Activities to do in Bwindi National Park : Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park is a popular tourist destination, most popular because of the mountain gorillas which live in the thick Bwindi tropical Rain Forest.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that travellers on a Uganda Safari or anywhere in Africa ought to include it as no safari is complete without a visit to this impenetrable forest.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a place of incredible bio-diversity, including 10 primate species, 120 mammal species, and 220 species of butterfly, any of which are endemic
Things to do in Bwindi National Park
Gorilla trekking;
Gorilla trekking in Bwindi starts with briefing at the park headquarters at 8:00AM by the ranger guide and allocation of gorilla families to visit; each gorilla group / family is visited by a maximum of 8 people on a particular day and the forest has more than 12 groups at the moment but in different locations.
After briefing, you then head into the forest with your guide ahead of you and at hand to clear the trail. The trek can last anywhere between 2 to 8 hours depending on the movement of the gorillas but usually, park rangers will enter the forest early and try to track the gorillas from the point where they were last seen the previous day. After finding the gorillas, you will be allowed up to a maximum of 1 hour to see and photograph them.
Bird watching
Bird lovers are also in for a treat. The forest has 348 different species of forest birds recorded in the park, 23 unique to the region. Some highlights are the African green broadbill, Chapin’s flycatcher, and Shelley’s crimson-wing. The main nesting season is in May and June, with abundant food for the birds from May to September. Migratory birds can be found in Bwindi from November to April, Activities to do in Bwindi National Park.
Many of the bird watching tours on offer take place in the Buhoma area, along village paths and in the forest margins. They also take place in the Ruhija area of the park where knowledgeable guides lead visitors through the park to discover a variety of forest and swamp birds in their natural habitat. Wherever visitors choose to go in Bwindi, the birds are always plentiful and easy to spot.
Batwa cultural experience
The Batwa cultural experience will have travellers reliving the lives and practices of the Batwa, the people that lived in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest before they got evicted and became squatters in the communities near the park. The Batwa people, during the cultural experience, will share and demonstrate how they lived, hunted, cooked, made use of the lest expected materials say sticks to make fire, how they collected wild honey and share on their knowledge of the plants that they used for both food and medicine. These people highly depended on the forest and had for a long time co-existed with the animals and plant life. The sad songs and exotic dances will also be shared during the experience.
Mountain Biking in Bwindi
Most of tourist on their safari to Bwindi Impenetrable national park engage in Gorilla trekking experience not knowing that during their free time can do Mountain biking which can be carried out right from the maintain trail from the park headquarter along Buhoma to the Ivi River. The trails make up 13kilometres providing you with great looks of wildlife like bushbucks, black and white colobus and Red-tailed monkeys among others.
Hiking /Nature walks
Bwindi Hiking is quite awesome experience that can be done in six main nature trails of Buhoma more especially those who wish to explore the beauty of ‘’Bwindi Impenetrable Forest’’ nature walk trails include waterfall walks, forest walks, primates encounter, mountain views and impressive birdlife.
Getting to Bwindi National Park
By Road
Bwindi forest can be accessed from Queen Elizabeth National Park to the northern just 2 to 3 hours’ drive, from Kampala through Mbarara about 6 to 8 hours’ drive or from Kabale town to the southern just 1 to 2 hours. These roads then converge at Butogota, just 17 kilometers from the Buhoma entrance-gate. We recommend booking your gorilla trekking safari with a recognized tour operator.
By Air
Travelers can choose to fly from Entebbe or from Kampala at Kajansi airfield to the up-to-date tarmac airstrip found at Kisoro. Additionally, Planes may as well be chartered to the Savannah.
Bwindi is actually well served by 3 airfields at Kihiihi plus Kayonza for the northern area in addition to Nyakabande found in Kisoro for people going to track mountain gorillas within the southern area (Mishaya, Nshongi plus Nkuringo).
