Although we were allowed in the parks with our bikes, we found it too expensive to overdo. At $120 per visit for the two of us on bikes it can become a bit hectic, especially if this excludes all other expenses in the park like ferries, camping and guided tours. Again – we fail to see where all this money is going! Campsites and lodges are mostly run privately, roads are not maintained and facilities run down. We did however found quite a few roads that borders or crosses the parks. This made for some interesting riding.
Gorilla trekking is for the rich American and European travellers. $500 per person to trek is not cheap and then you still need to pay for park fees and very expensive accommodation. Visitor stats show that most of the trekkers are from the USA and UK. In 2009 11000 people did the Gorilla walk, you can do the maths on that excluding all the other money they earn. We hoped to get the gorilla experience the ‘cheaper’ way and ended up staying at the Bwindi Forest, Buhomo Community Lodge for three days in the hope that the gorillas would visit the border of the park. No luck, but we stayed in a ‘tent’ lodge with an amazing forest view, visited with the locals over Nile beer and learned more about how the community supported themselves and the school.
On our way to Bwindi the road we wanted to take on T4A showed on the GPS bad roads do not drive. In the end it was one of the best decisions we took to go that route. They are really scenic and traverse through the most beautiful hills and forest and small villages we have ever seen. Most of the dirt roads and in bad shape but do-able at slow speed, in fact it is possible to circumnavigate Uganda and never see a tar road.
Hey Michnus and the rest of the gang!
This must be your coolest trip report ever huh! Great stuff – this is what life is about eh! How are you ever going to go back to a “normal” life after this? – so just enjoy the experience while it lasts.
Keep the write-ups coming – look forward to the next one!
Travel safe, ride safe, have fun!
Teejay (Wilddogs)
sjoe Michnus – so lekker om jul adventures te lees!!!
An who says you need a 4X4 to overland Africa – if a VW can do it – anything else can do too! I fancied those shoes. Elsabie – very happy that you survived. Safe journey guys.
Trek jou hemp uit as jy wil he die silverbacks moet kom kuier!!!!!
Die skildenaar kan maar op jou voorlig ook skilder, hy het net ‘n nat vinger nodig….
Groente uit Oos London ( Gee so week kennis voor jy terug is sodat ek betyds die squatters uit jou huis kan jaag. )
Wow again!
This truly is an amazing adventure that you guys are having. It’s hard to sit here in front of a PC in the concrete jungle we work in and read this.
Ride safe and enjoy!
Wow. so awesome. This is the stuff of dreams…. and biltong.
Hey guy’s, fantastic to be able to sit in the office and enjoy your travel stories… really good for the soul.
Travel safe and go slowly Slowly…….
Back in 2004 we got a special group price of 100$ (usd) to enter the gorilla sanctuary from the DRC (Near Bukavu). You could also enter from Rwanda and Uganda. However, sad to say but I thought I would get another change and then our demolition team moved to the Western DRC (Mbandaka) Don’t know how they got to this ridiculous 500$, possibly an ‘American mastermind’ behind it….However, I just love your blog!