What activities do you do in Budongo Forest? Budongo forest is a tropical forest in north western Uganda located in Hoima and Kikuube district on the way to Murchison falls national park and the edge of lake albert hence it is considered to be part of Murchison Falls National Park. The forest is about 3 to 4 hours from Kampala and you can get to it by road mostly. Or you can fly to Murchison falls national park and then drive 30 to 45 mins to the forest.
Budongo forest covers about 793 km² (306 sq mi) of area ground. The forest altitudes range from 700-1,100 meters. This biodiverse forest that has over 600 tree species is home to about 200 animals’ species, 400 bird species, 300 butterfly species, 9 primate species including chimpanzees of course with the rare forest elephants.
Most people visit the forest for chimpanzee trekking. Budongo forest is home to over 600 chimpanzees’ individuals with half of that number habituated for trekking purposes. The chimpanzees trekking experience in the forest is done on the regular in the forest though not every day. The experience will usually start from you place of stay. You wake up quite early have breakfast and then transfer to the forest where you will have a briefing and then after enter the forest for the chimpanzee trekking experience. The experience is quite similar to other chimpanzee trekking experience; you enter the forest trek for a couple of hours until you get to chimpanzees and spend an hour with the chimpanzees.
After the hour with the chimpanzees, you will then exit the forest and in some cases, people will continue on their walk in the forest to experience it more and see the trees, birds and butterflies among other things.
The rules of chimpanzee trekking stay the same even in this forest, which include but not limited to keeping a 7–10-meter distance between you and the chimpanzees, not using flash photography, not touching or feeding the chimpanzees, not doing anything that will destroy the forest or harm the chimpanzees, not smoking, coughing, or sneezing Infront of the chimpanzees, not irritating the chimpanzees in any way among other things.
Besides the chimpanzees you can also see numerous other primates and do other activities like the guided forest walks on the nature trails, bird watching, butterfly watching and spotting among other things.
The prices for touring the budongo forest and chimpanzees vary depending on the season, so before you go into the forest consult with your tour operator about the prices.
However, the Bugondo forest is protected by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and it was established as a reserve in 1932. However, since then the forest has suffered deforestation from human activities like land encroachment, land fragmentation, animal poaching among other things.
The forest is really a very important part of the ecosystem and it helps to manage the weather in the region. It’s also a source of herbs – medicinal herbs for the community, hence its held in very high regard by the community.
