As the whole program of the day requires you to wake up very early in the morning, you actually need to wake up even earlier so as to arrange several things you need for the day. When it’s all clear with your gorilla permit and the travel agent, other necessary items like rain coat, gloves, the jungle boots and a full lunch box also need to be well put in order so as to make your trekking day easy and memorable.

The next thing to do is to move to the park headquarters by 7am. Here you have to go with your personal passport just to help the guides simplify their work of identifying your nationality and serve you accordingly. The passport is crosschecked along with the gorilla permit just to verify that both belong to you.

With a few relaxation moves and entertainment, the guides also take you through the whole overview of the park and the ways of the gorillas in their natural habitats. The guides are well trained and speak both good English and French languages which make the tourists comfortable to listen to them. After the measure and precautions are given, you are then grouped 8 people as per one gorilla family.

However much it’s not easily predictable as to where the animals move to, in Rwanda unlike other gorilla destinations, assigning a gorilla group to visit depends on the physical fitness and age of the visitor. People who are a bit old are normally assigned to gorilla families that can be easily found and with shorter trails in the wilderness. However tourists with special interests in a particular group talk to the guide who further helps them negotiate and arrange with the rangers immediately before assigning them to the other groups.

The guides lead trackers into the jungle as they clear the way with their swords, they also trace the location of the gorillas and assess where they could move to next, then they inform the guides about the whole situation just to make perfect services to the tourists. The trekking includes one main guide on the trail and two scouts or rangers who normally carry guns, one walks in front of the 8 members of the group and the other moves behind the group. The scouts are armed to provide security just in case wild or very angry animals like elephants in the wilderness try to attack the trekkers. They are trained to shoot in the air just to scare away such animals but this is a very rare incident. As you make your movements into the forest you need to keep your voices low, silence could help you not to miss out on other wildlife and birds within the jungle.

WHILE YOU ARE WITH THE GORILLAS;

Remember we are conserving for generations and generations, a gorilla safari in Rwanda is a well-monitored activity, with a number of strict guidelines, which were set to protect and conserve mountain gorilla population in Africa. Below are the rules and guide to your gorilla trekking holiday.

• While in the presence of the gorillas, maintain a distance of about 5 to 7m from the apes, this way you can be shielding gorillas from contracting any illness from humans.
• Make sure you keep together as a team in their presence and keep quiet so as to enjoy every moment.
• Avoid flash photography while with the gorillas, and do not make any movements just for the pictures. Keep calm and remove the camera flashlights plus the sound.
• Touching or even just attempting to touch a gorilla is not allowed; just continue keeping your voice very low not until you are out of the gorillas’ range.
• Avoid the habit of drinking, eating and smoking in the presence of the gorillas.
• These species are so vulnerable to contract diseases, in case you do not feel well please alert the authorities and do not join the gorilla trekking group. Additionally, if you want to blow your nose, sneeze or even to cough, calmly and gently turn your head away from where the gorillas are so as to limit the contraction of the disease.