Our driver/guide will pick you from your hotel at 7 am for the drive from Kampala through Uganda’s beautiful lush countryside westwards to Queen Elizabeth National Park—the country’s most popular savannah park that has the widest variety of wildlife of any Ugandan park. Stop at the town of Mbarara for lunch, and arrive at Queen Elizabeth in the afternoon when we explore the fascinating crater lakes sector, which are carved dramatically into the rolling green hills set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains. The park was named after the Queen of England in 1954 following her visit. After our first game drive and excellent introduction to the park, relax over dinner at your camp/lodge.
Queen Elizabeth National Park’s diverse ecosystems include sprawling grasslands, shady and humid forests, fertile wetlands, and the magnificent Kazinga Channel—a wide, 32-km-long natural channel that links Lake Edward and Lake George. The habitat is ideal for large game including elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard, interesting antelope such as Uganda kob, topi and bushbuck, and over 600 species of birds. We first head out after breakfast for an early morning game drive when the predators are most active and are returning to their hideouts, and then after lunch, enjoy an open boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel from Mweya into Lake Edward. This wonderful waterway is filled with the highest concentration of hippos in Uganda, huge Nile crocodiles and monitor lizards, while herds of buffalo and elephant are spotted on the banks. The sight of thousands of birds on the channel is extraordinary and while on the 2-hour boat safari you may see up to 60 species, including great white and pink-backed pelicans, shoebill, yellow-billed and saddle-billed storks, great and long-tailed cormorants, and numerous darters, jacanas and kingfishers. Over dinner, you can count off the list of animals and birds you have seen on your Queen Elizabeth safari.
- Overnight in Queen Elizabeth National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 3: Queen Elizabeth – Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (205 km, 3 to 4 hours)
After breakfast, we depart for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park via Queen Elizabeth National Park’s Ishasha sector. You may spot waterbuck, elephant, buffalo and Uganda kob along the road and this part of the park is famous for its tree-climbing lions that can often be found resting in huge fig trees. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is the fabled home of the highly-endangered mountain gorilla, the largest living primate and the rarest of all the apes, and an estimated population of only 1000 live in tropical rain forest in the border area of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in equatorial East Africa. Bwindi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its extraordinary biological diversity,and it is here you will have the privilege of going on your first one-hour guided gorilla-tracking excursion. Check in at your preferred lodge close to one of the gates of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park from where you begin your gorilla-tracking the next morning. Whichever lodge you choose, you will experience the sights and sounds of the ‘impenetrable forest’, so-called because of the dense and tangled foliage and towering trees.
- Overnight in Bwindi National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 4: Bwindi Gorilla Trekking
You will wake early for breakfast and be taken to the park headquarters where you will have a briefing from your gorilla-tracking team at 8 am about the rules of the park, and what to do and what not to do when you meet up with the gorillas. Then head off with your group through the foothills and higher-altitude forest—ensure you have strong shoes, wet-weather gear and a stout walking stick. As the gorilla family sleeps in a different place every night and travels through the day, pausing occasionally to eat and rest, you’ll have several guides and trackers to find their location and tracking takes between 2 and 8 hours. But once your group catches up with the mountain gorilla family, all fatigue is immediately forgotten when you discover that you are sitting only a few metres from the gorillas in the undergrowth. You are allotted one hour to observe them, and will perhaps see the babies scrambling up trees, juveniles playing, females grooming each other or feeding their young, or even a giant silver-back (dominant male) pounding his chest. After the hour is up, the guide will lead you gently away for the long but exhilarated walk back, and later head back to your lodge and rest. In the evening you can choose to relax at the lodge or take an evening interactive walk with the local Batwa people—the original hunter-gatherer community of the forest and you will have the opportunity to learn how they live and also watch them perform traditional singing and dancing.
- Overnight in Bwindi National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 5: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – Volcanoes National Park (85 km, 2 to 3 hours)
After breakfast, proceed through the beautiful scenery of lush terraced hills in Uganda’s Kigezi District highlands and cross the border into Rwanda. We climb though the countryside to the town of Kinigi, which lies close to the gate of the Volcanoes National Park (Parc National des Volcans), home to Rwanda’s share of the mountain gorillas. It covers 160-sq-km and protects the high-altitude cloud forests on the soaring slopes of five of the eight volcanoes in the Virunga Volcanoes, and it’s easy to see why Rwanda is also known as ‘a country of a thousand hills’. Have dinner and overnight at your lodge, camp or guesthouse and prepare for your second exciting gorilla-tracking excursion early the next morning.
- Overnight in Volcanoes National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 6: Full Day Gorilla Trekking
Embark on your gorilla-tracking excursion in Volcanoes National Park and the drill is much the same as at Bwindi and begins with a briefing at the park gate with your group and tracking team. Although like Bwindi the hike is physically demanding, it is not often as strenuous as Uganda thanks to better-laid out trails and more clearings in the forest, and the trek is typically much shorter. Again it is a wonderful and memorable experience to sit with the gorillas in their natural habitat, and you will discover that the gorillas are just as interested in their human visitors and will stare curiously back and it is a spine-tingling hour. If the gorilla-tracking ends early enough, you can visit the Karisoke Research Centre, founded in 1967 by Dian Fossey, the famous primatologist, or visit a local community before dinner and overnight at your lodge.
- Overnight in Volcanoes National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 7: Volcanoes National Park – Lake Bunyonyi National Park (88 km, 2 to 3 hours)
Bunyonyi. This large and irregularly-shaped lake lies at an altitude of approximately 2000-metres, where it follows the curves of the hilly terrain that separates the towns of Kabale and Kisoro in the Kigezi District highlands. It is a very lovely spot, dotted with small islands and surrounded by steeped terraced hills. The forest groves, gardens, and farms attract a wide diversity of birdlife and Bunyonyi means ‘the place of many little birds’. You will arrive in the afternoon and go for a boat ride which is a tranquil way for bird watching and to enjoy the scenery. Tonight enjoy a final relaxing dinner at your lodge/camp and reflect on all the amazing animals you have seen on your thrilling 8-day safari.
- Overnight in Lake Bunyonyi National Park
- Accommodation at your camp or lodge
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
- Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra
Day 8: Lake Bunyonyi National Park – Kampala (345 km, 5 to 6 hours)
We have a last breakfast on the pretty lake-shore, and then the drive back to Kampala is long, but we break our journey with a packed lunch and another stop at the equator sign over the main road. Have fun taking photos and buy crafts and souvenirs at the nearby shops. This exciting 8-day Uganda safari ends at you Kampala hotel in the early evening.
- Accommodation: No accommodation
- Meals & drinks: Breakfast and Lunch
- Drinking water (Other drinks not included)
