Bukoba Steve's Uganda birding blog: Safari with Rob and Lou - 3 Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Gorilla Tracking and Cuckooland Lodge

From Lake Mburo NP we drove via Mbarara and Kabale to Ruhija passing through 2,800 m and a section of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. We stopped at the park headquarters to get information on the next day’s Gorilla tracking then headed to our home for the next three nights - Cuckooland Lodge. Along the way we drove over some horrendous, bone-crunching speed humps and a serious rattle developed. We discovered that three of the six struts holding the roof-rack had snapped and the rest were threatening to snap.

Cuckooland Lodge is perched halfway down a steep hillside and the car park is way up at the top of the hill. The owner Philip says if you can’t manage the walk up and down the hill you can’t do a Gorilla trek. The walking (climbing) around the lodge certainly tested and improved our fitness over the next few days. Cuckooland was an unexpected delight. The land adjoins the Bwindi NP and is mostly well-recovering rainforest. Chimps regularly enter the lodge grounds to feed on new bracken shoots but, although we heard them close, they chose not to visit us. We also heard a Gorilla across the valley from our cabin one afternoon. Birding around the lodge was sensational with lots of new species for me. Our host Philip and his staff looked after us well with delicious meals. They also helped to secure our roof rack temporarily with wire and rubber strips.

Our hut at Cuckooland with Bwindi Impenetrable NP in the background

View from our hut's verandah

Our long-anticipated Gorilla tracking day finally arrived and we reported along with a few dozen others at the park headquarters at 0730. We were allocated one of three Gorilla families and set off to the various starting points. We had been told the typical time to get to the Gorillas was 2-3 hours and that it could be steep and muddy. I don’t know how the other groups fared but we had a 15 minute stroll along an easy, dry track and then were stopped and told “The Gorillas are just up ahead”. Sure enough another minute and there were about a dozen Gorillas right in front of us. They ranged from an old gentleman to a young baby. For the next hour we watched as they mostly ignored us and snoozed, groomed and played. The bright sunlight and gloom of the forest floor made for difficult photography but the experience was amazing.