12-DAYS SAFARI FOR THE BEST OF WESTERN UGANDA

You will arrive at Entebbe International Airport, located on a peninsula that juts out into the largest fresh-water lake in Africa (Lake Victoria), where our driver-guide will welcome you and transfer you to your hotel. (Accommodation before the tour starts can be arranged for an extra cost)

You will enjoy your breakfast very early in the morning and commence your 4–5-hour drive to Murchison Falls National Park. You will make a stop at Migyera along the Kampala-Gulu Road for a chance to stretch your legs. After the break, you will to Murchison Falls via the Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary where rhinos that got wiped out in the Ugandan wild are being kept before they are re-introduced back in the Uganda national parks. When you arrive at the Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a guide and armed rangers will take you on either a walking/vehicle safari to look for the rhinos. Once you have spotted the rhinos, you will stay in their presence for a while. You will enjoy lunch within the Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary after, which you will return to your vehicle to complete your transfer to Murchison Falls National Park. You will check in at your Lodge and have the rest of the day to yourselves

You will wake up at 6.00 am and enjoy your breakfast. At 6:30 am, you’ll drive out for a game drive for a chance to view the glorious day-break from across the open savannah. Wildlife on the northern bank includes Rothschild giraffes, elephants, lions, oribis, waterbucks, etc, and a variety of savannah woodland birds. Between 10-11 am, you will return to the lodge for relaxation and lunch. After lunch, at 2:00 pm, you’ll head out for the boat cruise to the bottom of the powerful Murchison Falls. This three-hour boat cruise climaxes at the edge of the Rift Valley escarpment at which point you will get off the boat and trek to the top of the falls. Having worked up a sweat, once at the top, get bathed in the misty spray that the Nile creates as it forces itself into the 7-meter cleft to create the famous Murchison Falls. You’ll continue on a game drive that gives way to a night game drive with a flashlight. Later, you’ll return to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

This morning, you’ll wake up early and have breakfast at 6:30 am. After breakfast, you’ll check out of the hotel and depart Murchison Falls headed to Fort Portal. However, because of the long distance on a poor dirt road that should give you the ‘African massage’, brace yourselves. You will have your lunch pre-prepared before departing Murchison Falls National Park. Along the way, you will traverse traditional homesteads surrounded by crop plantations in a very leafy and green area —arriving in Fort Portal in the mid-afternoon. Once you arrive in Kibale Forest National Park, you will check in at your Lodge for dinner and an overnight stay. 

After your breakfast, your driver guide will drive you to Kibale Forest National Park headquarters at Kanyanchu for a briefing before you commence your chimpanzee trekking. This park is reputed for having the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa. On the guided nature walk, you are in search for wild chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, black and white Colobus monkeys, and many others. Once you locate the chimpanzees, you will spend a full hour with them at close quarters. After the mandatory 1 hour is finished, your guides/rangers will lead you back to the park headquarters. In the afternoon after your lunch, you will have the rest of the day to yourselves to relax and look back on your exhilarating experience encountering the chimpanzees through the lens of your camera. You can visit the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary — an exciting experience and overnight stay at your Lodge.  

You will wake up at leisure and enjoy your breakfast. You will not be in a hurry so you will depart Kibale Forest National Park for Queen Elizabeth National Park at leisure. You will transfer through the beautiful crater region where the views and scenery are to die for! After seeing some of the many craters in the region, back on the road, you will continue to Queen Elizabeth National Park with the Rwenzori Mountains in the backdrop as you lose altitude to arrive in or around the park. On arrival and after check-in at the beautiful Bush Lodge, you can relax and have the rest of the day to yourself. Your dinner and overnight stay will be at the lodge where nature’s night sounds invade your banda

You will wake up at 6.00 am, enjoy your breakfast, and set off for a day-break game drive on the park’s plains. You will head straight for the mating grounds of the Uganda Kobs. You’ll search for lions in their natural habitat, elephants, and buffalos, and then you’ll return to the lodge. You will change gears and head for the Kasenyi plains, which are prolific, and hence lions and other predators hunt here. You will return to the lodge and then have lunch. At either 2:00 pm or 3:00 pm, you will head out for the boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, a natural channel that connects lakes Edward and George —one of the major highlights of your safari. On the cruise, abundant bird life is sighted and perhaps the highest concentration of hippopotamus in Africa lives on this stretch. The boat cruise, lasting 3 hours, climaxes with you looking at stunning scenery in the distance. You’ll return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay

 After breakfast, you will commence your transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park — the home of mountain gorillas, passing through the lush Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park and its fig trees where you stand a chance of running into the famous and unique tree-climbing lions. There are about 40 prides of lions in this part of the park, elephant herds are numerous, and cheeky baboons are ever-present. After exploring this sector of the park, where game density rises, you’ll exit the park and drive to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park— considered the number one beautiful place in the world, where you’ll marvel at the landscape, the lush rainforest, etc. You’ll be arriving late at your destination. You will check into Lodge for dinner and overnight.

You’ll wake up at 6.00 am, have your breakfast, and transfer to the park headquarters for briefing. With a packed lunch, your driver guide will take you to the starting point before 8:00 am. The rangers will take you through the bush, pushing your way through the undergrowth, looking for where the family of gorillas you are tracking spent the night. (A reasonable degree of fitness is required as well as a sturdy pair of walking shoes). When you finally locate the family that you are tracking, you’ll sit in the forest among the gorillas, and marvel at the sheer size of the dominant male; the silverback. It is an extraordinary feeling sitting in the dense forest in the knowledge that you are in the presence of the few remaining mountain gorillas in the wild. After the mandatory 1 hour is up, you will return to where your guide will be waiting and have your packed lunch before you return to the lodge. In the afternoon/evening, you can choose to stay at the lodge and relax and look back on the awesome experience earlier in the day or go for a community experience among the local indigenous pygmies.

You will wake up at leisure and enjoy your breakfast. After breakfast, you’ll say goodbye to the beautiful Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and head to the beautiful and picturesque Lake Bunyonyi. The area you drive through is scenic so you can ask your driver guide to stop from time to time as you take more pictures. When you arrive in Lake Bunyonyi, you’ll check in at your lodge/Resort and have the rest of the day to yourself. You’ll marvel at the changing view in front of you as the scene is known to change as the day progresses! Lake Bunyonyi is a good place to chill out, relax, and read a book or simply go out on a tour with a canoe or motorized boat to some of the 29 islands that create the scenic appeal of the lake. Options of things to do include canoeing/boating, swimming (this is recommended for strong swimmers), birding, nature walks, hikes, and cultural visits. Your overnight.

This morning, you’ll wake up at leisure and enjoy your breakfast. At 9.00 am, you will check out and start your drive to Lake Mburo National Park. On arrival, you’ll check in at your Lodge and enjoy lunch. Lake Mburo National Park is the only park in Uganda with eland, impala antelopes, and Burchell’s zebra. The scenery of rolling hills, lakes, and swamps makes Africa real. It is in Lake Mburo where the Tanzanian savannah meets Uganda in a most scenic fashion. At about 6.30 pm, you will head out for a nocturnal game drive. A night game drive is one of the most memorable activities one can do here. You’ll spot the creatures of the night such as leopards. You can even spot bush babies and porcupines— all the mammals that move at night. The drive is normally about two and a half hours and you can choose to have dinner before or after the night game drive. Spotlights are used to point out various animals. After the drive, you’ll return to the lodge for an overnight stay.

You’ll wake up at 6:00 am and enjoy breakfast. Lake Mburo National Park is one of two game parks in Uganda where visitors are allowed to go into the wild for a nature walk with an experienced ranger and get as close to the animals as possibly safe. On a morning guided walk, you will often encounter hyenas who are returning to their dens after a night of being on the prowl —at the same time you can often see hippos returning from grazing during the night and returning to the lake to keep cool during the day and protect their sensitive skin from the sun. On a nature walk, you will often see zebras, giraffes, eland, topi, and other antelopes, buffaloes, birds, and butterflies. After your walk, you’ll return to the lodge, take a shower, and check out —ready for the drive to Entebbe. At the Equator crossing, you’ll take some fun pictures and purchase crafts from your Uganda safari. You’ll enjoy lunch at the Equator and continue to Entebbe International Airport for your flight back home