Nkuringo Gorilla Camp

The Nkuringo Gorilla camp is located about 12 hours drive from Entebbe, Uganda or 5 hours drive from Kigali, Rwanda.

My friend and I went there by first driving to Buhoma, Bwindi (about 10 hours drive from Entebbe), and then trekking from Bwindi to Nkruingo (which took us about 7 hours).

The trek itself was very enjoyable but quite full on, especially towards the end where we ascended a steep slope of 700 meters.

A porter is highly recommended.

At Nkuringo Gorilla Camp, we stayed at one of the new budget rooms and were very happy about it.

The room is clean and spacious, and is decorated by beautiful photos (taken by the camp owner Robert) of a gorilla member of the Nkuringo family group.

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One particular thing we love about the camp is that they are trying to make a difference at the local community by building a school, community library, a community pub etc, and employing villagers to work at the camp.

Another thing we like about Nkuringo is that there are no mosquitoes in the area because of the high altitude.

As we were staying at a budget room, we had to share the shower and bathroom facilities which are located about 30 second walk from our room. It is usually not a problem but can be a pain if rain starts pouring down.

The camp has two shower rooms and two toilet rooms and the shower was great as far as a campsite goes.

Most other camp sites we have been to only give you a few minutes of warm water but at Nkuringo, we had good water pressure and plenty of warm water.

The camp does not offer shampoo, conditioner and soap, so do remember to bring some along with you.

The toilets took a bit to for city dwellers like us to get used to. They are Eco toilets and there was neither a flush nor sand for covering.

Rather, the staff at the camp cleaned the toilets regularly. Surprisingly, the toilets do not smell.

We presume they use some kind of technology to stop the smell from building up.

There is no tea/coffee making facilities in the room but you can get those anytime at the camp restaurant.

The camp does not offer complimentary bottles of water so you will have to buy at the restaurant for drinking and rinsing purposes.

The meals at the camp were good especially the potato soup. The staff at the restaurant were very nice.

Even though we had our pack lunch, the staff cooked us some nice soup when we came back early after the gorilla trek.

That was exactly what we needed after an exhausting uphill climb.

As for the gorilla trek, the camp made it much easier by lending us their walking sticks, and providing complimentary laundry after our trek.

We enjoyed visiting the Nkuringo gorilla family and we were told that they are the most relaxed group at Bwindi.

It took us only about 30 minutes to locate them and during most of the time we spent there, the gorillas were right in front of us.

The young gorillas came up to us and touched our legs. That was just amazing.

Lastly, the views at the campsite were superb on a clear day. At one side of the camp you can look down at the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and at the other, you can see various volcanoes at a distance (one of which was erupting whilst we were there).

These volcanoes are at the borders between Uganda, Congo and Rwanda.