Uganda Gorilla Tracking Tour, Chimps & Wildlife Safari
Overview
Uganda is home to the highest concentrations of primates on earth, including the majestic mountain gorilla, one of the rarest animals on the planet. Only 840 mountain gorillas remain, of which at least 60% are in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. This Uganda safari allows you to spend the most possible time with Gorillas of any tour operator. This wildlife safari tour takes you to the Murchison Falls National Park for wildlife viewing through game drives and boat launches, contribute to Chimpanzee habituation in Kibale, join research teams in Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP) tracking lions and mongoose; and in a Wild Planet Exclusive, join expert wildlife researchers in the habituation of endangered mountain gorillas in the lush Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, an intimate Gorilla experience that allows you to spend 4x the amount of time with the gorillas than any other Gorilla trekking experience! Also enjoy guided night walking safaris in Kibale National Park, (home to over 12 primates species), plus tree climbing lions, the famous Mountains of the Moon, and more!
Safari Itinerary
DAY 1: Entebbe
Arrive at Entebbe airport, meet our staff and transfer to your hotel. Our staff will brief you about all the activities. Overnight will be at Anderita Beach Hotel, Papyrus Guesthouse Entebbe, Gately Inn Entebbe
DAY 2: Travel to Murchison Falls National Park
You will have an early breakfast and drive to Murchison Falls National Park via the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where you will have the opportunity to trek the Rhinos. The sanctuary houses Uganda’s Rhino reintroduction project. There are 9 white rhinos and tracking is done on foot for 1 and half hours. You will continue to Masindi Town for lunch and later drive to Murchison Falls National Park. You will have dinner and overnight at the lodge of your booking
- Luxury: Paraa Safari Lodge/ Nile Safari Lodge
- Mid-range: Fort Murchison (in rooms)/ Murchison River Lodge
- Budget: Fort Murchison in tents/ Murchison River Lodge in tents / Red Chili
- Meal Plan:Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 3: Game drive and Boat launch on the Nile
You will wake up very early and set off at 6.30 am for a sunrise game drive in the Nyamsika plateau to see the Cape buffaloes, Rothschild’s giraffes, Uganda kob, hartebeest, and waterbucks. You may also spot oribi, bushbuck, Bohor reedbuck, shy sitatunga, bush duiker, warthog, and bush pig plus large carnivores including lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas. Chimpanzees and olive baboons head the list of six species of primates found in the park. Crocodiles and hippos will be seen along the banks of the Nile. Some of the more common birds that can be seen include goliath heron, Egyptian geese, pelican, bee-eaters, kingfishers, hornbill, cormorant, saddle-bill stork, and the rare shoebill stork. You will return to your lodge for a late breakfast and some relaxation before you set off in the afternoon for a boat cruise on the placid Victoria Nile, upstream, to the base of the falls. En route, you will see hippos, crocodiles, waterbuck, and a wide variety of birds like the unusual shoebill stork. The boat stops just tens of meters from the “Devil’s Cauldron” for pictures to be taken of the photogenic and majestic Murchison Falls.
- Luxury: Paraa Safari Lodge/ Nile Safari Lodge
- Mid-range: Fort Murchison (in rooms)/ Murchison River Lodge
- Budget: Fort Murchison in tents/ Murchison River Lodge in tents / Red Chili
- Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 4: Visit the top of the fall and travel to Kibale Forest National Park
You will after your breakfast visit the “top of the thunderous Murchison falls”, where you will observe the River Nile squeezing itself into a 7-meter gorge before tumbling 40 meters down in a thunderous explosion and then flowing down into a very peaceful river whose water banks are swarmed with a profusion of water and land animals as well as birds. You will thereafter set off on a 6-hour journey to Kibale Forest National Park. The drive is through verdant countryside inter-passing traditional homesteads and farms and via the towns of Hoima and Fort portal which rests in the shadow of the fabled Mountains of the Moon. You will have dinner and overnight at the lodge of your booking.
- Luxury: Ndali lodge/Primate lodge/Kyaninga lodge
- Moderate: Mountains of the moon/Kibale forest camp
- Budget: Rwenzori travelers/Kibale forest camp/Chimpanzee forest guest house
- Meal plan:Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 5: Kibale – Chimpanzee Habituation Experience
Today we’ll accompany Kibale’s researchers in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to a “soft” habituation project with chimpanzees. You’ll learn to safely observe the chimps during their daily activities, so they get comfortable with human presence without changing their natural behaviors. You will be able to experience the chimp families as they wake up, hunt, patrol, play, fight, copulate and breastfeed. Guided by biologists and researchers, we will enjoy unprecedented intimate access to these wild chimps for the entire day until they build their nests at bedtime.
Kibale Forest hosts at least 1,500 chimpanzees out of the 4,950 found in Uganda, making this the largest concentration of chimps in Africa. The park is also home to 10 other primates including diurnal species like the Red Colobus Monkey, Blue Monkey, Red-tailed monkey, Gray Checked Mangabeys, and Vervet Monkey, as well as many other animals.
Dinner and overnight will be at your lodge of booking.
- Luxury: Ndali lodge/Primate lodge/Kyaninga lodge
- Moderate: Mountains of the moon/Kibale forest camp
- Budget: Rwenzori travelers/Kibale forest camp/Chimpanzee forest guest house
- Meal plan:Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 6: Mountains of the Moon, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Mongoose Tracking
At 09:00 AM, we begin our drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, enjoying the majestic views en route of the snow-capped 16,000-foot Rwenzori Mountains – the famed “Mountains of the Moon”.
Queen Elizabeth National Park holds huge concentrations of wildlife including predators such as the famous tree-climbing Lions, Leopard, Serval cats, and Spotted hyenas. Other mammals include elephant, cape buffalo, hippo, a variety of antelope, warthog, giant forest hog, and 10 species of primates including vervet monkeys, black and white colobus, and olive baboon. The park’s bird species number more than 600, amongst the highest in Africa. There are also several soda lakes filling ancient volcanic calderas where flamingos reside seasonally.
In the afternoon we’ll join a research team from the Uganda Wildlife Authority to track the banded mongoose, a highly social mongoose that is closely related to the better-known meerkat. As the research team embarks on their daily monitoring activities, you are awarded plenty of time to observe the mongoose troupes as they normally go about life. See how they engage in teamwork, hunt prey, and defend each other. Observe family/group hierarchy among other amazingly interesting mongoose behaviors.
Like meerkats, each mongoose group or family sleeps together in a communal underground den, changing between den sites every 3-5 days. They emerge at sunrise and forage together in the morning and afternoon before returning to the den at sunset. Take as many photos as you wish before heading back to the lodge for dinner and overnight.
- Luxury Lodge: Mweya Safari Lodge: Katara Lodge/ Jacana Lodge
- Mid-range /moderate: Bush Lodge (in rooms) / Simba Safari Camp in rooms/ Buffalo Safari Resort/ Enganzi Lodge/ Ihamba Safari Lodge
- Budget facility: Kazinga Channel View Lodge/ Simba Safari Camp in tents/ Bush Lodge in tents
- Meal Plan:Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 7: Queen Elizabeth National Park – Jeep Safari, Lion Tracking, Boat Safari
See a different face of the park as we venture off-road with a research team to track lions and contribute to a valuable lion research project in the Ishasha Sector. The researchers’ Landcruiser is fitted with radio-collar-receiving equipment. You get a full briefing on the animals with the opportunity for as much lion photography as you can manage.
After a leisurely lunch on the Mweya Peninsula, we’ll enjoy a two-hour boat safari along the Kazinga Channel. This affords the opportunity to view wildlife up close: hippos huff and spray and buffalo linger in the shallows. The shores of the channel are also home to an array of birds including pink-backed pelicans, pied and malachite kingfishers, saddle-billed stork, and many others.
- Luxury Lodge: Mweya Safari Lodge: Katara Lodge/ Jacana Lodge
- Mid-range /moderate: Bush Lodge (in rooms) / Simba Safari Camp in rooms/ Buffalo Safari Resort/ Enganzi Lodge/ Ihamba Safari Lodge
- Budget facility: Kazinga Channel View Lodge/ Simba Safari Camp in tents/ Bush Lodge in tents
- Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
DAY 8: Queen Elizabeth / Ishasha – Tree Climbing Lions / Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
After breakfast, we drive further south through stunning savannah grasslands as we head to the southern sector of the park – Ishasha. This is the best area to see the famous tree-climbing lions draped from the low hanging limbs of fig trees. Next, we visit the Kob Mating Ground—a defined area specifically used by these stunning antelopes for challenging other males, enticing females, and mating. Finally, we’ll pass through beautiful savannah grasslands as we head towards the breathtaking Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.
While most of today’s forests are no more than 12,000 years old, Bwindi’s vegetation has been weaving itself into tangles for over 25,000 years, in the process accumulating a lengthy species list. This includes 310 species of butterflies, 51 reptiles, 200 trees, 88 moths, and an exceptional 120 species of mammals including 10 primates. The latter includes chimpanzee, L’Hoest’s, red-tailed and blue monkey, black and white colobus, baboon, and Bwindi’s most famous resident, the mountain gorilla. Bwindi is a prime destination for birdwatchers. Its 350 species include seven which are IUCN red data listed and 90% of all Albertine rift endemics – species that are difficult or impossible to see in any other part of East Africa.
- Lower Budget: Buhoma community Rest camp / Ruhija Gorilla Friends Camp / Travellers Rest Hotel Kisolo / Gorilla Valley Lodge
- Moderate: Gorilla Resort Bwindi /Gorilla Safari Lodge / Silver Back Lodge / Lake Kitandara Camp / Chameleon Hill Lodge / Lake Mutanda Resort.
- Upmarket: Mahogany Springs Lodge / Buhoma Lodge / Rushanga Gorilla Safari Lodge.
- Meal plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
DAY 9: Gorilla Tracking Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
We have an early morning entry into the mountain gorillas’ sanctuary. The rainforest is spectacular, and heavily vegetated with dense landscapes crisscrossed by numerous animal trails, allowing access for trekkers. This park is best known for the fascinating gorillas, where the time taken and terrain varies according to the movements of these fantastic apes.
Our intimate gorilla trekking experience allows you to accompany the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s Bwindi gorilla habituation team for the entire day, allowing you to have a minimum 4 hours in the presence of a mountain gorilla family – since regular permits only allow 1 hour, this is 4 times the amount of time spent up close with Gorillas – more than any other safari operator! During this time you will be able to experience the gorilla family as they wake up, hunt, patrol, play, fight, copulate and breastfeed until they build their nests at bedtime.
The thrill of spending time with and observing these gentle giants is a rare and moving adventure that will leave you with long-lasting memories. Spending more time with them than the norm means you are assured of the best possible experience, with 4 full hours for better photography, researcher access for more questions, and enough time to experience more intimate and unusual behaviors. The gorillas are shy and peaceful animals and it is an unforgettable experience to watch and photograph them as they interact with each other.
The walking can sometimes be tough and long, but when you catch a glimpse of the magnificent silverback, any discomforts will be quickly forgotten. Once the gorillas are sighted, you will be guided to within 6 meters of the gorillas, and be able to sit all around them while gazing into their big round eyes as the researchers note health, behavior, and other characteristics. Dinner and overnight will be at your lodge of booking.
- Lower Budget: Buhoma community Rest camp / Ruhija Gorilla Friends Camp / Travellers Rest Hotel Kisolo / Gorilla Valley Lodge
- Moderate: Gorilla Resort Bwindi /Gorilla Safari Lodge / Silver Back Lodge / Lake Kitandara Camp / Chameleon Hill Lodge / Lake Mutanda Resort.
- Upmarket: Mahogany Springs Lodge / Buhoma Lodge / Rushanga Gorilla Safari Lodge.
- Meal plan: Lunch, Dinner.
DAY 10: Departure via Entebbe
Your driver will transfer you to Kihihi or Kisoro Airport early morning after breakfast to catch your 90 minutes flight to Entebbe. You can also choose to travel by road to Entebbe for the same price as the domestic flight. The driving distance is about 9 hours, and you will pass by mountains, tropical rainforests, and bamboo forests along the way.
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