Mount Gahinga is located in Mgahinga national park in Uganda and Volcanoes national park in Rwanda standing at an elevation of 3,474 meters above sea level. The mountain is within Rwanda and Ugandan border in between Mount Sabinyo and Mount Muhabura.
The word Gahinga is derived from a local word to mean “piles of stones” this was so because of the many piles of stones cleared from the local’s farmlands at the foot of the mountain. The slopes of the mountain have got several species of primates like golden monkeys, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys and Olive baboons among the rest.
Mount Gahinga is also home to some of the birds found in the Virunga massif area examples of birds are; Olive woodpeckers, Ruwenzori batis, Ruwenzori night jar, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Dusky crimson wing, grey capped warbler, pin-tailed whydah, double collared sunbird, white naked raven, and firefinch stone chat to mention a few.
The peak of mount Gahinga contains a swampy caldera at its top which is about 180 meters wide, the mountain is characterized with afro-montane forests, bamboo forests and several vegetation zones.
The mountain slopes of mountain slopes of Gahinga also harbor the endangered mountain gorillas with Nyakagezi group that can be trekked from the Ugandan mount Mgahinga national park, the cost of trekking gorillas is only $600 in Uganda and $1500 in Rwanda.
When visiting mount Gahinga never forget to visit the ancient forest people known as pygmies the hunter-gathering tribe that lived in the rainforests for a very long time depending on it for shade, food, and medicine. They have a very unique culture and different myths to tell about the forests you can as well visit a traditional healer and see how they make use of different plants for healing lots of diseases.
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