Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park : Pint-sized Mgahinga is made of three volcanoes that straddle Uganda’s border with Congo and Rwanda. This tiny animal kingdom offers an impressive array of wildlife, legendary culture trail and awe-inspiring mountain climbing experiences. It might not have an expansive conservation areas and mountain gorilla concentrations to challenge its more illustrious neighbours(Virunga and Volcanoes N/P), but it makes up for any shortcomings with its uniqueness and variety of visitor experiences. These include golden monkey trekking, gorilla trekking, bird watching and mountain climbing.
If gorilla tracking is your main reason for visiting Mgahinga, you stand 90% chances of encountering its habituated family in a totally wild but safe habitat. It is home to Nyakagezi, a gorilla group with 11 members of different age brackets to adults who are over 40 years. The gorillas is for the most part well habituated to humans and you can happily sit for hours observing a family searching for food without feeling bothered by your presence.
Top among the things you shouldn’t miss here is the Batwa cultural experience. It entails spending the day with natives from the Batwa tribe as they show you their ancestral home, Mgahinga National Park. Before it was gazatted in 1994, it was everything to them: home, source of food, source of medicine, shelter. You will be treated to their electrifying dances.
Alternatively, you can pursue a one days hike destined to the summit of one of the three mountains in the park; Sabinyo(3,645meters above sea level), Muhavura(4,127m) or Mgahinga(3,474m). To limit your possibility of getting knocked out by altitude sickness, don’t rush the hike as it will fail your body from acclimatizing. One of the most exciting things about this hike is that it offers room for comparisons between the four vegetation zones of the park; forest zone, bamboo zone, moorland zone and heather zone. They envelope a lava rock that was formed over 1,000 years back as a result of a massive volcanic eruption. Today, the mountain is very safe to visit as it no longer has active volcanoes.
Your persistence to summit Mountain Sabinyo will earn you a lifetime opportunity of being in Uganda, Rwanda and Congo at the same time. The borders of these sub-saharan countries intersect at its summit. You can have your feet in one, your left arm in the other and your right arm in the last.
On the other hand, Mountain Mgahinga will treat you to an endearing climbing challenge that stretches the muscles and inspires the ambitious soul in you. It has a balanced mix of gently sloping ranges and steep gradients. Like Sabinyo and Mgahinga, the trails leading to the summit of Mountain Muhavura have wooden ladders laid down to assist with the ascent over steep stretches. This hour-glass shapped mountain lies a scenic crater lake that is partly in Uganda and partly in Rwanda.
Despite its astonishing diversity, Mgahinga remains almost unknown to the wider safari community. This makes it a wonder that you should endeavour to explore before the rest of the world discovers it.
It is managed by Uganda Wildlife Authority by virtue of its mission of conserving for generations.
