Sandfieldtravel Ltd

I just returned from an incredibly moving 10 day trip to see the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda, and I found so much more than gorillas! The people, the land, the food and yes, the majestic endangered Mountain Gorillas. I decided to go with Sandfield Travel because the owner, Wycliffe, is a native of Uganda and he supports business owned by the people of Uganda. After communicating my main goals to Wycliffe, I just let him do his thing and he did it beautifully.

We were greeted, at 4:00 am, by our bright-eyed guide Bosco. Not having traveled much in recent years I was somewhat nervous and Bosco instantly put me at ease. He had our plan and he executed it gracefully even when I was confused. Our accommodations were great, services were wonderful and my only complaint is that they fed us way too much good food!

Wycliffe managed to slide a chimpanzee habitation experience into our agenda and wow, I'm glad he did. After 4 hours with the chimps, I felt complete in my experience with them. It allowed for witnessing many aspects of their lives and since much of their time can be spent in the trees I was glad to have more time so that I got to hang with them on the ground too.

The next day we were off to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see the gorillas. We had 2 days of trekking and one day of habitation. The trekking experience allowed us to spend about one hour with the gorilla family once we found them. One hour may not seem like much but the experience feels like such a gift that much to my surprise I was content to withdraw at the end of the experience. We trekked 2 different families in 2 different locations and each experience was so unique that I couldn't say one was better. Much to my surprise the gorillas did not seem bothered by us at all. They seemed relaxed and did what they do much of the day..... ate, groomed, grunted & the babies were hysterical in their play. We witnessed the strength of the family bond when we observed an old Silverback (no longer the dominant male) sitting a distance away from the group with a younger male who had challenged the dominant Silverback the day before and was injured. To witness such a level of tenderness in these massive creatures was touching and reminded me how much we can learn when we open our awareness to the totality of nature. So often we only focus on the excitement of the chase or the kill but those same creatures can demonstrate incredible levels of love, bonding and tenderness.

Our final experience was that of "habitation" in which you actually go with the trackers to find the gorillas and once you find them you are with them for 4 hours. The actual tracking gave me tremendous respect for what these trackers do on a daily basis! Habitation occurs with a group of gorillas they are preparing to be trekked.....so, they want to expose the group to a variety of people. This gorilla family had 11 babies and we were blessed to see 5 of those babies. Probably my favorite moment was when the massive Silverback got tired of the baby playing on him & he took its tiny little arm into his giant mouth and gently bit down to let the little guy know he'd had enough. As with most parental boundaries, it worked for about 5 minutes! Hopefully, I can post that video.

Well, I guess it's obvious that this was my trip of a lifetime and I thank Sandfield Travel for making it happen! Thank you Wycliffe, Bosco & Vincent.....you guys ROCK! One of the greatest gifts of this trip was getting to know Bosco and our open conversations about his country & life in general.

I hope that this review encourages you to take the leap to visit all that Uganda has to offer and knowing that your money is going to support the continuation of mountain gorilla protection and the people of Uganda.

Fantastic service, experienced and friendly staff.