6 Nights Uganda primates trekking and wilderness adventures

After morning breakfast at your hotel, travel by road heading south to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. This scenic drive will take approximately 9-10hrs. You will have a short stopover at the Equator for a photographic opportunity as well as an informative talk. Have Lunch at Mbarara. Your driver will take you through Uganda’s rolling green hills and through the highlands, also known as the “Switzerland of Uganda.

The Bwindi Forest is on the edge of the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift, at elevations ranging from 1,160 to 2,607 metres. Its mist-covered hillsides are blanketed by one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, dating back over 25,000 years and contain almost 400 species of plants. More famously, this “impenetrable forest” is home to half of the remaining Mountain Gorillas in the world.

You will arrive in Bwindi Forest in the late afternoon. Check in at your lodge, relax and enjoy the lodge amenities on offer and later have Dinner. Tonight, you will sleep to the sounds of the mountain rainforest. Alternatively fly to Bwindi at a supplement of $373 per person.

Accommodation: Gorilla Safari Lodge
Meal Basis: Full Board (Breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Activities and Services: Stopover at the Equator
Included: Transfer to Bwindi

Today is an early rise followed by breakfast by 7:00am and thereafter you will be driven by your driver-guide to the Gorillas Head Quarters for briefing at the park station. Your lodge will give you packed snack. During the briefing, the park Rangers let you know what to expect, how to act around the gorillas and what you need to carry along. After being assigned a gorilla family, the rangers and the armed guards will then take you to the forest for tracking. Early morning entry into the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is spectacular. As you move searching for the gorillas, you will pass through thickets, steep and muddy slopes. Mountain gorilla tracking can take between 2 to 5 hours depending on which gorilla family you were allocated. Once you get to the gorillas, you are expected to be with them for 1 hour. While with the gorilla group, observe and take as many photos/videos as you can. The thrill of spending time and observing the gorillas is a rare moving, awesome and exciting adventure. There is always a ranger guide to interpret the Fauna and the Flora. After gorilla trekking, you will go back to the lodge to freshen up and have lunch.

Later in the afternoon, you may have a guided nature walk around the lodge and the surrounding communities and visit the Batwa People. They are hunter-gatherers and fierce warriors who depended on the forest for shelter, food and medicine thanks to ancient knowledge passed down through many generations. They were the first people to inhabit the tropical rainforest who used to stay with mountain gorillas in harmony, it has been once their home for centuries. They used to eat the same food as mountain gorillas considering gorillas as part of their forest family. Visit the Batwa tribe listen to ancient legends and traditional songs and learn a thing or two about their daily lives and traditions.
Return to the lodge where you will enjoy dinner with fellow travellers before retiring to your room, relax and get to sleep to the sounds of nature.

Accommodation: Gorilla Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Activities and Services: Gorilla Tracking/Uganda Wildlife Authority
Included: 1 Gorilla permit per person; Batwa Community visit (Optional); A guided nature walks around the lodge and the surrounding communities

Driving time: 6-7 hours (± 265kms)

After breakfast, you will proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park to the Ishasha sector where you will have an opportunity to see the tree-climbing lions and your expert driver guide will take you through the game park where you might spot some animals. Queen Elizabeth National Park’s diverse ecosystem of grassy plains, tropical forest, rivers, swamps, lakes and volcanic craters is home to an incredible abundance of wildlife.
Later you will enjoy a hot lunch and in the afternoon take a unique 2-hour boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel into Lake Edward. This trip passes through possibly the highest concentration of hippos and this launch/cruise offers an excellent platform for photography, bird watching and game viewing. The prolific bird life is colourful and stupendous, with well over 550 resident species. After return to your safari lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

Accommodation: Mweya Safari Lodge (standard room) upgrade to Deluxe room is $95
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner)
Activities and Services: Kazinga Channel
Included: Game Drive, Boat Cruise on Kazinga channel, Park entrance fees

Driving time: ±2 hours (± 157kms)

Arise early morning, pack your bags and after breakfast transfer to Kibale National Park following the mystical Rwenzori Mountain range. Kibale Forest National Park is reputed to have the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa. The most famous is the Chimpanzee, our closest relative then the rare I’Hoest’s monkey. Other primates include the black and white Colobus, Blue monkey, Grey-cheeked mangabey, Red-tailed monkey and Olive baboon etc… Arrive in time for a late lunch.

The rest of the afternoon is at leisure or you may opt for the following optional activities at extra cost: take a walk around the crater lakes at a supplement of $45 per person OR Canoeing at the lake at a supplement of $45 per person (1 person pays $50) OR Go cycling around the village or plantations at a supplement of $25 per person, Kayaking-$90 per person and Fishing -$35 per person.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge.

Accommodation: Rubalika Safari Lodge (Deluxe)
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Activities and Services: Scenic viewing
Included: Transfer to Kibale Forest National Park

Early in the morning, you will set off for Chimpanzee Habituation tracking. You will be led by a forest guide who will help you identify the various tree species, as well as inform you of the various features in the forest. This will take all day and you will be 100% sure to have a very close encounter with your closest relatives. Book this in time because only 6 persons per day are allowed to go. You will go with a packed lunch since you will spend the whole day with our close cousins.

Kibale Forest National Park is reputed to have the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa. The most famous of its 13 species is the Chimpanzee, man’s closest relative. Kibale’s 1450 Chimpanzees represent Uganda’s largest population of this endangered primate. Kibale is also home to the rare I’Hoest’s monkey.

So, you will enjoy a guided nature walk in the tropical rainforest in search of the wild chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, Blue monkeys, Grey-cheeked mangabeys, Red-tailed monkeys, Olive baboons and many others.

Accommodation: Crater Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board (Breakfast, lunch and dinner0
Activities and Services: Uganda Wildlife Authority; Chimps Habituation
Included: 1 chimp Permit per person; Exploration of the Crater Lake region

After Breakfast, take a leisurely drive back to Entebbe Airport to catch your flight to the next destination. Alternatively, you can fly to Entebbe International Park at a supplement of $350 per person. Accommodation on this last day can be arranged at an extra cost.

Included: Airport transfer