Mgahinga National park is situated in far southwestern Uganda offering a view point for Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mgahinga National park is the second home for mountain Gorillas in Uganda. The only Nyakagezi gorilla family acts as a pulling factor for many tourists to visit the park. Part of Mgahinga national Park is composed of bamboo forest and the rest is a tropical forest. The biggest part of Mgahinga National park is mountainous – therefore, tourists willing to go mountaineering can climb Mountain Gahinga, Mountain Karisimbi and so on.
In most cases, the Nyakagezi Gorilla family is found on lower levels of the slope while Golden Monkeys stay up lands for most of the time. Nyakagezi Gorilla family is made up of young Gorillas which makes the trek more amazing because of their attractive looks, dramatic characters among others.
Young Gorillas stay closer to the adults especially the female Gorillas and in the nights, they sleep in the same nests with their mothers. Young Gorillas stay with male gorillas especially when the mother is dead so, the male Gorillas take over the responsibility of nurturing the young ones.
Young Gorillas looks attractive with the young far who looks beautiful, the innocent eyes and their tender size makes Nyakagezi gorilla trek memorable.
Young Gorillas stay under the custody of their parents until certain age when they are capable of looking after themselves. The male ones can leave the group to join another one or form their own group.
The female Gorilla trains young ones how to jump from one tree to another, how to feed, how to escape from the enemy, fighting tactic and so on. Training starts at early age from one month to many months.
Most of the visitors argue that, a group without young Gorillas is not attractive compared to one with young Gorillas.
Gorilla trekking in Mgahinga national Park starts with briefing at around 7:30am- during briefing, the visitors are equipped with dos and don’ts throughout the trekking exercise. The visitors set off for gorilla safari expeditions guided by rangers. Some rangers move into the forest early morning before other trekkers- when they see the gorillas, they communicate to others to cut the long trek short.
Lucky visitor meet Gorillas few meters from the park headquarters but on some days, you can spend a full day in the forest while searching for Gorillas. This occurs when Gorillas move far while looking for food. Full day trek needs much physical fitness because they are much strenuous as it involves climbing, sloping, crossing over Rivers and so on.