Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (Gorilla Sanctuary)

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park was founded in 1989. It includes the mountain gorilla habitat of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, an area that was formerly known as the Impenetrable Forest and it is estimated that about half of the world's surviving mountain gorillas live there. The park covers about 321 km² (124 sq mi).

You will need to hire a guide to find the gorillas and the trip requires several hours of scrambling through dense vegetation and over muddy hillsides. For most people the encounter with one of the gorillas in the wild is a hair-raising experience. Apart from the gorilla's, other animal species you might encounter, include elephants, giant forest hog and several monkey species.

Altogether the park is home to some 120 mammal species and more than 350 species of birds, as well as many other animals. There are also more than 1,000 species of plants.

The park headquarters is at the town of Buhoma, but the best place to stay is the town of Kisoro. Accommodation is available in Buhoma, but in Kisoro there are better facilities. There are bus connections between Kampala and Butogota, 17 km from Buhoma.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is in the southwest of Uganda and straddles Parc National de Virunga (Virunga National Park) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hotels in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

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