Golden Monkey Trekking in Gahinga National Park

The golden monkey experience started very much the same way as our gorilla trekking experience. We walked from our lodge to the Mount Gahinga National Park headquarters and enjoyed a cultural show from the local village, as well as a briefing from the rangers. 

The groups for golden monkey trekking are quite a bit larger than groups for gorilla trekking. While you are likely to only have 8 or so travelers in a gorilla group, we had well over a dozen people in our golden monkey group (and I saw similar numbers of travelers on the golden monkey treks in Rwanda).

Once we had our briefing, we set out on the trail. The golden monkey experience, like the gorilla experience, is entirely dependent on where the golden monkeys happen to be that day. You may only be hiking for an hour or two, or you could be hiking for 8+ hours. 

The entire hike was uphill, sometimes through open, grassy fields

And sometimes through thick forest areas.

About 3 hours into our hike, the skies opened up and the rain came in fast and hard. We spent the next 45 minutes or so working our way uphill, through a muddy forest, in a downpour (it was enough rain that I had water pooled inside my backpack). My hands were pruny, my body was cold, and I was wishing I had worn waterproof pants in addition to my rain jacket.

Suddenly, just shy of 4 hours into our trek, we came upon the trackers - we had found the golden monkeys! The only problem was that it was still pouring rain - and when it is pouring rain, the monkey hide up in the canopy of the trees. Since we would only get an hour to be with the monkeys once we made initial contact, the guide suggested that we stay back and not make contact with the monkeys until the rain had stopped.  We stood, waiting in the downpour for another 15 minutes or so.

Finally, the rains let up! We continued to wait for the monkeys to make their way back down to the forest floor. After a few minutes, the first scouts made their way down to lower branches of the surrounding trees. We were all snapping pictures, hoping to catch a good shot in case this would be as close as they would come.

Then, all of a sudden, dozens of monkeys started climbing down from the trees. The next hour was a crazy frenzy of monkeys the likes of which the guides had never experienced before! They were scurrying around in the bamboo, searching for food, fighting over food and feasting. 

From the moment they came down, our group was on the move! The monkeys kept making their way from one bamboo grove to the next, and we followed wherever they went! We spent the hour chasing them around and enjoying extremely close encounters with these energetic, hilarious little creatures (one even jumped out of a tree right onto me!!).  

When our hour was up, we made our way back to where we had left our hiking sticks and backpacks, and we began our journey down the mountain. The journey down was a little easier and quicker, thanks to the sunshine and lightened spirits (and the sense of urgency to finish our trek before the looming rain clouds rolled back in) - and I met a little friend on the way down!

The overall experience ended up taking just over 6 and a half hours.

(For easier golden monkey experiences, I suggest visiting them in Rwanda, where they tend to stay closer to the farmlands in hopes of stealing crops!)