Visiting Rwanda for gorilla Trekking

A Rwanda tour presents a country as a beautiful country, where poverty and a recent violent history is kept within your thoughts, even though you are greeted by smiling welcoming faces and happy waving children wherever you go. So clean and well maintained too!

The gorilla trekking adventure in Rwanda is nothing short of remarkable. While planning your gorilla tour in Rwanda, you MUST prepare by getting into shape prior to traveling to Rwanda for the trek - while not a strenuous hike, it is up a bit higher in altitude, and a lot of uphill walking, so you might have shortness of breath but don't worry, there are porters to help. As well, your guides take plenty of breaks, but do exercise and do cardio before coming.

Expect to have a one to two hours of challenging hike before you reach the gorilla family. The hike can be slippery and a muddy walk through bamboo forest could test your balance and strength. Be careful of the effects of high altitude; you are hiking at 2500 m above see.

Finally meeting and observing these magnificent animals could be a life changing experience. Every penny and every step of effort is worth it when you look in to the eyes of your first gorilla. You will only get one hour with them, but trust me; this is worth it. Please go visit the gorillas as soon as you can afford to. Don't put it off, don't wish for 'one day', go. Go tomorrow. 

Gorilla hiking tips to note for both parks

•Make sure to take the walking stick that is offered. The stick will be incredibly helpful on the uneven and muddy terrain. 

•Carry gloves as everything will be muddy, wet and slippery in the forest. You will be quite happy to have clean hands when taking photos.
Wear long socks so your able to pull them up over your pants to protect them from army ants that are frequently present in the forest.

•For your trek wear decent weight water resistant pants to protect you from the stinging nettle plants - these can be quite bothersome

• Wear good hiking boots with good soles for gripping. Poor shoes can be disastrous during the hike.

Camera tips to Note for your gorilla trek

• Pack lots of batteries because many lodges in both Bwindi and Volcanoes do not have charging stations in your room, rather there are group-charging stations in the main lodge. This makes charging batteries a challenging yet you have to rest and prepare for gorilla hiking the next day. 

•Go for a comfortable at manual focusing your camera. The mountain gorillas are often partly behind vegetation and the camera inevitably focuses on the vegetation blurring the gorillas. You need to manually focus your camera on the gorillas and blur the vegetation to have very good shots. This can be hard if you have not practiced ahead of time.