wetlands and then take right at the first cross road across before crossing the cyunyu river bridge which separate the two districts nyamasheke and rusizi at 10:15am continue strait to the wooden village house at 11:00am stop for picnic at gatsibo village cross road and then take a left at the himo sign post to gihundwe hospital and to kucyapa, the main asphalt road 16:00pm arriving at kamembe town centre at 16:30pm effective walking 8hours. End of journey.

How hard is a-lifetime Gorilla trekking experience.??

 

Mountain gorilla trekking is majorly done in Rwanda Volcanoes park, Uganda in Bwindi impenetrable  forest+Mgahinga National park and Congo in Virunga national park, this is the primary reason to journey there, this came after Dianne fossey ‘s activities in letting the world know the existence of mountain gorillas in these regions before her death  1985 and in her writings that has led to mass exodus to the virunga regions to put your face on the writings , this activity  involves humans trekking gorillas’ in their natural habitats with a help of special gorilla tour guides that lead small groups on foot maximum of 8 members per each gorilla family per day .Having been on several gorilla trekking trips, both In Uganda, Rwanda and Congo, clients have various perspective and feed back to themselves in regard to this life time adventurous activity it is hard to say Easy or Not easy it’s the great question of the day!!! Questions remains, un answered as such questions would be raised before going at times after the actual gorilla trekking, , how tough is the Rwanda gorilla trek, which is the hardest gorilla trek, how fit do I need to be to do gorilla trek, what is the level of fitness for gorilla trekking, what if I miss to see the gorillas? These are the common questions raised regarding this awesome child hood dream to a few but at the end of it people get to have a smiling face when they are receiving their certificate of award after seeing the gorillas, some people/ writers have compared this activity to be as hard as giving birth to a baby , others say its strenuous but in reality this is false information, most people are simply not accustomed to hiking for some reasons, being medical /health or Elderly . While the daily hiking mileages are not big to get to where the gorillas are though you may not take long to get to find these great apes but the problem would be keeping following them while you take pictures this would be the biggest challenge and some wise clients always take , porters carry their belonging including the camera bins which would have added extra load to you but some prefer to be everything just like camel hence making them sweat and cursing the trekking as being hard, but in reality gorilla family distribution is done in the morning according to ones choice and level of preference and the convincing capacity of your guide to ask for you the shortest /nearest gorilla family/ the best group,this is what is done in both Uganda and Rwanda at any gorilla trekking spot though this is not a zoo where you expect to get to see every animal on silver plate, Perhaps more importantly, there are some serious climbs and descends this activity needs your physical performance and stability The most difficult aspect on gorilla trekking for many people would be  the price of gorilla permit($750 Rwanda side, $600 Uganda ) Not every body can  afford this ,more so on the  age limit , any body bellow 15 years may not be allowed to trek gorillas also  imagine if your aged 90 years and they put you in the same group with other members who are in the age of early 20s, definitely the walking pace wont be the same , at the end they will keep on waiting for you during the trek, so its advisable to join group members within your age group, however, is the altitude please its better to first evaluate your fitness and age before selecting a gorilla group don’t chose out of band wagon effect. Know body knows your fitness better than you your self.its better to do trainings hikes at home before you go, specifically focusing on hiking up and down hills. Get to know that there’s no clear paths through woodlands as the trekking takes you over stones and uneven ground so regular practice is needed For orientation purposes just in case one opts for Ssusa this is the most lovely group ,but Every step needs an effort compared to other gorilla groups, when it comes to Uganda ,gorilla trekking in Bwindi impenetrable forest, its just a lucky day where you can meet gorillas just in minutes of walk especially when it comes to Nsongi family all year around Rushegula has been the most easiest, I would recommend for any one above 60 years of age. For people who are overweight it is important to also take more than 2 porters,As my colleague  (Kabenge Ivan) indicated it in his blog  “comparing gorilla trekking UgandaVs Rwanda” its not being so luxurious, but it means you  care for your self and to make it much easier to walk for an extra mile as they give you an hand up help.going to see gorillas is fun once-in-a-lifetime experience. and not a punishment that’s why at the end of the exercise every one is awarded a certificate with a rejoicing hands and hand shake to all the group members, is any form of fun, dancing, that’s why dead lifts exercise may not be applicable for gorilla trekking , go for normal exercise at the end you will have no excuse and what some friend may be calling it hard adventure it will be soft adventure on your side.Analysis by Billy ssali +256774819223Your next guide on the African safari.