We are Epic Gorilla Trails, an enthusiastic team of locals who formed themselves into an army of conservation warriors and Responsible safari operators.
We first picked up our operations as a small village-based walking eco-safari operator in south-western Uganda based in Rubuguri-the small mountain gorillas’ world. Having been born in the remote villages of Kigezi highlands in the southern sector of Bwindi impenetrable national park, our conservation initiatives started here through our daily interactions with Mountain Gorillas since birth. As the custodians of the land, we explored the surrounding rain forests as herd’s boys sharing a close proximity with wildlife species of Bwindi impenetrable national.
We grew up witnessing the negative part of wildlife conservation especially when wild animals move from the forest to village lands and the results were rampant crop raiding. Our parents taught us life skills of protection in such situations like drumming to scare away animals and lying down dead flat. These are part of the traditions that kept mountain gorillas surviving even before the introduction of wildlife conservation authority and laws.
Our families lived adjacent the forest boundary and in the 1990s there were no traces of tourist footprints into our area. However by the year 2000 Gorilla tourism was extended from the Nothern Buhoma to the southern sector of Bwindi impenetrable national park at Nkuringo in Rubuguri and we started rendering our services as community guides, support staffs and started doing village exploration tours to the numerous traditional rural villages and started dugout canoe trekking to lakes Mutanda and Murehe in Kisoro.
In 2010 our responsible eco-tourism mission was enlarged to other locations of Uganda and Rwanda with expeditions launched to the entire Great Lakes regions of Africa featuring the Great Virunga volcanoes. With now more than a decade expertise of professional safari touch helping tourists enjoy remarkable experiential safari packages beyond borders to both Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and DR Congo. An integral unique specialty of our operation as a small community group is blending wildlife safari packages to offbeat trails while showcasing our deeper indigenous knowledge into wildlife conservation and community activism hence surpassing the common safaris traditions.