Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Overview

Bwindi is a 331-square-kilometre block of Afromontane rainforest on the edge of the Albertine Rift, and it is one of the very few African forests that survived the last ice age intact - which is why its biodiversity is so unusually rich. It holds around 460 mountain gorillas, close to half of the global population, across more than twenty habituated families available for trekking. A gorilla permit costs 800 US dollars and buys one hour with a family; the trek to reach them can be anything from one to seven hours through steep, muddy, genuinely impenetrable forest. It is difficult, and it is also, by almost universal agreement, worth every shilling and every step. Beyond the gorillas the park holds 350 bird species including 23 Albertine Rift endemics, eleven primate species, and forest elephant. The four trailheads - Buhoma in the north, Ruhija in the east, Rushaga and Nkuringo in the south - are hours apart by road, so your permit sector determines where you stay.