8 Days Uganda Gorilla Trekking & Wildlife Tour

Hopefully, your flight is scheduled for an early (not past noon) landing in Entebbe. Your Guide/driver will pick you from the Entebbe International Airport and hit the road to Murchison Falls National Park. The highlights of this park include: the roaring rapids of the Murchison, the rolling plains of Uganda’s largest National Park where you will have the chance of viewing lions, giraffes, hartebeest, buffalo, and elephants. Then surely you will be fascinated by the concentration of hippos and the Nile crocodiles here. For any birder, Murchison Falls boasts 450 bird species including the elusive shoebill stork (though a rare sighting), dwarf king fisher, the white-thigh hornbill and the Goliath heron among others. En route, make a stopover at Ziwa Rhino sanctuary for your first Big 5 experience where you will have an hour of rhino tracking. Another stop will be in Masindi in order to enjoy your lunch. Continue to the park and check in to your accommodation to relax for the Evening.

After an early breakfast, tour the Northern section of Murchison with a high concentration of savannah wildlife. Enjoy game viewing and photography of elephants, buffalos, waterbucks, giraffes, Uganda kob and lions, the leopards (if you’re lucky) plus a variety of bird species. Return to your accommodation for lunch as you prepare to have a 3-hour boat trip to the base of the falls. This trip is said to be the highlight of the safari in Murchison falls since it allows you to get up close to the animal species within the water. Cruise past huge hippo pods, crocodiles and numerous aquatic birds adorning the north bank on the way to the mighty waterfalls. You will have an opportunity to take thousands of pictures (and so carry your camera with you if you like). Also, proceed for a hike (if you like) to the top of the falls. The hike is a strenuous one but the thrill on reaching the top is unforgettable. Miss it only if you must! Return to your accommodation for dinner and overnight.

After breakfast at your accommodation, drive to the top of the falls (if you didn’t hike) where you will have spectacular view of the falls. Else, depart right away for Kibale Forest National Park after breakfast. Kibale is popular for its primates like the chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, mangabeys and red tailed monkeys. On your chimpanzee trails, these are regularly seen swinging in the forest trees and others feeding on the wild fruits. You will reach and do little but check into your accommodation where you will have dinner and the overnight rest.

Today you will experience some serious primate business! Kibale Forest National Park boasts the highest number of primate species in the world, including the chimpanzees. Approximately 5,000 chimpanzees live in the wild in Uganda, which makes it a perfect place to spot them! An experienced ranger will take you chimp tracking in the morning. The activity begins at 8.00am with a briefing regarding the rules of trekking the chimpanzees after which you set off to search for them in the forest. Once you locate the chimpanzees, you will have a full hour with them. You will return to the lodge for lunch after which you will head out for Queen Elizabeth National Park. You will arrive in the evening and overnight at your booked accommodation.

On this day, you will have a game drive and launch trip (boat trip) on the Kazinga Channel. Early in the morning, you will go out for a game drive through the park, with magnificent views of the plains, valleys, terraced hills and abundance of wild animals like: reedbuck, bushbuck, kob, warthogs, elephants, lions, buffaloes and so much more. Have a break and relax as you eat lunch served at the lodge. The afternoon adventure entails a launch trip (boat trip) on the Kazinga Channel, a water stream joining Lake Edward and Lake George. The channel attracts a large school of hippos and Nile crocodiles, besides the variety of birds that flock the reed shores like: the pelicans, kingfishers, saddle billed stork and sometimes the crowned cranes. Return to your accommodation in time for your dinner.

Have breakfast then set off for Bwindi NP through the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park – famously known for its resident tree-climbing lions. The chance of spotting these lions is about 70% though sometimes they are really hard to spot (most especially when they’re down in the grassland looking for prey). Hoping you get the chance to spot them, the sight will be spectacular! Continue to Bwindi National Park. Bwindi is a big habitat for mountain gorillas in Uganda; harboring an estimated 400 mountain gorillas – roughly half of the world’s population, including several habituated groups, which can be tracked. Its mist-covered hillsides are blanketed by one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, which dates back over 25,000 years and contains almost 400 species of plants. With a strenuous day ahead, you will do less on arrival but just check in your accommodation, relax as you prepare for the Bwindi gorilla trekking experience the following day.

After an early breakfast and a briefing by a ranger guide, you will enter the gorilla sanctuary for your adventure. The beauty of this rain forest is spectacular! The area offers dramatic steeply forested landscape and is incredibly dense, but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access to tourists. The time taken and the terrain vary with the movements of these great primates. Once you locate a gorilla group, you will be allowed an hour in their presence. The thrill of spending time observing these gentle and endangered giants is an awesome, exciting experience to be long savored. Return to your lodge. Have your lunch and thereafter check out for a transfer to Lake Bunyonyi. Lake Bunyonyi is framed by lush, green-terraced hills that reach a height of (2,200 – 2,478m) but it’s the 29 islands of various shapes and sizes scattered across the water that make it most magical — you could admire them all day.

After an early breakfast, transfer to Entebbe for your flight back home. En route, we will stop at the Equator for photographs and ‘polar-water experiment’, then local community crafts shops and fruit markets. We will be in Entebbe in the evening before your flight back home.