8 DAYS CLASSIC UGANDA’S WILDLIFE AND PRIMATES

You will depart Kampala after breakfast and head westwards to Fort Portal town. The drive will take about 4 -5 hours. You will have lunch in Fort Portal and continue to Kibale where you will go for either a community walk or visit the beautiful Crater lakes region for a spectacular view. Arrive at the lodge check in and you can opt for a walk. Or relax at the lodge

After breakfast you will report at the Kanyanchu Tourist Centre at 08.00 am for a briefing before tracking the chimpanzees. The park is only accessible on foot and the walk will provide you with the opportunity to get close to nature, butterflies, and birds and to also see a variety of other primates and insects. You will be led into the forest by a ranger guide to one of the chimpanzee communities in the park. You are only allowed one hour with chimps and the whole trek can take about 3-6hours. You will return to the lodge for lunch and in the afternoon go for a nature walk in the Bigodi Wetland to see a variety of birds, and monkey species. You will have dinner and overnight at your lodge.

Today we drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains and cross the equator. After visiting and checking in at your lodge, we go on a discovery tour in the park. Here you will experience tropical mixed forests, savannah and swamps and crater lakes. In between there are topis, buffalo, elephants, giant forest pigs, lions and Uganda Kobs, an antelope species that only occurs in Uganda. Later in the afternoon do a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel.

Wake up, have breakfast for an ultimate safari experience driving in the park with a highest biodiversity of any protected area in East Africa. The tour guide will pick you from the lodge and you start the early morning game drive exploring the park in the Kasenyi plains searching for predators like lions, leopards and grazers like Kobs, waterbucks among others. Return to the lodge for lunch and the post processing and later in the afternoon tour the crater lakes about 27kms for landscape photography and sundowner. We shall return to the lodge later in the evening.

After breakfast, you will to Ishasha sector. Ishasha is popular for tree climbing lions and chances of seeing them climbing depends on your luck of the day. Ishasha has other animals like Buffaloes, Elephants, Antelopes and many others. After the tour and search for the tree climbing lions, we shall transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable national park, about 62km south of Ishasha. Arrive at the lodge in the evening, have dinner and overnight.

After an early morning breakfast, you will drive to the park headquarters where you will be briefed by the park rangers about what to do and not to do while in the park and be divided in groups of 8. After will be led into the forest to start off gorilla trekking these gentle giants as directed by the rangers.
You will have an amazing one hour experience watching the Mountain gorillas feed, play around and also do their day to day activities. This activity can take 2 hours or even up to 8 hours since its dependent on the location and movement of the gorillas. Also expect to walk long distances in muddy and steep conditions- this will require you to have a walking stick. So you have to plan according to the equipment you will use if possible you can get a porter to help you carry the equipment. After tracking return to the lodge and in the evening you visit the communities (Optional activity).

This day we drive to Africa’s second deepest lake-Lake Bunyonyi. The name translated, means “place of many small birds” – and indeed, more than 200 bird species have been registered here like Weavers, Pelicans, Ibises, and Kingfishers. Upon arrival, check in at your lodge and the get a boat to a small island in the middle of a lake- Punishment island, which is one of the 29 islands on this lake. In the evening enjoy your time doing bird watching, walking, browsing and also go to get the sunset photos of the lake.

Wake up early in the morning have breakfast and checkout of the accommodation and hit the road back to Entebbe for your exit flight. You will stop at the equator for a photo moment and lunch will be at Igongo cultural centre. Arrive in Kampala late evening.