Its un predictable but it depends on the visitors convenient time, Moses one of the tour operators in Uganda advised us that the only suitable time for a self drive safari in Uganda is during the dry season since some game parks are located in hilly and muddy areas deep and some of the roads to the parks are marum roads and therefore they become difficult to access during rainy seasons with some vehicles.
In this case, before arranging our tour to Uganda, we first consulted Moses from 4×4 Car Hire Uganda on what to do if we were to enjoy our self drive safari in Uganda, he told us to first book everything we were to use and go to before due to the increased demand of some tour equipments including cars and permits for some national parks like Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park which was our destination points.
We arrived in Uganda when everything concerning our tour was sorted out and therefore we did not find any difficulties in our safari, we had booked the hotels, and the this eased our movements and accommodation in the parks. Since we had hired a Rav4 Toyota, on reaching Uganda we were presented our car and we signed an agreement , the car was well equipped with spare parts, air conditioners, and we were also given a GPS machine that helped us to find the directions and roads to the parks.
With issues concerning security Uganda Is ever prepared and therefore we did not encounter any challenge in the national parks due to the stable and politically rested country. Before we drove, Moses advised us not to drive in the night hours for security purposes since some parts along the roads are swampy and forested. Since we had prepared for gorilla tracking, each gorilla permit costed us $600 USD per person. We tracked twice in the two parks, at Bwindi we tracked at Rushaga sector but this was adventurous to us as we wanted it and we took the long trails we went through to find gorillas that were too far away from the starting point.
While heading for tracking, we were given park rangers who were well equipped with guns and these gave us security since the park is forested as the name suggests “impenetrable” for emergency purposes and we started this activity at exactly 8am and we spent 5hours in the forest. The time we saw the gorillas we were given 1hour to experience them and also to take photos with camera flashes switched off.
This has the most gorilla families among the four sectors and these include, Mishaya, Nshongi, Kahungye, Busingye and Bushaho with Bushaho being reserved for Habituation purposes. But to go for this activity we carried our packed food and drinking water, in the evening we went back to Gorilla Safari Lodge at Rushaga for an overnight and the next day we proceeded deep in the south west to find Mgahinga Gorilla National park.
This park boarders DR.Congo Virunga national park and the Rwanda Volcanoes National park and it protects the endangered mountain gorillas and the golden monkeys which are not found elsewhere in Uganda except at Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Despite of the gorillas that inspired us to visit this park, there are other areas of interest that we enjoyed as we were tracking in the thick forest and these included the three cones of Mount Gahinga, Muhavura and Sabinyo which was interpreted for us by the rangers as meaning “the old man’s teeth”.
Indeed it’s the truth; Mgahinga is where gold meets silver due to the Huge Silver back gorillas which are dominantly male and the golden monkeys that are seen up in the branches of fig trees, what amused us was that these gorillas move in families with silver back male ones leading the entire family in all the places, in search for food and also giving protection to the family including the baby gorillas. These behave as human beings and this inspired and amused us while in the park. After here we went back to the hotel as we prepared for our return back to Kampala to submit all the equipments that we hired and the vehicle to Logistics Manager from 4×4 Car Hire Uganda.
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