How I tracked the gorillas without using a tour operator

I tracked the gorillas in March and I found that there was not a lot of info on how to do it alone. I did do it alone, and here is how I did it.

A bit about how I got from Kampala to Kisoro:

I took a bus from Kampala to Kabale. You can also take a bus to Kisoro, but I wanted to go to Lake Bunyonyi first. Hired a boda (5000 shillings) and stayed at Bunyonyi Overland Camp for two nights. It was beautiful and pretty fun to walk around the villages in the hills.

Caught a share taxi to Kisoro. I wanted to catch a bus, but there is no set schedule. No one knew when it would come, and I didn't want to wait in front of the post office all day until it arrived (if it even would that day).

Stayed at a hostel in Kisoro. Hired a boda the next morning to drive me out to the park gates for one of the volcanoes. Hired a national park guide (mandatory) and hiked to the summit.

The next day I hiked to Nkuringo Gorilla Camp (about 20 km - but you can hire a boda or car). The camp was awesome. I stayed in a tent because I was on a budget, but it was a really nice tent. They put a hot water bottle in my bed while I was eating dinner, so when I went to sleep my bed was warm. Also - the dinner was amazing. It was out of my budget, but I splurged and I was so glad I did. After tracking the next day it was pouring rain and the staff let me use one of the cottages to change and dry up. I didn't ask for this, when I got back from tracking they gave me a key and told me that my stuff was already in there. Anyways the place is great, and the owner, Robert, is really nice and he answered a lot of my questions by email when I was planning my trip.

ADVICE: When choosing accommodation, consider what family you'll be tracking. The families move around, and you might book a place that ends up being a few hours away from the starting point that you'll hike from to see the family and you don't want that. I tracked the Nkuringo family when I was there, but just because I did, doesn't mean that you'll be able to stay at the same place and track the same family (although Nkuringo doesn't move around that much). I will say, figuring where the family is relative to your accommodation is a difficult task. There isn't a lot of info out there and UWA (Ugandan Wildlife Authority) isn't super helpful. The best thing to do would be to email the accommodation, and ask what families are near by.

The permit:

So, you have to buy your permit from UWA. There are only 8 permits per family per day, so plan ahead. THE PERMIT INCLUDES THE GUIDE. You just meet him at the park entrance, and he will tae you and the rest of your group in. Anyways, apparently UWA is hard to get a hold of. I think I got lucky because they ended up being pretty responsive to emails. But from the sounds of it, most people aren't so lucky to get a response so you'll have to try calling most likely (Skype is great for this). Ask them for an information document. They should email you something hopefully that has info on families, prices, etc... I'll copy and paste some of what I have from when they sent it to me.

After you have the permit and accommodation, you just have to get yourself down there. I think more people would do this independently if they had more info. Tour companies provide you with transportation, accommodation, and the permit. Once I found out that that the permit includes the guide, I realized that there is no reason why you can't track the gorillas without a tour group.

My costs:

$500 USD on my permit

$10 for a bus to Kibale

$10 for a boda to Bunyoni Overland

$12? for a dorm room

$5 for the share taxi to Kisoro

$7 for my hostel in Kisoro

$70 to hike the volcano (incl. boda ride both ways, park fees, and guide fees)

$30 to stay at the camp

$ on the tasty meal (I forget the price, but if you've been in Africa for awhile you'll find it very worth it)

*** Make sure your body is completely covered. The bugs and the bushes will tear you apart. Wear two pairs of socks and tuck your pants into them. Some people had small gloves on to protect their hands from the thorns. I was glad I had hiking shoes on, sometimes we had to wait for our guide to Machete a path for us, and standing in the soft nutrient-rich soil meant that there were ants and other creepy crawlies.

I tracked for 5 hours, but I talked to other people who had tracked for only one. It depends on the day. Regardless, your chances of seeing the family is almost 100% because the UWA employees monitor the families for most of the day and night, so they usually have a pretty good idea of where the families are.

Also, from what I've heard, one of the benefits to tracking in Rwanda is that it's a bit easier, because the gorillas are in spots that are a bit more accessible. I guess that's something to keep in mind if you are worried about your fitness level.

The families (as of March 2013):

Mubare group (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park): (5 members)

1 silverback

1 Adult female

1 sub adult

2 juveniles

Habinyanja group (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park): (19 members)

1 silverback

2 black backs

5Adult females

1 sub adult

5 juveniles

5 infants

Rushegura (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park) :( 19 members)

1 silver back

7 Adult females

5 juveniles

6 infants

Nkuringo (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park): (19 members)

2 silver backs

4 black backs

4 adult females

4 sub adult

1 Juvenile

4 infants

Nshongi (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park): (34 members)

3 silver backs

6 black backs

10 adult females

7 juveniles

8 infants

Oruzogo (Bwindi impenetrable national park) :( 23 members)

2 silverbacks

5 black backs

7 adult female

4 juveniles5 infants

Bitukula (Bwindi impenetrable national park) :( 13 members)

4 silver backs

2 black backs

3 Adult females

1 juvenile

3 infants

Mishaya (Bwindi Impenetrable National park):(7 members)

1 silver back

3 Adult females

2 infants

Kahungye (Bwindi impenetrable National Park) :( 23 members)

3 silverbacks

3 black backs

4 Adult females

3 Sub adults

7 juveniles

3 infants

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Great info, thanks a lot!

I also did mine in May sans an operator. I tracked MIshaya's group. I stayed at Kisoro the night before. On the day of the hike, I a got a boda and left Kisoro around 5 something am. I think I paid the boda driver Ush 30,000 for the full day. He took me from Kisoro and back and also waited for me while I hiked.

great report

Thank you for the tips. I called UWA to book a permit, but am not in Kampala to pick it up. They said they would hold it for me to pick up the day before I go to do the gorilla trekking in December...has anyone else done this? Did they actually hold the permit for you or should I make other arrangements to be sure I get it?

@michelle
Yes they do reserve it for you, but make sure you allot some time for this...we were in the offices for nearly 2 hours while they sorted things out which cut a bit into our travel time. It helped that I had copies of my email correspondence with them!
Happy travels!

just come back
amazing
soon i ll post the whole report

Great report,

We are checking out Uganda as our destination for August 2014... but now I realize it seems to be hard to travel through the country.

I mean,it seems easy to get from Kampala to Bwindi, but e.g. from Bwindi to Queen Elizabeth NP and from there towards Murchison Falls seems quite hard with public transport.

Does anybody know if lodges/campsites/other accommodations can take you on a game drive? or should you take care of an own vehicle?

Hope somebody could help.

Thank you!