Month: December 2014

Let us try to Decide

Let us try to decide which vacation we are going to take this year 2015. We are looking into taking a safari in Rwanda and Uganda to see mountain gorillas and other wildlife and we are having a hard time deciding which safari package would be the best for us. My husband and I have two children, ages 16 and 19. Mountain gorilla trekking is our main interest, fortunately, both our children are above the age limit for gorilla trekking in Rwanda and Uganda.

We are not sure if a longer safari would work out the best for them because they would learn so much more, or if it should be shorter so that they do not have too much that they need to absorb. It is a tough call. I think that heading out on a vacation like this is a fantastic idea. I know that we will all get a lot out of it. We have seen plenty of animals, we live near a zoo, but we know that there is a real difference when we see them in their habitat. This is going to be a wonderful and exciting holiday.

How to Prepare for a Safari in Africa

A Safari is a trip that can be taken by an individual or a group in order to experience or hunt large game as well as other wildlife. In the past, safaris were taken as hunting expeditions. However, in this modern age, it’s much more common for Uganda Safari holidays to involve taking photographs or simply viewing animals in their natural habitats at a close range. Preparing to go on a safari may seem to be a little intimidating or a daunting task. However, when the individual breaks it down into manageable pieces, it can become quite easy.

The first step is to determine what you would like to do when you go on the safari in Africa. Are you interested in taking traditional hunting tours? Do you want to take specific photographs of various kinds of wildlife like mountain gorilla trekking in Rwanda or Uganda? Are you interested in having more authentic experiences and staying in their traditional villages, or would you prefer more comfort driven adventures with five star hotels and luxury transportation? All the above questions are waiting for your answer.

If you have always wanted to see the African savanna or jungles that they always show on TV. Provided that you have ever needed to see the animals at the zoo for example lion and elephants out in wild. Then what you are searching for is a wildlife and gorilla safari in Rwanda and Uganda. A safari can help you to see everything that you have been searching for and more. It will take you through the savanna of Uganda to see animals for example Lions, Elephants, Buffaloes, Giraffes, Statungas, Baboons, zebra, and mountain gorillas in the misty jungles of Bwindi National park (Uganda) and Volcanoes national park in Rwanda.

You can visit with the local people and also see stunning destinations that you never musing you might have the opportunity to see for yourself. Assuming that you need to see and do all of these things then make sure you don’t let it pass you by or wait until it is too late. Make sure that you book yourself a place on an African safari today to Uganda and Rwanda in East Africa.
Going on an astounding safari holiday in Uganda and Rwanda will change your life and reveal to you things that you just read about in books and watch on documentaries. While on an safari to East Africa, you will voyage through the jungles and scene of Uganda, and you will get to apprehend a glimpse at some of the world’s most attractive wildlife.

There are particular safaris where you can experience the critically endangered mountain gorillas in their natural habitat of Bwindi and Mgahinga National parks. You can additionally see lions and leopards in the savanna of Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National park. It is a fantastic experience.

Accommodations are always the highest standards, and you will be well taken care of. If you have habitually dreamed about taking a safari journey but never really did it, now is the time! Make a safari to Rwanda and Uganda and see a different part of our world! You will love these memories for a lifetime and have astounding stories to tell. Don’t forget your camera and extra batteries!
See the Mountain Gorilla Close Up

Mountain gorilla tracking holidays refer to a special type of nature tour that is only found in the three countries of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. In the forests of south western part of Uganda and across the border to the west in Rwanda live several hundred mountain gorillas.

This is a critically endangered specie and there are only 880 individuals left in the whole world. Half of this population is distributed in impenetrable forests of Bwindi national park, Mgahinga and the rest of the population is found in Virunga National Park in DR Congo and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.

This is according to the gorilla census of 2011. The mountain gorillas do not exist anywhere else in the wild and they are not found in captivity. Tourists pay money to buy gorilla permits as permission to trek gorillas in the wild and over 20% of that money goes toward their protection and conservation, while another percentage goes to the local community surrounding the gorilla habitats.

All the 3 countries offer gorilla trekking tours and they are done almost exactly the same. Once the tourists are given special instruction in a 30 minutes briefing about Dos and Don’ts while on gorilla tracking, a ranger guide leads small groups of eight or less into the jungles. Once the guide tracks down these gorillas, tourists are allowed to observe them for 60 minutes maximum from a distance as close as 7 meters.

A gorilla trekking permit in Uganda cost USD500 and in Rwanda, each gorilla permit costs USD750. Uganda some times has promotional offers on gorilla permits in the month of April, May and November where each gorilla permit cost USD350. Note that, the demand for gorilla permits is extremely high through-out the year. Everyone interested in participating in gorilla trekking adventure is advised to book your trip early and secure your gorilla permit thorough any credible travel agents like African Jungle Adventures ltd and Gorilla Expeditions ltd

“If poaching rates are sustained at current levels, Africa is likely to lose a fifth of its elephants in the next ten years,” the group said. The study was released as experts and ministers met in Gaborone to look at ways to stamp out the slaughter, fuelled by a growing demand for ivory in Asia. The meeting is expected to adopt 13 “urgent” steps to stem the tide of illegal elephant killings.

These will include classification of trafficking in ivory as a serious crime and securing stiff sentences for offenders. Prevention would be tackled through better arming of national protection agencies and discouraging demand in destination countries. The meeting will also recommend the adequate securing of government- and privately-held ivory stockpiles so they do not make their way into wrong hands.
“We continue to face a critical situation,” said John E. Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Poaching in Africa remains far too high. “Current elephant poaching in Africa remains far too high, and could soon lead to local extinctions if the present killing rates continue,” said Scanlon.
He described the situation in central Africa, where the estimated poaching rate is twice the continental average, as “particularly acute”. There are around half a million elephants left in Africa compared with 1.2 million in 1980 and 10 million in 1900. Researchers believe that poverty and weak governance in African countries harboring elephants are driving forces behind a spike in poaching.
Ivory trade is banned under the CITES, yet the illegal trade is estimated to be worth up to $10 billion (7.4 billion euros) a year. The price of ivory on the black market shot up tenfold in the past decade to more than $2,000 per kilogramme. On average, an adult elephant tusk can weigh 20 kg (44 pounds), according to experts.
In the past 13 years, the quantities of ivory traded have steadily shot up, according to Tom Milliken, an expert with the wildlife monitoring agency TRAFFIC. “2013 already represents a 20 percent increase over the previous peak year in 2011. We’re hugely concerned,” said Milliken. In terms of international crime, wildlife trafficking now ranks fifth after narcotics, counterfeiting, the traffic of human beings and of oil, according to estimates cited at the meeting. Beyond worries about the species’ survival, elephant poaching has given rise to security and terrorism concerns.
Proceeds from ivory are “known to fund terrorism acts, support conflicts” said the conference document. Experts suggest the funds could be financing groups such as Somalia’s Al-Qaeda linked Shebab, Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army and Sudan’s Janjaweed militia. In recent years ivory trafficking routes appear to be shifting from the traditional west and central African seaports to east Africa with Kenya and Tanzania as the main exit points. Most of the ivory ends up in Thailand and China
Elephants still exist in between 35 and 38 African countries with large tracts about 55 percent of the continent’s population — still found in southern Africa. Botswana, which is co-organising the conference with the International Union for Conservation of Nature), holds the largest population of elephants in Africa, according to statistics from conservationists.