12 Days Uganda Safari

This tour begins on arrival at Entebbe city, Uganda’s main point of entry located on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. Entebbe offers plenty of serene lakeside accommodation to relax from jet lag. Your tour guide will meet you and transfer you to the hotel and also give you information concerning the logistics of the tour and also answer all questions you may have.

Leave Entebbe early in the morning after breakfast and the journey to Bwindi in south western Uganda 512 km or roughly 9 hour-drive. The drive time usually depends on the road traffic so en route stopovers will be made where necessary to stretch and stay comfortable. The Equator monument at Kayabwe is a must for photo-shoots and snacks and lunch at Igongo restaurant in Biharwe, Mbarara city. From there, the final leg of the journey winds through the Kigezi highlands aka the Switzerland of Africa to the lodge on the edge of Bwindi impenetrable forest. Ensure to go to bed early and prepare your packing list and items that you will need for gorilla trekking such as clothing, phones and camera, insect repellant, your passport, snacks and drinking water.

You will be at the visitor center before 7 am in the morning to attend briefing on gorilla trekking rules. The UWA guides will assess your fitness level and allocate you to the gorilla family that suits your hiking abilities. The time it takes to search and locate the great apes can range from 1 to 5 hours depending on the location and the nature of terrain can be challenging. We recommend that you hire a porter who will assist you throughout the trek. Once located, the reward of spending one with the gorillas as you watch their daily lives such as feeding and grooming each other is memorable and a once in a lifetime wildlife experience.

Hike back to the lodge for lunch and relaxation. In the late afternoon between 3-5pm go for a community walk to explore the local ways of the people including the Batwa pygmies. This walk is done at your own pace and you have control of how much of the walking you like to do. We recommend that you bring some extra cash to donate or support the livelihood projects including handicrafts, raw honey, and fresh fruits etc. Overnight stay at the lodge

Golden monkey trekking is done in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, which is part of the Virunga massif, where you will see the scenic vistas of the volcanoes. Your accommodation will be selected in location in between Bwindi and Mgahinga allowing you to take excursions to both parks. Golden monkey trekking can be as rewarding as gorilla trekking. Golden monkeys spend most of their time in bamboo vegetation between 1,800-3,300 meters so the hike is straight forward and less strenuous. You will spend 1 hour with the primates, which are truly fascinating to watch. Their playful behavior often seen swinging swiftly through the trees and the vibrant golden-orange fur make them a joy to observe for a keen photographer. From the trek, you will drive back to the lodge for lunch and relaxation.

Optional Batwa trail while you are still in Mgahinga and fit enough to do another hike, go for it. Batwa trail is a gentle 2-4 hour hike accompanied by the Batwa pygmies as they share and showcase their ancient ways of living including the pre-historic fire making. Batwa people were traditionally forest dwellers. They were relocated from the forest in 1991 following the new gorilla conservation law. Your participation helps to support them with a sustainable livelihood. By early evening you will be back to the lodge for diner and overnight stay.

The transfer journey from Bwindi to Queen Elizabeth national park typically takes around 4 to 6 hours. The landscape is impressive as you transition from tropical forest highlands into the Great Rift Valley floor. You will drive through You’ll enter Queen Elizabeth national park via Ishasha wilderness area for a chance to spot the tree climbing lions and then proceed to northern Kasenyi plains. One of the best places in Uganda to see wildlife, Queen Elizabeth national park is home to 96 mammal species and over 600 species of birds. However, the park lacks zebras, giraffes, and impalas.

Explore the Kasenyi plains on a morning game drive in search of elephants, buffaloes, waterbucks, and Uganda kobs and also the predators, including leopards, lions and hyenas that stealthily stalk them for prey. Return to the lodge for a refreshing meal perfect for recharging for the afternoon boat cruise on Kazinga channel. The natural channel connecting Lake Edward and Lake George hosts over 30,000 hippos as well as Nile crocodiles, and a plethora of water birds. Kazinga channel has the Big Five in its own right and these include African fish eagle, Nile crocodile, hippo, elephant and buffalo. After diner, you can take advantage of a night game drive.

The 2-hour drive to Kibale takes you along the Katwe explosion volcanic crater field, where you can see numerous steep sided crater-filled lakes. Make a stopover at the equator monument at kikorongo for photo-shoots and continue to Kibale national park. Covering 776 sq. km mainly of primary semi deciduous tropical forest, the protected area also includes swamps such as Bigodi and Kihingami wetland and savanna corridor that links it to Queen Elizabeth national park. As such, Kibale has one of the highest concentrations of 13 primate species, including over 1,400 chimpanzees as well as black and white colobus monkeys, red colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, L’hoes monkeys, olive baboons, red tailed monkeys, Ugandan mangabeys, velvet monkeys, and Demidoff’s bush babies. There 370 species of birds of which six endemic to the Albertine rift valley such as the green breasted pita.

You will explore Kibale forest on foot in search of chimpanzees. Trekking begins at Kanyanchu visitor center and you must report there on time to meet the rangers and go through the briefing. There are two options to go about the Kibale primate walk. You can choose the morning chimp trek session which starts at 7am if you want to see chimps at their most active hour. As they search for food, you might find them hunting or watch how they use tools such as sticks and stones. Chimps are man’s closest relative sharing 98% DNA. The afternoon trekking session starts at 2pm and offers an opportunity of encountering chimps at ground level when they are resting.

Depending on the arrangement of your trek, the swamp walk in Bigodi can be done either in the afternoon or morning. Bigodi wetland sanctuary covers 4 sq. km on the edge of Kibale forest. It is managed by the Kibale Association for Rural Development. Your visit supports the local communities who have managed to conserve the wetland that hosts 8 of the 13 primates and over 200 species of birds. Bigodi swamp walk is such a rewarding nature sight to behold for keen birders. Overnight stay at your lodge

Have breakfast and leave Kibale early morning for 6-hour drive to Murchison falls national park. The journey offers impressive scenery along the rift valley, where you can view Lake Albert, Butiaba escarpment, and the Congo Blue Mountains on a clear day. The park sits at the end of the Albertine rift valley, where the River Nile tumbles into a narrow gorge and plunges over a 40-meter cliff with a thunderous roar into the devil’s cauldron creating the world’s powerful waterfall. There’s a permanent rainbow due to mist and light. The Nile bisects the park into two sectors: the north is associated with borassous palm dotted savanna grasslands where the park’s 77 mammal species dwell including elephants, 50% of Africa’s Nubian giraffes, buffaloes, and a variety of antelopes such as oribis, Jackson’s hartebeests, Uganda kobs, waterbucks, and topis. These herbivores sustain predators such as lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas. The southern sector includes Budongo forest, which is home to chimps among other primates like Patas monkeys. The south is also where the waterfall’s viewing point is found. Overnight stay at the lodge in the northern sector for easy access to game drive safaris and boat cruise. Murchison falls is also a bird watcher’s paradise with over 451 species including the shoebill stork, which you can search for with a boat trip to the Albert-Nile delta swamp.

Rise early before dawn to explore the various tracks such as Pakuba, Victoria and Albert Nile delta swamp tracks on a morning game drive and search for mammal species. In the afternoon at 2pm, take a boat cruise for a 17 km roundtrip along the Victoria Nile, where you can view elephants, buffaloes, and giraffes that come for water and of course hippos. There are also reptiles like Nile crocodiles, monitor lizards seen basking in the sun. Birding on the boat is also rewarding for water species such as African fish eagles, kingfishers, Egyptian goose, herons, and harmerkops. The boat will take you up to 10 meters from the bottom of the falls, where you can marvel at nature’s mighty power.

You will have another early morning game drive in the northern sector and then cross the new Nile Bridge to the south and visit the top of the falls where the view of Murchison falls is most spectacular. Proceed to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, Uganda’s only home of rhinos. Seeing the rhinos is guaranteed since there are over 50 southern white rhinos and are closely monitored by UWA and Rhino Fund Uganda rangers. Rhino trekking on foot lasts for 1-2 hours and allows you to view them up close. From Ziwa you proceed to Kampala capital city for overnight stay.

On the final day, you will transfer to Entebbe town on time for your departure flight. If your flight is there in the night, you can explore some of the attractions in Entebbe including Uganda Wildlife Education Center formerly Entebbe zoo or the national Botanical gardens. Finally, your guide will drop you at the airport.