Month: June 2025

Bigodi community walk kibale National Park

 The Bigodi community walk parades an experience of deep immersion into breathtaking nature. The pathways through the moist, riverine, and evergreen vegetation offer visitors the opportunity to marvel at some of the most exciting creatures there are in Uganda. Bigodi Community is located in the Bigodi wetland on the outskirts of Kibale National Park.

Experience of the Bigodi community walk.

The Bigodi community walk presents the chance to indulge in the swamp walks that in an exceptional way allow the visitor to appreciate the natural endowments of Uganda. Visitors get to observe the various types of wetland vegetation that are good for photography and videography since they form a visually appealing scenery.

The community walk helps visitors participate in empowering local communities. Various visits are launched to the homesteads and schools in the community to help empower and inspire them. This is done through several humanitarian work that helps boost the lives of the locals.

While on the walk, guests can spot several primates especially the chimpanzees, black and white colobus monkeys, and the blue monkeys that enjoy wandering in the nearby forests.

Travelers also have the golden opportunity to learn about the cultures and traditions of the local people. The Bakonzo who inhabit the villages around have such an exciting culture.

They are such a hospitable society that always welcomes visitors and showcases their unique traditional dances as a form of entertainment to the visitors in their land. Such exciting moments make the trip worthwhile.

How the community walk is conducted and how much it costs.

The Bigodi community walk is conducted under the full-time guidance of a professional tourist guide. The guide is well-versed with information about most creatures in the area and other aspects of the community.

They gladly share information with the visitors ensuring that they leave the community informed and happy with their experiences.

Under the company of the guide, visitors follow the paths in the villages, and conduct visits to the local primary school, and churches on the traditional homesteads.

Through these visits, guests get to learn about the way of life of the locals and enjoy the folklore as told by the elders in society. The elders are entrusted with the activity of storytelling due to the experience they’ve gathered over the years and the fact that they are eyewitnesses of some past historic events they talk about makes it even more rewarding.

Other activities to do in Bigodi.

Bird watching. Visitors can bypass the Bigodi sanctuary which is a concentration for the East African endemic bird species. Guests therefore have the opportunity to stare at beautiful birds especially shoebills, Black and white casqued hornbills, black bee eaters, cinnamons, cuckooshrike, egrets, and African jacanas.

Local food experiences. Visitors to the community get the golden opportunity to test the local cuisine. They have a taste of yams, matooke, millet, and some local brew made from sorghum for those who wish.

Crater lake viewing. The community is close to the breathtaking crater lakes of Ndali and Kassenda. They are endowed with beautiful scenery which makes the place a nice one to be at, admire nature in its purity, and escape the noise of the cities.

How to get to the Bigodi community.

The Bigodi community can be accessed by road. Visitors undertake the travel to the community in comfortable safari vehicles that can make it through several terrain types.

Visitors drive along the Kampala – Mubende – Fortportal highway. The drive to the community takes about 4 hours and 53 minutes covering the distance of approximately 276 kilometers.

Bigodi Community is approximately 30 kilometers from Fort Portal City and about 6 kilometers from Kibale Forest National Park.

Best time to visit.

Guests willing to participate in the Bigodi community walks need to note that the community can be accessed at any time of the year.

However, it is equally important to note that the dry seasons offer amazingly incredible experiences and come off as the best seasons in which one can indulge in community walks.

The dry seasons usually occur from June to September making up the long dry season. Conversely, the short dry season is always on from December, and January up to February.

Batwa cultural experience.

The Batwa cultural experience takes place along the foothills of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Mgahinga National Park, the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is known for the mountain gorilla species, the conservation area is said to have survived over time from the ice age era, it is subdivided into four sectors the Nkuringo, Buhoma, Rushaga and Ruhija, each of these has got habituated gorilla families, while the Mgahinga national park is renowned for golden monkeys and one gorilla group the park extends as part of the great Virunga volcanic mountain region. The Batwa are a special group of people also known as keepers of the forest.

They lived in the forest amicably together with other creatures until they were evicted due to conservation purposes, these have continued living in the surrounding communities, they are the last group of remaining short-structured people in Uganda, they hunted and gathered from the forest however of present they practice a bit of subsistence farming, they engage in community programs and joined the quo of civilization. These have however done a good job of passing their cultures onto the new generations.

Batwa cultural experience will give you a deep understanding of how these locals enjoyed the forest, they will show it to you through their eyes, dance to their traditional music, and make fire without using modern-day matches or lighters, they will also teach you the medicinal purposes of plants and what they treat, guests are allowed to participate too if interested. It is an engaging activity to consider on a visit to Bwindi impenetrable national park or Mgahinga National Park, there are chances of walking through the forest as well and meeting a few primate species, for example, the black and white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, and whispers from forest birds. A visit to the Batwa will require you to make payments for support which normally costs about $30 per person, it is done in the afternoon hours from 3:00 pm East African time.

Besides the Batwa cultural community, there are other things to do while in the region for example the gorilla trekking from the park headquarters you will be briefed about how to conduct yourself while with the primate species, and the hike through the forest is a tedious one however so rewarding by the end of the day, tracking gorillas takes 2-8 hours depending on how far the mountain gorillas have moved, it sometimes takes entirely the whole day or even not seeing them, however, in such incidents, guests are given a chance to track the following day. Birding in the Bwindi impenetrable national park, it is a rewarding point for birders into the ecosystem, there are over 300 species of birds that have been recorded here to date, some of these are endemics to the region for example the African green broad bill.

There is available accommodation in and around the conservation areas ranging from the best budget to Luxury Examples of facilities include Buhoma lodge, Chameleon Hill Lodge, Bakiga Lodge, and Ichumbi gorilla lodge, to mention few.