15 DAYS MAGICAL UGANDA SAFARI

This 15-day safari will treat you to sights and sounds of most attractions that are ranked among Uganda’s seven wonders. It starts with a visit to Uganda’s biggest park, Murchison falls N/P, where you stand excellent chances of encountering the Big 5. At Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, you will have a gorilla adventure of a lifetime. On the other hand, Kibale National Park, you will mix and mingle with chimpanzees in the wild. Altogether, you will visit 5 National Parks, each of which has delightful community-empowering initiatives.

On arrival, you will find our driver guide ready to drop you off at your hotel.

You will spend much of the afternoon relaxing at the hotel as you recover from jet lag. This break will enable your body to regain its full vigour ahead of the adventure marathon that will unfold in the next 14 days.

At night, you will be treated to a pleasant dinner by our director. She will give you a comprehensive briefing about how your adventure will unfold.

This day will lead you to Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area, found in the northwest part of the country. Its 3,840 km2 expanse has all you can expect from a multi-award-winning national park. It’s rolling grassy hills are studded with borassus palms and boast of 76 mammal species, including the Big 5 animals, over 450 bird species, and dense tropical forests full of primates like chimpanzees.

On arriving at your lodge later in the evening, a camp fire experience will be organised for you. Dinner will be served at this time too, at the climax of which you will be treated to energetic dances of Northern Uganda, as performed by Mubako, a community of farmers living in the neighbourhood of Murchison.

If you wish to see more wildlife, a morning or evening game drive in the park’s open savannah plains will leave you with tears of joy. The well-maintained network of trails here makes it easy to view animals even in the wet seasons. These range from jackson’s hartebeest, oribi, lions, grey duiker, bushbuck… The dominant species in this northern section of the Murchison is the Uganda kob and Rothschild giraffes, estimated at over 1,200. This is partly because the poaching rate is low. That aside, ranger guides make daily patrols to uproot snares planted in routes used by animals.

Boat cruise

In the afternoon, you will have a sightseeing boat cruise to the mouth of Murchison falls. It is the most fascinating thing to happen to River Nile en route from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea! At this stunning waterfall that overlooks a rift valley escarpment, you will find the only spot where the world’s longest river forces itself through a narrow cleft that is less than 8 metres wide. The result is a thunderous explosion and a plume of foaming white water that showcases the sheer force of nature.

After an optional chimpanzee trekking excursion in Budongo forest or spot fishing excursion on the Nile, you will visit a gift shop in the park. Here, you can purchase handmade crafts made by community members living in villages that surround the park.

Thereafter, you will depart for Hoima town. After this five-hour journey, you will have a break at Hoima Cultural Lodge, a cosy home away from home. During your stay here, you will be treated to authentic Ugandan cultures, cuisines, and dances.

After breakfast, you will leave for Kibale National Park ahead of your chimp trekking excursion the next day. Kibale Forest is a tropical forest with 13 primate species, inclusive of chimpanzees, L’Hoest monkeys, baboons, grey-chipped mangabeys, bush babies, red-tailed monkeys, and black and white colobus.

In the afternoon, you will have a village walk in the community neighbouring the park.

The hiking is considerably easier than for the gorillas. The terrain is mildly undulating and the vegetation is far less dense.

In an effort to avoid interfering with ecosystem, the chimpanzees here are not fed. They look for food on their own in the park. On reaching their location, the first thing you are likely to see is a mother and baby up on the tree, being very quiet.

In the afternoon, you will have a guided nature walk at Bigodi Wetland to see animals and bird species you missed out on seeing during the morning trek. It is a community-owned swamp that is easy to traverse thanks to availability of board walks.

Drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park.

After breakfast, you will have a tour of Uganda’s most beautiful crater lakes and later depart for Queen Elizabeth National Park. On your way, you will make a stopover at the equator. This ecologically diverse park is featured on most safari itineraries because of its mix of beauty and wildlife. This includes Four of the Big Five, except for rhinos, which can be seen at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary in central Uganda.

Perhaps the park’s most rewarding activity is an encounter with tree-climbing lions that doze nonchalantly on the boughs of fig trees in its southern wing, better known as Ishasha sector.

Due to the various volcanic eruptions that exploded in the park over 10,000 years ago, Queen Elizabeth is blessed with stunning crater lakes, several of which are rated among the 10 most beautiful in the world. Their full charm and ocean blue beauty can be appreciated from the air as you are flying into the park. Their strategic location along the main tracks makes them a worthwhile stopover during game drives.

Without doubt, Kyambura Gorge is a favourite part of the park for primate lovers. It is a forested valley at the heart of the park, a tranquil underground world with a habituated chimpanzee family that can be seen any time of the year.

The most exhaustive part of the hike is the entry and exit of the gorge, as they are quite steep. Luckily, the ranger guides are very supportive. They will map out for you safe spots to step on as you descend. At the floor of the gorge, you will find a river with pods of hippos and crocodiles at its shores. To get from one side to the other, there is a wooden side walk bridge that is easy to follow.

In the afternoon, you will visit the Kikorongo Women Community. The initiative was established to provide locals with a sustainable source of income, considering that their farms are usually invaded by destructive elephants. The organisation has over 50 beneficiaries who are always happy to share with tourists traditional craft skills such as basket weaving, pottery, making jewellery out of paper, and carving wood. At the end of your tour, you will be treated to vibrant traditional dances from the Bakonzo tribe.

In the evening, you will have a boat cruise on Kazinga Channel. Expect to see over 250 bird species, including lions, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes and toppi.

With the intent of chancing on tree-climbing lions.

Drive to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park ahead of your gorilla adventure.

DAY 10: GORILLA TREKKING IN BWINDI IMPENETRABLE NATIONAL PARK

In an effort to ensure you have a 95% probability of finding the gorillas, an advanced team of rangers will go into the forest to monitor the direction towards which they are moving. On finding them, he will guide the ranger leading your group on how to easily access the particular family you have been assigned to visit. You will follow them as they move around. You will see so many, both in the trees and on the ground. You will see many males male posturing and pant-hooting—even some farting!

In the afternoon, you will visit Bike for a woman, a charitable organisation set up to support women struggling with poverty, HIV and domestic violence.

After breakfast at Lake Mutanda, you will start a three-hour sightseeing canoe tour of this stunning crater lake, which boasts of small islands, some of which bear dense forests. This freshwater lake was formed over 10,000 years ago as a result of Volcanic eruptions. If it’s a clear day, you will see all eight volcanoes lined up at the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and Congo. Some of these active volcanoes have beautiful crater rims that light up the sky at night with their bright orange glow, like Mountain Nyiragongo.

There is no dull moment during this adventure, as there is so much to see for almost every turn: butterflies, rainbows, and plants with fascinating shapes. You will search for the monkeys using their vocalisations. It is such a splendid experience to hear them drumming the tree trunks. The males never tyre of humming aloud and jumping around as they attempt to get attention of females with the intent of getting mating favours.

On the other hand, the Batwa trail will lead you to historical sites where the Batwa tribe used to live prior to their eviction from the park in 1991. It is a half-day tour that climaxes with a visit of Ngarama, an underground cave that used to host their royal family.

Though this savannah park doesn’t measure up to the hype of Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls National Park, its location makes it an ideal place to break up the otherwise long drive from Mgahinga to Kampala city. It has plenty of adventures for you, including game drives, bushwalks, boat cruises and bird watching. The park’s lack of predators like lions and leopards has played a pivotal role in allowing its population of zebras, hippos, topi, antelopes and giraffes to thrive.

You will start your 14th day of the adventure by having a boat ride on a lake system, after which the park is named, Lake Bunyonyi. Brace yourself for hippos and water-associated birds, notably the localised African finfoot.

Return journey to Entebbe International Airport ahead of your departure from Uganda. Prior to your departure, you will be taken to the craft market to shop for souvenirs. Our director will later host you to a complimentary dinner.