Uganda is not a destination that easily pops into one’s mind. Once home to some legendary game parks and reserves, the country’s wildlife was almost entirely poached out during the years of the madman – “The Last King of Scotland” – Idi Amin, and the subsequent Uganda-Tanzania war that broke out. While the wildlife has recovered, close to forty years later, the country remains quite a peripheral safari destination.

Our trip had a singular objective: Mountain Gorillas. In the process of planning, however, the extreme distances involved needed to be taken into consideration, and we opted for a slightly different approach, scratching (barely) below the surface and exploring a bit more of the country. The final itinerary is as follows:

1 night Mihingo Lodge, Lake Mburo National Park

3 nights Buhoma Lodge, Buhoma, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

2 Nights Ishasha Wilderness Camp, Ishasha Sector, Queen Elizabeth National Park

About five hours or so by road from Entebbe, Lake Mburo National Park makes for an ideal stopover on the long journey to Bwindi. It’s an area of striking beauty, one that we, unfortunately, did not have much time to explore. After reaching Mihingo Lodge for a very late 3pm lunch, we decided to relax by the pool, sampling the local gin, Uganda Waragi. A few interesting birds came into view, most notably Ross’s Turacos, which we didn’t see anywhere else on the trip.

We opted for a night game drive, in search of the park’s elusive leopards, one that ended in vain. At the lodge, however, galagos make a nightly appearance, and we were able to view them at very close quarters. The darkness left us with no photos though.

The next morning, we left Lake Mburo for an 8-hour drive to Bwindi. We did a short game drive on the way out, which gave us a chance to see topi, zebra, waterbuck and quite a number of bushbuck out in the open. We also managed another sighting of the beautiful Ross’s Turaco in flight.

The lack of large predators possibly relegates Lake Mburo as a secondary destination, but the landscapes were truly beautiful, the small game is very relaxed around cars (probably due to the lack of predators!), and the birdlife was brilliant. It’ll probably be on our next trip to Uganda, and I’d definitely like to give it a bit more than a cursory glance.

The long drive to Bwindi passes through Queen Elizabeth National Park and a couple elephant sightings in the distance later; we finally reached Buhoma at 5pm, tired yet excited for the next day.

As of a 2011 census, there are only 840 or so mountain gorillas left in the wild. Out of those around 400 reside in Bwindi, with the rest in the Virunga Mountains to the south, encompassing Mgahinga in Uganda, Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda and Virunga National Park in the DRC. The population in Bwindi is isolated from the population in the Virungas, so it could be possible they are different subspecies, although visually there’s no discernible difference. Slowly, but steadily, the total mountain gorilla population is increasing – a good sign that active conservation methods, community initiatives and tourism benefits are working.

Given that we would be doing two treks, I think the understanding was that we’d go to the furthest group the first day, and then to a closer one the second day. So, as it happens, we were assigned to the Habinyanja Group, who were left the day before deep in the impenetrable forest, some six hours away from us.

After a 40-minute drive to the high starting point for the trek, we began walking through a small tract of farmland, and then into the forest. At first, it was easy going, along a path on the ridge. Then we descended down into a small valley, where the forest canopy opened up into somewhat of a clearing. After a while, the manicured path disappeared, as we followed the tracker’s (who had left a few hours before us to find the gorillas) path into the forest. Then it was back up a hill into the forest, a short walk along a different ridge, back down into a different valley and then back up another hill. The pace continued like this for around 3 hours or so. Finally, we got word from the trackers – the gorillas had been found. Energized, we began moving quicker, only to realize the trackers still had a few hours on us. An hour later, we found the trackers, and the Habinyanja group high up in the forest canopy, foraging, picking fruits and throwing broken branches down on us!

Not long after we arrived the group started coming down from the canopy and settled down at the base of some trees. We sat with them for some time, and one juvenile in particular was very interested in us. Seeing his reflection in the camera lens made him even more curious as he approached, inspected the lens and then retreated – he did this a couple of times.

All of a sudden, the group lost interest in us and started moving through the forest and went down toward the dense, open brush. We followed, and quickly realized how effectively the gorillas can move through the forest. Within a minute or two, they had some 50 metres on us, and while they went straight through the undergrowth, we tried to find a path around. As we caught up, our hour with them was running out, and after watching them for a few more minutes, we left them and retraced our steps back to the starting point.

The next morning, we were assigned to the Rushegura Group, who had been tracked closer by. “Closer by” definitely did not mean an easier hike – only that we would probably be back at the lodge in time for lunch! A short ten-minute drive from base, we arrived at the bottom of a hill. Looking around, all we could see was access to this one hill and we guessed right, we had to climb to the top. This trek was definitely different to the first one, zig-zagging around the side of the hill at quite a steep incline. An hour and half later of trekking we were relieved to find the trackers that were sent earlier to find the gorillas. They were straddling the boundary line between the community farmlands and the forest.

The experience with the Rushegura Group was markedly different from the previous day, as the gorillas were out in the open vegetation and kept crossing the boundary path between the forest and farmlands. They were relaxing and feeding in the leafy bushes – a completely different environment to the dense forest canopy. We came across the Silverback eating contently, not bothered at all with the strange humans watching and photographing him. This group had a couple of cheeky juveniles too – one grabbing a go-pro camera and the other trying to grab my friends trousers!

In all, I feel we had two very different, unique experiences with the mountain gorillas. Trekking deep into the forest in search of the Habinyaja Group allowed us to see the stunning forest, and gave us a sense of accomplishment when we finally found them. The Rushegura Group was a welcome break after the long trek the day before, and we got to witness more gorilla interactions, as they were much more relaxed.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is quite unique in a sense. In the north lies the Mweya Sector, famed for the motorboat safari on Kazinga Channel, chimpanzees in Kyambura Gorge, and a substantial human population, with fishing villages dotted around. 2 hours south lies the Ishasha Sector, a much quieter wilderness known for tree-climbing lions. In between the two sectors runs the major road connecting to Bwindi and into the DRC. Essentially, Queen Elizabeth is two different parks, with a wilderness zone in between.

The road network in Ishasha is not well developed, and the focus here really is on the tree-climbing lions. Almost every road comes to a dead-end at a fig tree, and the loops are connected similarly. It’s probably great when the lions are up on those trees, but otherwise it can get a little frustrating. We explored most of the Ishasha in search of the famous tree-climbing lions, which proved very hard to find. Our focus slowly shifted onto the beautiful bird life that Queen Elizabeth has to offer as well as admiring the Ugandan Kob. The first evening, we came upon a decent-sized herd of elephants, something we really weren’t expecting, and the second morning we stumbled onto a hyena dens with three cute babies. Our search for the lions luckily didn’t end in vain and we managed to see three healthy lionesses relaxing in a tree the final evening.