Low Land gorilla trekking in Kahuzi Biega National Park in Congo: What a thrilling experience! And the place is very safe

We will never forget our encounter with these gentle low land gorillas. On 28^th June 2013 I went with Paolo Neri and Patrizia Amadelli (from Modena, Italy) for the trekking of low-land gorillas in Kahuzi Biega National Park. We spent the night before at a beautiful lodge in the surrounding of Bukavu town, Coco Lodge. The service was excellent, the place superb and you start feeling the presence of the nearby gorillas, as many information are displayed in the lodge itself.

In the morning, after a short transfer by vehicle, we arrived at the Head Quarter of the National Park. With a surprise, we were the only visitors taking the activity. It is very unfortunate that the international image of Congo is so bad, that even safe places like Bukavu and Kahuzi Biega National Park are suffering loss of tourism because of the general image of the Eastern Congo situation of unrest.

We went with the rangers to a family of 37 gorillas, Chimanuka. The rangers were the most professional; they even gave us masks to cover our mouth so that we better respect the habitat and the gorillas.  It took us less than 45 minutes to meet and greet the friendly gorillas. 

As soon as we arrived to the point they were, the whole family was there watching us as we watched them, the babies in most cases came closer to us, some wanting to touch our cameras because they were very curious. We watched them feed, play and clap hands (interesting). When our guide clapped his hands, the small babies and the juveniles also clapped and it was such a thrilling adventure for us.

This trekking was the most exciting; you really feel the real adventure, the real remote tropical forest, in its full powerful presence. It is just incredible that travelers miss out this trekking because they fear to enter the border of Congo. As long as you have acquired a valid visa from an Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, you will only see how in Bukavu and Kahuzi Biega everything is safe and well organized. Not only that: tourism will help conservation; we need to support tourism in Congo because this is how the gorillas will be always being protected.

Check out our itinerary for the trekking of Low land gorillas or you can take the long program the Eden of Africa Safari. Thank you to Paolo Neri to give us the permission to use his beautiful and amazing photographs for our gallery.

Allen Natukunda

Musambwa Tourism Project

The Minister for tourism Mrs. Maria Mutagamba launched a 10-year general management plan for Musambwa Island tourism programme in Rakai district. The Musambwa Island lies in Lake Victoria and as of now, is a major breeding ground for birds that migrate from Europe and other parts of Africa. The island is recognized internationally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) which was designated by Ramsar Convention and bird life international.

The management plan for this Island was formulated under the cultural values and Conservation project implemented by Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and Rakai District Local Government. While at the ceremony, the Minister warned the public to stop killing birds since they have now become a key tourist attraction in Uganda’s Tourism industry today. In her speech, she pointed out that the Musambwa Island has potential to fetch huge sums of money especially from foreign tourists because of its unique strong cultural values and rare bird species.

At the Island, among the cultural values includes prohibiting of sexual intercourse while women are also not allowed to become residents on the islands. In addition to this also, harming any living organism on the Island is not accepted according to the Musambwa Chairman Conservation Committee Mr. Enock Ntale.

Culture and leisure tourism should be promoted on the Island and this will boost the local revenue collections for the district.  It will also create job opportunities especially from the Musambwa Island project through the tour guide initiatives and cultural community performances from local groups.

More to this, the government will also soon identify at least two homes per sub-county to operate as tourism stay homes for those tourists interested in cultural adventures to know more about a true Ugandan Culture and people’s ways of living.

We have a special package for the Uganda Cultural tour in the north with the Karamajongs region which gives you a clear view of a true Karamajong ways of life. We can as well promote the same objective in Rakai district and other parts of the country.

Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate Cultural week

From 14^th to 21^st May 2013, Uganda will join the rest of the world to mark and celebrate the cultural week. The theme for this year is “Creative Industries; a Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation”. Therefore, the country will put more emphasis on creative industries for employment and wealth creation.

During the cultural week, emphasis will also be put on tree planting, but with a view of enhancing culture. Trees like Mutuba are advised to be planted since it’s the one which is used to make Backcloth a back bone of Uganda’s culture.

According to the state Minister for elderly and disabled Sulaiman Madada while addressing the members of the Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) programme in Kibaale district, the creative industry is taking shape in Uganda so there is need to emphasize it. He also added that Uganda’s education system is purely academic and this must change if we are to have meaningful development.

According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), each country must prioritize two tangible cultural products, which are backcloth and trumpet music. In order for the next generation to have culture, Ugandans are all obliged to promote and preserve culture because if you do not preserve it now, no one will do it for the next generation.

Bitukura Gorilla Family welcomes a New Baby

On April 29^th 2013 it was announced by the Uganda Wildlife Authority that Bitukura gorilla group welcomed a new baby.  The number of this family increased more by one after a new birth was registered. Ruhara who is an adult female Gorilla gave birth to a baby much to the delight of the entire Bitukura family and Gorilla friends. The family size is now regaining after some defections which were witnessed last year. Rukara, who was also a silverback left the group and joined Kyaguliro family which is for research purposes and has not yet returned.

It was observed that the infants and juveniles of the group were struggling to feel the new infant who was strongly guarded and monitored by the dominant Silverback Ndahura. The mother was seen dedicating the most of the time to this new infant while breast feeding and grooming the infant. Generally the family is happy and has been seen happy going about their usual daily routines with no worries.

Despite the loss of three members last year who defected to other gorilla families, the family looks happily and closer to one another. One of the trackers who located the newly born infant Gorilla contends that the family often nests at Bugarama where the Silver Back Ndahura has lately established his home range.

We highly recommend this family to our clients too because of the large numbers of gorilla individuals the family has. As of now, the family has 15 individuals and our Uganda Safaris include a 3days Gorilla Safari to Bwindi National Park where you will find these endangered primates and be able to track Bitukura Gorilla family or any other family in the Park.

New Gorilla Family named Busingye soon to open for Tourism

The Southern sector of Rushaga in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park originally had only one Gorilla family which is Nshongi. However, as of recent, the sector has undergone a lot of transformation since the effectiveness of Gorilla tourism in the Park. Nshongi at the time of its habituation had the world’s largest mountain gorilla numbers but since its break up, three more families have been habituated including Mishaya and Bweza who split on 1^st August 2012.

In the same sector, another gorilla group was habituated which is Kahungye has also witnessed yet another breakaway hence creating the new family called Busingye. This is now good news since many Gorilla permits will be available for sale for Gorilla Safaris and tours in Bwindi. The Gorilla family is led by a dominant silverback Busingye who fights constantly in the wild for female adults. Busingye Gorilla group split from Kahungye family on 4^th June 2012 and as of now the Rushaga sector has 5 gorilla groups including: Mishaya, Kahungye, Nshongi, Bweza and Busingye.

The strong Busingye silver back has however from time to time showed how capable he is to tilt the power balance in the south which has a crowded home range of its habituated gorillas that keep over lapping one another. Whenever he interacts with a wild family which is not yet habituated, he mercilessly grabs a female from that group for himself and joins the family.

According to the Area Conservation Manager BMCA Mr. Pontius Ezuma, Uganda Wildlife Authority has got more space available for tourists who intend to do gorilla tracking in the southern sector of the Bwindi Park. He advises that the visitors can now book this family because it is one of the versatile and exciting groups one can visit for a memorable time while in Bwindi’s Impenetrable park for gorilla tourism.

A research from the BMCA Monitoring team which is led by the Research Warden Kato Raymond shows that there are no intentions of the breakaway families to fuse back to their parent families in the future. This is characterized by the fierce battles between mother and breakaway families. The battles are only restricted to dominant silverbacks who are supposed to guard their turf. Due to these battles, each group has not tried to avoid direct interactions with one another for fear f potential loss of members.

Once this group is open to tourism and permits are ready for sale at the Uganda Wildlife Authority, we will let all our customers know and also have an experience with the new family while on their Uganda Gorilla Safaris.

Oldest Woman Tracks Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi National Park-Uganda

Laura Sonnino who was 94 years old from Italy on March 14, 2013 became the oldest person to have tracked mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South western Uganda. She was born on 20/5/1919 and she successfully tracked the Nkuringo Gorilla Family in the south where she viewed the playful great apes.

Laura says she had once tried to track Gorillas in Buhoma in 2002 but failed to see them because of the difficult terrain. Tracking Gorillas has been her main dream and this time she had everything arranged in advance for her tracking to be a success. To do this, she hired 12 strong porters who carried her on a stretcher to and from the Gorillas location at an extra fee of 300 US dollars. It was a real record since by 11.30 am she was already back from tracking. The last recorded oldest person to have tracked the much sought after gorillas was 82. All congratulations go to Laura for that feat, courage and love for these endangered species.

                                                           

Uganda named 5th best tourism exhibitor in Africa

Uganda the Pearl of Africa emerged the 5th best exhibitor in Africa at the annual ITB Berlin 2013 Travel and Tourism Exhibition, a world leading travel trade show in Germany. According to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ms Mutagamba, the country was working on a programme to extend its tourism beyond nature to include culture and medicine. The theme for this year at the Exhibition was “Uganda the Pearl of Africa, your Eco-Tourism Destination”.  According to the minister, Uganda’s attraction, based on inquiries, were Gorillas in Bwindi Forest, the climate in Kibaale District and wildlife in Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth National Parks.

At the Exhibition, one of the exciting attractions was the Ndere cultural dancers who are said to have pulled crowds from different angles.

As a country, we have to improve on certain things like cleanliness and the road network. It looks like we have left cleaning our country to God and yet when tourists come, they want to see and visit clean places,” Ms Mutagamba said.

lTB Berlin exhibition is an annual event which takes place in March in Germany. In 2011, Uganda received more than a million foreign tourists and the tourism industry is said to be growing at 21 per cent annually and the German market growing at 10 per cent with more than 8,000 Germans having visited the country in 2011. With this, more emphasis is now put on promoting Sustainable tourism in Uganda as well as preserving the traditional Cultures.