8 Days Uganda Safari – Wildlife, Gorillas, Chimps & Shoebill

On arrival, you will be met and transferred to your hotel by your safari guide after clearance. Depending on your arrival schedule, you will have a canoe ride on the Lake Victoria mashes to track the prehistoric shoebill bird (popular with our visitors).

Alternatively, you can do birding in the Botanical Gardens, visit the zoo and Ngamba Chimp Island (home to 52 orphaned and rescued chimpanzees), go on market walks, shop, or deal with banking issues.

Accommodation & meals:

• Papyrus Guesthouse Entebbe
• 2Friends Beach Hotel Entebbe
• Protea Hotel

Bed and Breakfast

After a hefty early breakfast, embark on a scenic road trip to Western Uganda across rolling hills, business centres, vast cultivated plains, banana plantations, and cattle farms. You will have a brief stopover at Mpambire to watch the making of traditional and local artifacts, and another stopover at the equator for photography. You’ll continue to Lake Mburo National Park, check in at your reserved lodge and enjoy a delicious lunch.

After a hearty lunch at the lodge, you will embark on an exciting game drive to meet resident favourites like buffalos, impalas, zebras, elands, warthogs, and bushbucks. A one-hour boat safari allows you to catch sight of crocodiles, hippos, and plenty of water birds. After your day’s activities, you will retire to the lodge for dinner and a great African night.

Accommodation & meals:

• Luxury: Mihingo Lodge
• Mid-range: Rwakobo Rock/Lake Mburo Safari Lodge
• Budget: Eagles Nest Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is the richest rainforest in Uganda, with the highest biodiversity rating. The park is one of the few large expanses of forests in East Africa where lowland and montane communities emerge. The name, “Impenetrable,” is derived from the dense ground cover of herbs, vines, and shrubs, with only a few trees the valley bottoms contain.

Bwindi Forest is home to half of the world’s population of endangered mountain gorillas. Several endangered species of birds within their limited ranges also find home here.

Enjoy an early morning game drive and then continue westwards across rolling hills, tea plantations, and tropical rainforest to the Virunga Volcano’s majestic chain. A scenic drive leads you to Mbarara, Kabale, and Kisoro towns before driving through the 32-km countryside dirt road to Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge. It sits on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, and offers breath-taking views of the rugged Tuscany-like landscapes.

After settling in your lodge, you will take a walk around the community to encounter local cultures, such as the Batwa pygmies who are the most notable ones here.

The ride takes about 6hrs.

Accommodation & meals:

• Luxury: Mountain Gorilla Lodge/Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge/Buhoma Lodge.
• Mid-range: Engagi Lodge/ Silverback Gorilla Lodge.
• Budget: Gorilla Valley Lodge/Bwindi Forest Lodge/Nshongi Camp.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner 

After an early breakfast, you will drive to the park headquarters for a safety briefing, which starts at 8:00 a.m. You’ll be given the general observable rules in the jungle and assigned a gorilla group for tracking and then be led into the forest jungle with six other trekkers in the company of two gun-baring rangers (for your safety) and a tracker/guide holding a machete to lead your way.

The forest floor is covered with thick shrubs, and you’ll be required to have waterproof hiking boots, a rain jacket, a waterproof backpack (it could rain anytime), trousers, a long-sleeved shirt, and garden gloves. The tracking is at your pace; ask to stop when you want to. The activity is physically demanding so consider your fitness levels which will enable you to maneuver the rough terrain.

You will spend between 30 minutes and 6 hours before finding a family of habituated gorillas; be prepared for this. After finding them, you’ll be allowed a maximum of one hour observing them playing, grooming and munching. No shutter sound or flash photography is allowed here, and you must observe a 10-meter distance from the gorillas. So make the most of the time allotted to you.

After this life-changing encounter, you will visit the top of the world in the evening to have a 360-degree experience of the jungle you just visited. On a clear day, you will see a line of the five Volcano Mountains, including the Rwenzori Mountains, in the far distance, and then return to your lodge.

At daybreak, have a quick breakfast and start the hike on the ancient walking trails through the mystic Bwindi jungle, from the Nkuringo south side to the Buhoma visitor centre in the north. At the gates of the forest, you will be thrilled by the majestic beauties of the ancient jungle.

You’ll be guided by a local expert for about 4-5 hours, furnishing you with ancient tales and incredible forest knowledge. If you’re lucky, you’ll meet some wild forest inhabitants like chimps, forest elephants, duikers, forest buffalos, and many more.

At the other end of the walking trail, your driver will be ready to whisk you away through the Ishasha savannah plains, where he’ll lazily drive for you to catch sight of the incredible tree-climbing lions.

Accommodation & meals:

• Luxury: Mweya Safari Lodge/Katara Lodge.
• Mid-range: Bush Lodge/Enganzi Game Lodge.
• Budget: Bush Lodge in the Tents/Simba Safari Camp.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

This episode of the 8 Days Uganda safari offers the opportunity to get close to Africa’s big game players on the Kazinga Channel. The 32 kilometre (20 mile)-long freshwater channel links Lake Edward to its smaller neighbour, Lake George and hosts the largest population of hippos and numerous Nile crocodiles.

Start your day with an early morning game drive on the Kasenyi tracks to catch sight of nocturnal animals retreating to their dens and early risers. You will sight elephants, buffalos and many interesting antelope species, such as Uganda kobs, topis, and bushbucks. Search around the Kasenyi tracks for the elusive leopards and return to the lodge for a late breakfast.

In the afternoon (about 2:00 p.m.), you will embark on a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel to catch sight of a diversity of wildlife at the waterfront including water monitor lizards, the giant forest hogs, and predators. After the boat launch, you’ll get onto the highway with the Rwenzori Mountains as a backdrop driving north to Kibale National Park. Check in at the lodge, have dinner and a great night.

Accommodation & meals:

• Luxury: Kyaninga Lodge/ Primate Lodge.
• Mid-range: Kibale Forest Camp/Turaco Treetops.
• Budget: Chimps Nest/Wild Camping.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Wake up early and be at the visitor centre by 7:30 a.m. to embark on another primate viewing adventure in Kibale Forest National Park. Kibale stands out as the best destination to encounter chimpanzees up-close in their natural habitat, with over 1500 chimpanzees under the park’s rainforest canopy and a dozen other primate species.

As you search for a band of habituated chimpanzees, you will see other primate species crossing your path such as the rare L’Hoest’s monkey and red colobus monkey, the black and white colobus, blue monkey, red-tailed monkey, olive baboon, and grey-cheeked mangabey.

Your primary goal is to find a troop of human-habituated chimpanzees so guided by an expert tracker, you’ll head into the jungle in small groups, looking out for telltale signs of the chimp’s direction and listening for loud calls. The chimpanzee tracking experience usually lasts between 2 and 6 hours, depending on the location of the habituated troop.

After finding them, you’ll be allowed a maximum of one hour observing their antics, and playful nature. Enjoy the moment and take as many pictures as you can and then return to the lodge for lunch and relax.

You’ll take a guided nature walk in the evening around the Bigodi swamp, a community-based project to spot other primates, several species of birds and butterflies to end your lovely day.

After breakfast, you can lazily pack up your bags as you prepare to return to the starting point of your entire trip through the gorgeous Fort Portal town, with the fading Rwenzori Mountains escorting you out of western Uganda to Kampala or Entebbe.

No accommodation
Meals: Breakfast & Lunch

End of your 8 Days Uganda Safari.