Rushaga gorilla sector is one of the four gorilla sectors of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park of southwestern Uganda. Rushaga is found in the southern sector of the park with the highest population of mountain gorillas and gorilla families. It has over 8 habituated gorilla families including the Busingye gorilla family, Nshongi gorilla family, Bweza gorilla family, Mishaya gorilla family, Bikingi gorilla family, Rwigi gorilla family, Mucunguzi gorilla family, and Kahungye gorilla family.
Rushaga sector is remarkably the best to visit as it offers both gorilla trekking and habituation experience. It is the only place in Uganda for gorilla habituation experience where visitors spend four hours with the eye-catching mountain gorillas undergoing the habituation process. Visitors seeking to embark on a gorilla trekking experience, purchase a gorilla permit.
The permit is a document that allows visitors to trek the mountain gorillas in their natural habitats. Acquiring a gorilla trekking permit is only through a locally registered tour company like Standard Safaris which purchases it on the client’s behalf from the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
Gorilla trekking in the Rushaga gorilla sector begins with an early morning pre-trekking briefing. After checking the permits, grouping the trekkers, and allocating them to a gorilla family, they a led to the forest by a professional ranger guide. Trekkers then transverse the thickets to the gorillas where they spend an hour in their presence as they take pictures and watch the primates go by with their chores.
How to get to the Rushaga gorilla sector?
There are two ways of getting to the Rushaga sector of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park depending on the traveler’s favorite means of travel and route.
Road
For travelers coming from Kampala the capital of Uganda and Entebbe, driving to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is an 8-9-hours drive. Connecting to Rushaga from Entebbe is the longest drive compared to other sectors of Bwindi and time may vary depending on the traffic.
The Kampala-Masaka route via the Mbarara-Kabale route is used to get to Rushaga sector in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park by road.
From Kigali
Kigali is the capital of Rwanda and is usually used by many travelers combining Rwanda and Uganda safaris choosing to first explore the beauty of Rwanda. A drive from Kigali to Rushaga sector is a 5-hour driving distance shorter compared to that from Kampala. Visitors drive from Kigali via the Cyanika border to Kabale and Kisoro then to Rushaga in the southern part of Bwindi. This is a 202.6-kilometer drive to the Rushaga sector from Kigali.
By Air
Scheduled flights are available using Aerolink to fly from Entebbe International Airport to Kisoro Airport starting at exactly 7 am. Flights are scheduled daily from Entebbe International Airport and Kajjansi Airstrip to Kisoro Airfield. Traveling to the Rushaga sector of Bwindi by air is the fastest means of transport to the sector. It takes about 2 hours to land at Kisoro Airfield where a 40-minute drive to the sector is taken.
When is the best time to see mountain gorillas in the Rushaga sector?
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park experiences two seasons throughout the year, the wet and dry seasons which are open for safaris, permitting tourists to come to Uganda at any time of their preference. Rushaga gorilla sector has its dry season running from June to September and December to February. This is the period when the roads are navigable to the Rushaga gorilla sector and flights are less affected by weather.
Gorilla trekking on the other hand in the sector is easier with dry grounds for hiking faster into the high altitudes of Rushaga where the mountain gorillas are found. The wet season is however hectic, tiring the gorilla trekking as the mountain gorillas hide on the rainy days in search of warmth making it difficult to spot them.
