rwanda & uganda: all gorilla parks safari

All three give you one hour with a habituated family, in a group capped at eight, and the forests could hardly be less alike.

Volcanoes National Park is high ground, with gorillas found between about 2,500 and 4,000 metres among bamboo and nettles, yet we judge it the easiest place to track them. Its twelve families are allocated by fitness at a 7am briefing.

Mgahinga, in Uganda, is the smallest and quietest: one habituated family, so one party of eight a day, setting out at 8am from Ntebeko on treks that typically last three to five hours across bamboo-covered volcanic slopes.

Bwindi sits lower, from roughly 1,160 to 2,600 metres, but it is steep, tangled rainforest where the walk may be over inside an hour or fill most of the day, and the mud and the gradient are the test there, not the thin air.

Very likely in all three, and no authority promises it.

Neither Rwanda nor Uganda publishes an official figure. We put success at better than 95 per cent on both sides of the border, and for the same reason: trackers go out at first light to the place each family nested, so the rangers set off with a good idea of where to find it.

Mgahinga has a single habituated family, still officially a transboundary group, although it is now resident. In Rwanda, if a visitor family crosses the border, one of the groups normally followed by researchers is offered in its place.

With treks possible in three parks, this route also spreads the risk in a way a single-park trip cannot: a poor hour in one forest, in rain or thick cover, need not be your only hour.

As many as three, one in each park, and the number is yours to choose.

Each trek needs its own dated permit, from the Rwanda Development Board for Volcanoes and from the Uganda Wildlife Authority for Mgahinga and Bwindi, and every family in every park is limited to eight visitors a day.

The tightest is Mgahinga. With one habituated family there are just eight permits a day, and they are usually booked solid, so on this route the Mgahinga date is the one we fix first and the rest follows from it.

Volcanoes has 96 permits a day and Bwindi more, yet both are often booked out well ahead for the dry months. For the dry months of June to September our advice is to begin as soon as you know your dates. In the rainier months permits are less contested.

If three treks feel like too many, golden monkeys make a gentler morning in either country.

Either, and the difference matters. The species' range is centred on the bamboo of these volcanoes, so you are in the right place in both countries.

On the Rwandan side they come easily: the main troop is 80 to 100 strong, thoroughly used to visitors, and often feeds at the forest edge, even in farmers' potato fields, so we rate it the surer and less strenuous of the two.

At Mgahinga, in Uganda, it is a climb of an hour to an hour and a half to reach the troop, rewarded by watching the monkeys feed on fresh bamboo in their natural forest. Mgahinga also offers something you will find nowhere else, a habituation experience in which you spend far longer with the monkeys alongside the researchers who study them.

Golden monkey tracking is less exhausting than gorilla tracking, so either sits well on the day after a trek.

By road, at the Cyanika border post between Musanze and Kisoro. Virunga Lodge to Mount Gahinga Lodge is about two hours' driving, border formalities aside.

One visa can cover both countries: the East Africa Tourist Visa is valid for Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya and allows multiple entries while you stay within the three, but check the official guidance before you apply.

The long day is Mgahinga to Buhoma, five to six hours on winding mountain roads. This route combines road and light aircraft, and exactly which legs are flown is something we confirm with you at the planning stage.

Scheduled light aircraft serve Kihihi airstrip, an hour and a half to two hours by road from Buhoma. The aircraft is typically an 11-seat Cessna Grand Caravan, and the luggage limit is 15 kilograms in soft bags, hand luggage included. By road, Buhoma to Kigali takes about seven hours.

June to September and December to February are the two dry spells, and within them June, July and August stand out as recommended in all three gorilla forests and in both countries.

January and February are recommended in all three as well, and December is a recommended month on the Uganda side, with a few more showers on the Rwandan volcanoes.

Neither country closes its gorilla forests in any month, so what changes is the ground under your boots.

Mgahinga and Bwindi are steep, and after weeks of rain they are slow, slippery work, which is why we rate March, April, May and November as the hardest months there. March, April and November are our lowest-rated months on the Rwandan volcanoes too.

October is the in-between month worth a look: trails are muddier, but permits are easier to secure, the forests are quiet, and flat, overcast light flatters a dark-coated animal.