This 8 days’ safari in Uganda will take you to Kibale forest for Chimp tracking and a Bigodi walk, Queen Elizabeth where you will enjoy game viewing, a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel and also Climbing lions in Ishasha, Bwindi Impenetrable forest to trek Mountain Gorillas, and the start will be Jinja for white water rafting.
Highlights
Day 1- Arrival and Pickup
Day 2- Transfer to Jinja for white water rafting
Day 3- Drive to Kibale forest
Day 4-Chimpanzee tracking and transfer to Queen Elizabeth National park
Day 5- Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise on Kazinga Channel
Day 6-Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable national park
Day 7- Gorilla tracking
Day 8- Drive back to Kampala/Departure
Detailed Itinerary
Day 1- Arrival and Pickup
Upon your arrival at Entebbe International airport, our driver guide will welcome you and brief you about the trip before transferring you to the pre-booked hotel.
Day 2- Transfer to Jinja for white water rafting
Have an early morning breakfast at your hotel, thereafter drive to the Eastern part of Uganda-Jinja district. Jinja is East Africa’s adventure city being home to the source of world’s longest river- River Nile.
You will check in at a rafting company and after briefing, you head for water rafting on the Nile. It is an amazing and adventurous time rafting on these falls. Later have your lunch and drive back to Kampala reaching in the evening.
Day 3- Drive to Kibale forest
After breakfast at your lodge, you will set off for Kibale Forest National park. The park is a primate haven with over 13 primate species and unique birds. Drive through the beautiful sceneries and tea plantations.
Arrive in the park and have lunch at the lodge. After lunch go for a walk in the Bigodi wetland in the afternoon. You will meet different people that stay there, who weave baskets, iron smelters also will see different birds like the Great Blue Turaco and more primates like, baboons among others.
Day 4-Chimpanzee tracking and transfer to Queen Elizabeth National park
Have an early breakfast and depart from the lodge for the park headquarters in Kanyanchu with enough bottled drinking water, where you will be briefed about chimpanzee tracking. After briefing, you will embark on tracking through the forest at around 8:00am guided by an armed park ranger.
You will have an amazing time with the chimpanzees in their natural habitat. You will also see other primates like, grey checked Mangabeys, L’Hoests monkeys, butterflies and some of the forest’s unique birds, among others;
After return to the lodge, have lunch and depart for Queen Elizabeth National park.
Day 5- Morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise on Kazinga Channel
Today you will rise to the singing of the birds, you will have breakfast at 6:00 am after which you will immediately start off the game drive, to be able to see the early risers like the lions, solitary buffaloes, kobs, elephants, leopards etc in the Kasenyi plains.
Later drive back to the lodge for lunch and get ready for the afternoon boat cruise on the Kazinga channel which is home to various species like birds such as kingfishers, pink backed pelicans, and animals like crocodiles, elephants, hippos and many more. Basically cruising on the Kazinga is one of the most eye-catching activities in the park. Return back to the lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 6-Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable national park.
Have breakfast and after transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable national park passing through the Ishasha sector which is home to tree climbing lions. The park has a reputation as a world heritage site and housing the largest population of Mountain gorillasand other flora and fauna.
You will do a mini-game drive in Ishasha as you search for the tree climbing lions and other wildlife like topis, elephants and birds. Arrive in Bwindi and check in at your lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 7- Gorilla tracking.
Have breakfast early in the morning at around 6:30 am and transfer to the park headquarters with packed lunch where you will be briefed by the Park rangers as you also get entertained by the local community group. By 8:00 am you will be accompanied by the park rangers as you enter the mist-covered forest to track mountain gorillas.
You must be fit enough
and also consider using potters to carry your luggage just in case you have and
you pay them a small amount of money for labor. Tracking may take between 2 and
7 hours and the moment to you see and start interacting with the gorillas only
one hour is allowed to you.
After tracking, return to the lodge to unwind and later in the evening take a
walk in various communities such as in Batwa and Bakiga community where you
will interact with them and learn a lot about their culture and later return to
the lodge.
Day 8- Drive back to Kampala/Departure
After your breakfast, leave the park and drive to Kampala via Rukungiri-Ntungamo, where you will be in line to see beautiful scenic views found in this area. You will enjoy lunch stop at Igongo cultural centre and thereafter continue to Kampala with another stop at the equator for the equator experiment and photo moment.
Your driver guide will either leave you at your accommodation facility in Kampala or take you to the Airport in Entebbe just in case you are having a flight back home.
