Safari in Uganda & gorilla tracking

Today is departure day, and you fly to Entebbe with connecting flights along the way.

Upon arrival at the airport, you’ll be greeted by our local guide, who will drive you to your hotel.

Entebbe is a lush and leafy city brimming with charm. It’s beautifully situated on the shores of Africa’s largest lake, Lake Victoria, where you can enjoy sweeping views across the water and often breathtaking sunsets over the lake.

You’ll spend one night in Entebbe.

After breakfast, you head west towards Queen Elizabeth National Park. Uganda’s most popular national park, it contains immense biodiversity with savannah, forest and swamp areas. Naturally, the varied landscape attracts a variety of animals, and the park is a veritable paradise for bird lovers. More than 600 bird species and 95 different mammals inhabit the park, so there is plenty to see.

There is ample opportunity to enjoy the landscape along the way to the national park. You get a good view of the western section of the Rift Valley and Lake George and Lake Edward, the Mountains of the Moon and the Kyambura Gorge. You pass Katwe, a salty crater lake, where you can see how salt is extracted using traditional methods. Along the way, you also stop at the equator and Mbrara, where there is lunch break at Igongo Cultural Centre.

Having arrived at the destination, you check in to your hotel where you will be spending two nights.

It’s an early start today, with a morning safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park. It’s worth getting up early to enjoy the sunrise in the northern part of the park in the Kasenyi area. The area attracts antelopes, and with prey come predators. The early morning hours are the perfect time to watch the big cats in action on their daily hunts. You drive around the savannah and by crater lakes in search of leopards, lions, hyenas, antelopes and other wildlife, before returning to the hotel where breakfast awaits. The hot hours in the middle of the day are spent relaxing by the pool.

In the afternoon, there is a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel, which connects the two lakes, Lake George and Lake Edward. The 42-kilometre long channel attracts a great many animals and offers every opportunity for you to see crocodiles, hippos and other animals cooling off in the refreshing water. Along the banks of the channel, you may be lucky enough to see elephants and buffaloes, and perhaps even European migratory birds, which gather in large flocks.

Man’s closest living relative is the chimpanzee, with very few DNA differences between the two species. They are some of the most intelligent primates, using “tools” as a matter of course and sleeping in nests every night, which they build from branches and leaves. Meeting these relatives is quite simply a unique experience, and today you get to walk among the chimps at Kyambura Gorge. The tour out to the chimpanzees takes place in the company of a trained guide, who knows the chimpanzee group you are going to visit. The monkeys are – by nature and having learnt from experience – extremely timid and fearful, and getting them accustomed to people is a long-winded process. The goal might be the chimpanzees, but remember to enjoy the tour out to them. The landscape in the gorge is breathtaking, and several mammals and birds live here. Having spent up to an hour with the chimpanzees, you make you way out of the gorge and lunch awaits.

In the afternoon, the tour heads south towards Ishasha, which is famous for its tree-climbing lions. Either this afternoon or alternatively tomorrow morning, there is a morning game drive in search of the tree-climbing lions, among other animals. They tend  to climb the trees to get away from flies and to seek shade from the baking sun. It is not common practice for lions to climb trees, but this happens in some national parks in Tanzania as well as in Uganda.

Please note, children must be at least 15 years old to take part in chimpanzee and gorilla tracking.

If you didn’t go on a game drive in Ishasha yesterday, it is, of course, the first thing on the itinerary today. The day today offers a drive to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, stopping for lunch in Kihihi. From here, you head on to Buhoma, where you arrive in the evening.

Today is likely to be the absolute highlight of the tour to Uganda for most people. You are going on a hike in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park in search of mountain gorillas. There are only around 800 wild mountain gorillas left in the world – half of which are found in Uganda, in Bwindi National Park, among other places.

It’s an early start today, and we recommend you start the day with a hearty breakfast before the drive to the national park’s headquarters. You’ll need the energy and to be in reasonably good shape to get the most out of today’s experiences. As there’s no way of knowing which group of mountain gorillas you’ll be visiting, it’s difficult to say how far you will have to walk to get to the “your” group. While you are registered and instructed in how the hike will take place, scouts are sent out to look for the gorillas so that you won’t have to walk all over the forest to find them. Thanks to the scouts, the chances of actually seeing a band of gorillas are really good.

From the rangers’ headquarters, you set out with guides through thick vines of creepers and undergrowth to find the gorillas. The heavily wooded landscape is incredibly dense but traversed by numerous animal trails that facilitate your passage. Remember to enjoy the hike through the forest and look out for other animals and birds.

When you reach your “family”, you spend an hour with the band. Although you are not allowed to approach the gorillas, it is not uncommon for them to come right up close to you – if they do, you just have to sit quite still. They are completely harmless, but they can be big, strong and heavy! It’s amazing sitting right next to the gentle giants and observing and taking pictures of them while listening to them grunt and grumble to each other. Being with these beautiful yet endangered creatures is an extraordinary feeling.

When the visit to the gorillas is over, you walk back through the forest and drive back to the lodge. The rest of the day is yours to digest the experiences and check your camera for good pictures.

Please note, children must be at least 15 years old to take part in chimpanzee and gorilla tracking.

The time has come to say goodbye to Bwindi. The tour heads back east, where today’s stop is at Lake Mburo National Park. Covering an area of just 260 km², the park is Uganda’s second-largest, not to mention a true gem offering stunning scenery and abundant wildlife. The afternoon can be spent relaxing before the unusual safari experience in the evening. You’re going on a night game drive to look for the nocturnal animals that you almost never see during the day.

Lake Mburo National Park is one of the few national parks in Uganda where you can go on a walking safari on foot, and naturally, you’ll be taking advantage of that today. It’s a completely different way of going on safari, as the focus here is on tracks, scents and plants rather than on getting as close to the animals as you can. However, there is a good chance of seeing some of the animals – you often get fairly close to zebras on the walk, for example.

From Lake Mburo, you head back to Entebbe, where you can have a shower and change clothes before eating dinner with the guide. You will be driven to the airport when it’s time to start your journey home.

You will land at your chosen airport in the late morning.