Track mountain gorillas in Uganda
A friend has invited you to do this with them.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site in south-west Uganda, is home to roughly half the world's mountain gorillas. After a forest trek of two to seven hours, you spend one hour with a habituated gorilla family.
ModerateOver £500 / $650A few weeksOutdoorsWith othersUganda
How to start
- Read the Uganda Wildlife Authority's gorilla tracking page and choose between Bwindi's four sectors, Buhoma, Ruhija, Rushaga and Nkuringo, or Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.
- Book your permit well in advance through the Uganda Wildlife Authority or a registered tour operator, and check the minimum age, which the authority's park guide gives as 15.
- Build up to long walks on rough ground, as treks take two to seven hours and need moderate fitness, and pack waterproofs and warm layers, as the forest is wet and can be cold in the mornings.
Where to go
- Uganda Wildlife Authority: gorilla tracking
- Uganda Wildlife Authority: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park at a glance
We opened these links on 3 November 2026 and found them to be what we say. Dates, places and prices are on the official page, where they stay up to date.
Plan this
Pick a day, or a month, and we will set out how to get ready, step by step, with a date and a reason for each. The hard part of a day out is the timing: the right season, tickets and getting there. The plan watches the calendar for you.
Read next
No one left behind on the Expresso trail: fifteen years of Tuesday rides with Girls Outside
How a group of women in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley turned a Tuesday mountain bike ride into a 15-year habit: the motto, the tailgate and why the group keeps them riding. How to start mountain biking on easy graded trails, or ride harder terrain with a group if you already ride.
The eleventh time Lhakpa Sherpa climbed Everest, she went as a guide
Lhakpa Sherpa of West Hartford, Connecticut, climbed Everest for a record eleventh time on 17 May 2026, working as a guide. How she trained around ordinary jobs, what the NHS says about going above 2,500 metres, and how to build towards a high summit of your own, from a first hill to Mount Washington.
More like this
Moderate · South West England
Find your own fossil on the Jurassic Coast
Moderate
Walk a geology trail in a UNESCO Global Geopark
Moderate
Go for your first wild swim
Moderate
Stand in the shadow of a total solar eclipse