Will I take my gorilla permit for Virunga national park after tracking?
Will I take my gorilla permit for Virunga national park after tracking? A gorilla trekking permit for Virunga national park is a document that allows a traveler to be part of the gorilla trekking activity and encounter endangered mountain gorillas. A traveler in Virunga national park cannot trek mountain gorillas unless they have valid trekking permits. The gorilla trekking permits for Virunga national park are issued by Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature a government body in charge of tourism in the country.
Gorilla trekking in Virunga national park is the most done activity and it does attract a lot of tourists from different parts of the country. For travelers to avid las minute book disappointments, they will have to book the gorilla trekking permits in advance of 3-4 months. Virunga national park has 64 gorilla trekking permits since it has 8 fully habituated gorilla families and each group is trekked by 8 people.
One of the frequently asked questions by travelers is whether they carry the gorilla trekking permits to their homes, or throw them away after the gorilla trekking activity. Well, the answer is NO, the gorilla trekking permit stays with the park rangers who take it to the park offices for record keeping.
The gorilla trekking activity in Virunga national park starts with a briefing at the park offices. Here the park wardens do check the permits of the participants to see if they really belong to them and once they have confirmed, they collect the permits from the trekkers and take them to the park offices to keep them for records. Trekkers in Virunga national park don’t move to the jungle with the gorilla trekking permits, they give them to the park authorities.
The gorilla trekking activity in Virunga
Gorilla trekking involves armed ranger guides leading trekkers in the jungle where they start searching for endangered mountain gorillas. The gorilla trekking activity takes 2-5 hours in Virunga national park of going through different vegetation comes and rugged terrain. During the hours of trekking, the trekkers get chances of meeting some of the park animals such as bongo, buffaloes, topis, duikers, giant forest hogs, lions, leopards, monkeys, olive baboons, chimpanzees, and different bird species. When the mountain gorillas are located, the trekkers are given 1 hour to be around these apes watch them do daily activities, take photos and learn about their behaviors.
How much is a Virunga gorilla permit?
A Virunga gorilla permit costs $400 for foreign residents and foreign non-residents, and $200 for East African citizens in the dry season which is June to September and December to February. The same gorilla permit costs $200 for foreign non-residents and foreign residents and $100 for East African citizens in the low season from March to May and October to November.
Booking Virunga gorilla permits
Booking Virunga national park gorilla permits have been made easy with Africa adventure vacations limited. What a traveler is supposed to do is send us an email containing the day of the month and year they want to travel and we shall use them to check for the availability of the permits with the park authorities. Once the parks are available you will receive an email from us containing banking details and once you send the months, we shall book the permit for you and then send you a scanned copy.
Travelers can still book gorilla trekking permits for themselves and find them at Virunga national park offices on the day of trekking. Travelers can visit Virunga national park’s main website and book the gorilla permits by sending them an email containing the dates of the month and year they want to travel. They will look at the dates and check for the permits and once they are available, they will send you different banking details of how you can send money. When they have received the money, they will book the permits for you.
How many gorilla permits are in Virunga national park?
Virunga national park has 64 gorilla trekking permits on a daily basis. These gorilla trekking permits are sold at the Virunga national park offices and they are sold to people above the age of 15 years old. The national park has 8 gorilla families for trekking on a daily basis and 8 people are allowed to trek a single gorilla group.
