Chimps, Gorillas, Game Parks and Waterfalls

Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport. Meet your safari guide and driver, who will warmly welcome you and transfer you to Kampala. Your guide will brief you about your safari. You are advised to have money changed this day.

Day 2: Kampala – Murchison Falls National Park. You will be picked from your hotel in Kampala and drive via Bombo and Masindi town to Murchison falls, National Park. Visit Ziwa Rhino sanctuary for Rhino trekking. Have lunch proceeding to Murchison falls National Park through Kichumbanyobo gates.

Day 3: Game Drive/Launch Cruise. Go for an early morning game drive on the Northern Bank of the Murchison Falls National Park. You may view animals that are unique to the African Savannah like giraffe, elephant, antelope, lion, and the Uganda Kob. Return to the lodge for mid-morning breakfast, as you relax to wait for lunch. After lunch, you will go for a launch cruise on the Nile River. The cruise takes you to the Bottom of the roaring falls, where you will see giant crocodiles, schools of hippos, buffaloes, elephants, and a variety of water birds like herons, ducks, cormorants, bee-eaters, skimmers, kingfishers, fish eagles, and the rare shoebill. Next, you will take a drive to the “Top of the falls” for a breathtaking sight of the raging Nile as it forces its way through a rocky gap barely six meters wide. This is the point where the Nile River detonates through a narrow gorge and cascades down to become a placid river. Return to the lodge.

Day 4: Murchison Falls NP to Kibale NP. After an early breakfast, you will depart for Kibale National Park. You will drive via the Albertine Escarpment of the western Rift valley on the Masindi-Hoima-Fort portal road. This will be a long drive south via Hoima to Fort Portal, passing though verdant countryside and traditional homesteads and farms. Fort Portal rests in the shadow of the legendary “Mountains of the Moon.”

Day 5: Chimpanzee Trekking/Bigodi Walk. A relatively early morning start, to report to the ranger station in Kibale National Park at 08.00 am to track habituated chimps – these delightful apes, more closely related to humans than to any other living creature, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees. The incredibly diverse forest is home to over 13 species, including the red Colobus monkey, the rare L’Hoest, blue monkey, grey mangabey, pottos, black-faced vervet monkeys, baboons, and also bush babies. In addition, a network of shady forest trails provides much to delight botanists and butterfly lovers, while birders are in for a treat with 335 species recorded, including the endemic Prirogrine’s ground thrush. In addition, the elusive forest elephant, smaller and hairier than its savannah counterpart, moves seasonally into the developed part of the park. At the same time, other terrestrial mammals include buffalo, giant forest hogs, and a half dozen antelope species. After lunch, you will go for a guided walk in Bigodi Swamp to look for different bird species like the Shining Blue Kingfisher, Blue Throated Roller, and other rare species and also find the fruiting trees, which attract Narina Trogon, Pied Hornbill, Yellow Spotted, Hairy Breasted and Yellow-Billed Barbets.

Day 6: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, afternoon game drive. We will depart for Queen Elizabeth National Park and enter the Northern crater Area. With beautiful lakes and rich grasslands set deep in the crater valley, this is truly the most breathtaking scenery in the park. Queen Elizabeth is host to a large variety and volume of wildlife. After check-in, take an afternoon game drive with the opportunity to view a range of nature.

Day 7: Game drive/Launch cruise. Early morning wake up for the morning game drive to catch up with early risers and predators returning to their hideouts. During the game drive, you will be likely to meet grazing hippos, elephants, lions, spotted hyenas, bushbucks, waterbucks, stripped jackals, leopards, and of course, several warthogs. Return to the lodge for lunch and relax by the side of the swimming pool. In the afternoon, a boat trip along the Kazinga Channel allows you to view wildlife up close: hippo’s huff and spray mere feet away from the boat, buffalo linger in the shallows. The shores of the channel are also home to an array of birds, including pink-backed pelicans, pied and malachite kingfishers, saddle-billed stork, and many others. After this beautiful afternoon, a slow drive back to the lodge.

Day 8: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. We will then leave for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. We will drive through the southern sector of Queen Elizabeth called Ishasha. Here we will take lunch by the Ishasha River and try to find the famed Ishasha tree-climbing lions before continuing to Bwindi, home to the few remaining mountain gorillas. Birdlife and primate life in Bwindi are superb, and there is an incredible variety of flora. Bwindi is the Bird watcher’s haven! It holds 348 species and supports 24 of 26 Albertine Rift Endemics that occur in Uganda; and seven red data book species. Once continuous with the forests of the Virunga Volcanoes (Diane Fossey’s stomping ground), Bwindi is now an ecological island, surrounded by cultivation on the rich volcanic soils.

Day 9: Gorilla trekking. After an early breakfast and briefing from the guides, set off for the mountains gorilla tracking inside the Bwindi forest. You need to carry drinking water, a rain jacket, and jungle boots, while the rangers will provide you with a walking stick. Gorilla tracking is one of the unique activities you will enjoy while photographing and observing the gorillas. After tracking, come back to the lodge and relax.

Day 10: Morning transfer to Bunyonyi Lake. After breakfast, we will depart to Lake Bunyonyi. At 6500 feet deep, this large and erratically shaped lake is the deepest in Uganda and follows the hilly terrain contours that separate the towns of Kabale and Kisoro. It is a very scenic spot, dotted with small islands and ringed by steeped terraced hills. Bunyonyi means “place of little birds,” it is perfect for water birds and a canoe ride on the perfectly calm waters.

Day 11: Return to Kampala, city tour. After breakfast, we will depart for Kampala. First, a stopover is made at the Equator for photography. Later, you will have a chance to visit the Ugandan museum, craft market, etc.

Day 12: Transfer to Jinja. A day we will spend rafting down the White Nile. Night at Jinja camp.

Day 13: Free day in Jinja and Nile River Camp to go on ATV adventure, horseback ride, bungee jump, relax, swim.

Day 14: Transfer to Kampala – flight home.