The Bwindi House Gorilla Safaris Journal
Field NotesRoads · forests · field life
I am asked this more than any other question. I sell Uganda and I will not pretend otherwise, but I have trekked both countries, and here is the honest truth about each, so you can choose the one that fits you.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
Founder, Bwindi House Gorilla Safaris
15
Field essays
26
Habituated families
4
Bwindi sectors
1,063
Mountain gorillas today
Start with availability
Check gorilla permit availability for your dates
You will be tired. Your boots will be destroyed. And you will stand seven metres from a 180 kilo silverback who decides, with complete composure, whether you are worth noticing. Here is what to know before you go.
Bwindi has 26 habituated gorilla families across four sectors. Each has a name, a home range, a silverback, a distinct personality. Before you go, know who you are visiting.
An $800 permit, eight people per family per day, and the best dates selling out six months ahead. Here is exactly how the Uganda gorilla permit system works, and how to secure yours.
Editor's note
"The Journal is what I would have wanted to read before I came to Uganda for the first time. Honest, slow, written by someone who lives here. Nothing aspirational. Nothing missing."
Vincent Arihoruhanga, Founder
The archive
You will be tired. Your boots will be destroyed. And you will stand seven metres from a 180 kilo silverback who decides, with complete composure, whether you are worth noticing. Here is what to know before you go.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
10 min read
Bwindi has 26 habituated gorilla families across four sectors. Each has a name, a home range, a silverback, a distinct personality. Before you go, know who you are visiting.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
11 min read
An $800 permit, eight people per family per day, and the best dates selling out six months ahead. Here is exactly how the Uganda gorilla permit system works, and how to secure yours.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
12 min read
Rwanda charges $1,500 for a gorilla permit. Uganda charges $800. Rwanda has around 160 gorillas. Uganda has approximately 460. I am not arguing price. I am arguing honesty about what you are actually choosing.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
9 min read
June to September is the long dry. December to February is the short dry. The honest answer about the best time is more nuanced than any table of months suggests.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
9 min read
One hour with a fully habituated family. Or four hours with a family still learning to accept you. The difference is profound, and so is the choice.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
12 min read
I founded Bwindi House Gorilla Safaris with one fixed commitment. A defined portion of every journey is committed to conservation and community support, tracked through the Bwindi House Gorilla Safaris Ledger. The gorillas are not a product. They are the reason everything else exists.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
7 min read
In 1981, there were 254 mountain gorillas. Today, 1,063 and growing. This is the story of a conservation model that actually works, and what your permit helps fund.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
11 min read
Gorilla. Shoebill. Tree climbing lion. Wild rhino. Chimpanzee. Five flagship species, all in one country, in concentrations no other African destination can offer.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
13 min read
The roads. The altitude. The guides who will outpace you on a slope that would humble a mountain goat. The honest first timer's brief.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
10 min read
The definitive packing list for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, built from years in the forest. What matters. What does not. And the single thing every first timer forgets.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
7 min read
We paddled into the papyrus in the dark. For forty minutes, nothing. Then, five metres ahead, something prehistoric resolved out of the mist.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
8 min read
Fewer visitors per year than Masai Mara sees on a busy weekend. Cheetahs in Uganda. A remoteness that feels genuinely earned.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
8 min read
Nobody knows why they do it. When a 180 kilo lion looks down at you from a fig tree, the reason stops mattering entirely.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
7 min read
Ptolemy called them the Mountains of the Moon. Equatorial glaciers, giant heather forests, near total solitude. Almost nobody climbs them. That is precisely why you should.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
9 min read
Eight hours by road through tea hills and highland forest, or fifty-five minutes by light aircraft over the same terrain. Here is every option for reaching Bwindi from Entebbe, with honest timings and what each one costs you.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
9 min read
The honest answer is: more than most operators tell you, and less than most travellers fear. Here is what the trek actually demands, what six weeks of preparation looks like, and when age or health becomes a real consideration.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
8 min read
Bwindi has 26 habituated gorilla families spread across four sectors, each with its own character, access routes, and lodge options. The sector you choose shapes everything about your experience. Here is an honest comparison.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
10 min read
From the 5:30 wake-up to the silence on the walk back, here is the full anatomy of a gorilla trek day at Bwindi — what happens, in what order, and what no one tells you about the hours that surround the hour.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
8 min read
The permit is $800. The journey is considerably more. Here is the honest, line-by-line cost of a Uganda gorilla safari in 2027 — what everything includes, what is frequently hidden, and what a composed journey with Bwindi House Gorilla Safaris actually costs.
Vincent Arihoruhanga
10 min read
Field Letters from the House
What is happening in the gorilla families. Permit availability. Quiet field notes from our guides. No marketing.