After an early breakfast t your hotel. 0645hrs, you will be transferred to the park headquarters for the gorilla trek registration and allocation of the particular gorilla family to visit.

Registration is a simple process where the park staff determines which group of gorillas you will visit. The park staff discusses your fitness level and advises you of the trekking times and conditions to the various groups based upon their location in the park the previous evening. There are a total of 80 gorilla permits available each day with a maximum of eight trekkers visiting any one group. 

After the check-in process and allocation of gorilla family in groups, each group is briefed by its assigned park guide on the procedures to follow during the trek, as well as the “DO’s and DONT’s” while in the presence of gorillas.

After the briefing, trekkers return to their respective vehicles for the drive up the mountain to the starting point – from where the exciting gorilla trek adventure commences. Your trek starts in the cultivated foothills of the Virunga’s offering stirring views in all directions. Trekking can take from two to six or more hours if the gorillas move before the park rangers locate them the next morning. The guides stop frequently to allow trekkers a chance to rest and take photos along the way. When it enters the national park, trekkers will be immersed in the mysterious intimacy of the rainforest, alive with the colorful bird calls, chattering golden monkeys, littered with fresh spoor of the mountains’ elusive buffalo and elephant. Through gaps in the canopy, the magnificent peaks are glimpsed, among the highest in Africa yet easily accessible, beckon an ascent. Weaving through overhanging vines, moss-covered hagenia trees and giant lobelias that thrive in the tropical climate, our experienced trackers, who have spent their entire lives in or close to this forest, soon bring us up close with one of the Gorilla families.

At the end of the one-hour audience with your gorilla family, retrace your steps back to the trek start-point and re-join your driver-guide and vehicle.

Drive back to your hotel for freshening-up & lunch. 

After lunch, you will head-out for the Iby’Iwacu Cultural Village – for some insights into the transformed lifestyle of these families of former gorilla poachers.

Overnight at Mountain Gorilla View lodge (FB)