The short answer
What to know first.
Park rules and DMC recovery are separate. UWA and RDB decide what happens to a paid name; Sail does not invent a refund figure or a standing percentage. Journey terms — including that the deposit is not automatically non-refundable — describe the safari, not the permit. The lodge stays locked to the sector. Those who can still walk, walk. Those who cannot, need a redesigned day. Confirm both sets of terms at booking.
At a glance
The planning brief.
Do not walk unwell
Respiratory illness is a conservation problem, not a personal inconvenience. Tell the lodge and Sail as soon as symptoms appear.
Authority terms first
Refund, date move, or a refused walk are park decisions. Ask for the live rule; do not quote a remembered one.
Journey terms are different
Sail's deposit and cancellation schedule are published. They do not automatically govern a gorilla permit.
Rebuild the day
The rest of the party still has a briefing to make. The person who stays behind still needs a morning.
01
Illness is a conservation rule
The live briefing on the gorilla-trekking fitness journal is unambiguous: do not trek when ill; if unwell, report it. Concealing a cough to protect a paid morning is how a conservation product is damaged.
Park staff can refuse a guest at briefing. That refusal is a park decision. The guest carries a passport plus whatever rangers currently require; identification does not create a health exception. Tell Sail overnight if you can. A dawn disclosure still helps the stay-behind plan and the rest of the party. A no-show at the gate is the poorest version of the same fact. A parent who is ill does not transfer their permit onto a younger child.
02
What the authority may do, and what this page will not say
UWA and RDB revise the conditions attached to a paid permit. Those conditions are confirmed when you book, and asked again if the case arises. They are not restated here as figures, percentages, or a promise that Sail can recover the money.
Unpaid UWA holds are gone. That is why the collection-timing journal sits beside this page. A transfer of the name is never assumed after payment. A same-day substitution at the gate is not a plan. Rwanda and Uganda are different channels. Sail asks the authority that was paid.
03
What Sail can rebuild
Those who are well and still holding their own paid names go to briefing from the lodge that already matches the permit sector. We do not move the party to a more convenient gate because one person is staying behind.
The person who cannot walk needs a designed morning: lodge-based rest, a clinician if indicated, a later transfer that does not force a sick guest onto a long road. A late inbound is a no-show of a different kind. The permit does not know about the airline. A later briefing is usually not a conversation the park will have.
04
Insurance and journey terms
Travel insurance is the guest's instrument for a lapsed permit. Sail will supply the documents we hold. We will not describe a park rule as a Sail guarantee.
If the whole safari is being unwound, journey cancellation follows the published booking page: 50 per cent within seven days of written acceptance, balance 60 days before departure, full payment if confirmed within 60 days, deposit not automatically non-refundable. Those lines are still not the permit.
05
Design the file so the morning can survive one name
Three nights in Bwindi give the party a spare forest day if the first morning is lost and a second permit can still be bought — a new availability question, paid again, never assumed. Fitness disclosure before payment belongs on the first brief.
If both adults intended to trek, the stay-behind plan has to be staffed by agreement with the lodge, not invented at dawn.
Questions travellers ask
Useful answers, before you decide.
If I am unwell, should I still trek?
No. Gorillas are vulnerable to human respiratory disease. Report symptoms rather than concealing them. Permit terms and park decisions govern whether a trek can proceed.
Will the permit be refunded?
That is an authority question, confirmed at booking and again if the case arises. This page does not publish a refund figure or percentage. Journey terms are not the park's terms.
What happens to the rest of the party?
Those who are well and eligible still walk on their own paid names, from the lodge that already matches the sector. Sail rebuilds the stay-behind morning for the person who cannot go.
Does the journey deposit cover a missed gorilla morning?
No. The deposit confirms the Sail journey and is not automatically non-refundable. A gorilla permit is an authority product with its own rules.