14-Day Best of Uganda Wildlife and Natu…

>> On arrival at the airport, meet and greet our representative who will warmly welcome you and facilitate seamless arrival formalities. You will then be transferred to your hotel where you will be briefed about your adventure safari.

Depending on the time of arrival, you are advised to have money changed, allowing you to go for a city tour with the help of our driver/guide, visit the shopping malls around town and craft villages to get items which you may need while on safari.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: Breakfast (Lunch & dinner not included) Drinks not included

•  Accommodation:The Boma Hotel Mid-range guest house located in Entebbe (City)

>> After your early morning breakfast, drive northwest to Murchison Falls National Park. You may have a stopover at the Rhino Sanctuary for an optional opportunity to trek rhinos at an extra fee of $45 per person. There are 15 rhinos, which were re-introduced after their extinction in the 1970s through poaching. A local ranger guide will lead you on foot to an up-close encounter with the rhinos which may take about 1 and a half hours. Proceed to Masindi town for lunch at your own expense and later continue to Murchison Falls National Park, arriving at your lodge in the late afternoon.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Murchison River Lodge Mid-range lodge located just outside Murchison Falls NP

>> Arise very early in the morning for your game drive on the northern bank of the Nile River. Your open-roof vehicle will give you an excellent opportunity to view and photograph the diverse wildlife. Your guide will help you spot elephant, lion, cape buffalo, Rothchild’s giraffe, hartebeest, waterbuck, oribi, bushbuck, bohor reedbuck, hyena and if you are lucky, leopard.

After lunch, go for a boat cruise upstream the calm Victoria Nile to the base of the falls. Stop just a few meters from the ‘Devil’s Cauldron’ where you can marvel at the hippos and crocodiles. Over the 17 km stretch, you may see elephant, waterbuck and Uganda kob. This is also the zone of many birds, species like goliath heron, Egyptian goose, pelican bee-eater, kingfisher, hornbill, cormorant and the rare shoebill stork.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Murchison River Lodge Mid-range lodge located just outside Murchison Falls NP

>> After your morning breakfast, carry a packed lunch from the lodge and begin your journey to Kibale Forest National Park. Drive south via Hoima to Fort Portal through the verdant countryside, passing through traditional homesteads, farms and tea plantations. You will arrive at your lodge in the late afternoon. Check in at your lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Kibale Forest Camp (Camping) just outside Kibale NP (Chimps)

>> After an early breakfast, depart for the hot springs tour. Enjoy a full day exploring the Semliki Valley Wildlife Reserve. The park is dominated by the eastern-most extension of the great Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin. This is one of Africa’s most ancient and bio-diverse forests, one of the few that survived the last ice age, 12 - 18,000 years ago. Your guide will point out and explain the park’s diversity of wildlife and flora and fauna. The Sempaya hot springs are Semliki’s most famous attraction. There’s a “male” spring, known as Bintente, measuring 12 m in diameter and is set in a lush swampy clearing. The “female” spring Nyasimbi, meaning "the female ancestors”, is a boiling geyser (103°C), which spurts bubbling water and steam up to two meters high - the steam cloud can be seen from as far as 2 km away. Local residents used to cook their food in these boiling pools.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Kibale Forest Camp (Camping) just outside Kibale NP (Chimps)

>> After breakfast at your lodge, transfer to the starting point of your chimpanzee tracking experience in Kibale Forest National Park. It 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 L’Hoest’s monkey. Other primates include the black and white colobus, blue monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, red-tailed monkey and olive baboon, to mention but a few.

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 and many others. Although chimp sightings are not guaranteed, visitors stand a good chance of hearing and seeing our distant cousins as they gloom and bond with one another.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Kibale Forest Camp (Camping) just outside Kibale NP (Chimps)

>> After breakfast at your lodge, proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park, following the mystical Rwenzori Mountain range. Your expert driver-guide will take you through the game park where you might spot some animals.

Upon arrival at your lodge, you will enjoy a hot lunch and later 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. This launch/cruise offers an excellent platform for photography, bird watching and game viewing. The prolific birdlife is colorful and amazing, with well over 550 resident species.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:The Bush Lodge (Banda) Mid-range banda located just outside Queen Elizabeth NP

>> Queen Elizabeth National Park’s diverse eco-system of grassy plains, tropical forests, rivers, swamps, lakes and volcanic craters is home to an incredible abundance of wildlife. Have an early morning game drive where you have an opportunity to view the massive Rwenzori Mountain as a backdrop. It provides excellent opportunities to spot lion, leopard, giant forest hog, Cape buffalo, elephant, defassa waterbuck, Uganda Kob, topi and bushbuck. The game drives and the boat trip (taken prior) are memorable methods of discovering a vast array of Ugandan wildlife. Be sure to have your camera ready for these amazing sightings!

Have an optional afternoon nature walk at an extra fee of $30 per person, to the bat and hunters cave, where we take a close look at the bats, rock pythons and sand forest cobras. The same walk will provide a chance of seeing birds, primates, tree species etc. Return to the lodge for dinner and your last overnight stay.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:The Bush Lodge (Banda) Mid-range banda located just outside Queen Elizabeth NP

>> After your early morning breakfast, pack up your bags and transfer to Ishasha Plains, a sector in Queen Elizabeth. Enjoy the wilderness and its inhabitants that are highlighted by Uganda’s tree-climbing lions, as well as numerous birds and more mammals. Have lunch and proceed with another afternoon search for more animals or relax at the lodge.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Enjojo Lodge (Camping) Near Ishasha Sector (Queen Elizabeth NP)

>> After your early morning breakfast, pack up your bags and drive through the Ishasha plains for your final visit with the tree-climbing lions and other wildlife. Head out of the Queen Elizabeth National Park and on to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The drive takes you through the "Switzerland of Africa" area, known as the Kigezi Highlands, with its terraced hillside and winding roads. Arrive in the evening at your lodge for dinner and your overnight stay.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Mutanda Lake Resort Mid-range lodge located 1-2hr drive from Bwindi Impenetrable NP (Gorillas)

>> After an early breakfast, depart to the starting point for a briefing about your gorilla trekking adventure. Afterward, you will be led by experienced gorilla trackers on the slopes of the volcanoes. You will start from the site where the gorillas were encountered the day before and from here the gorilla trekking begins. Although the hike can be physically demanding, the anticipation of the exciting experience ahead is amazing, and the beauty of the gorilla forest and its inhabitants are fascinating. One of Africa’s major highlights is when you encounter these gentle apes. It is a humbling experience to stand just meters away from man’s distant cousins as they eat, rest, play and bond with their young ones. Follow the mountain gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest, and discover their gorgeous natural habitat and the many species they share it with.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Mutanda Lake Resort Mid-range lodge located 1-2hr drive from Bwindi Impenetrable NP (Gorillas)

>> After breakfast, drive to Lake Bunyonyi which has breathtaking scenery. Spend the night overlooking Uganda's deepest lake, where you may try your hand at paddling a dugout canoe, or eating freshwater crayfish. Head to your camp for dinner and your overnight stay.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:BirdNest Resort Mid-range resort located at Lake Bunyonyi

>> After breakfast, you will proceed to Lake Mburo National Park, the smallest national park in Uganda. Though being small, it has a lot to offer. Centered on a series of swamp-fringed lakes, its birdlife is very rich. The green acacia woodland harbors wildlife like zebra, warthog, eland, impala, not to mention the lake itself, which is home to schools of hippos and crocodiles! Furthermore, the Uganda Wildlife Authority recently brought 15 giraffes from Murchison Falls to Lake Mburo.

You will arrive at the lodge in time for lunch. Later, in the afternoon at 16:00, enjoy the boat ride on Lake Mburo and get close to the crocs and hippos. As you return to your lodge, you may have an en-route evening game drive.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: All meals included Drinking water (Other drinks not included)

•  Accommodation:Rwakobo Rock Lodge Mid-range lodge located just outside Lake Mburo NP

>> After breakfast, have a safari walk under the escort of an armed ranger. The kopjes are particularly interesting, with the camouflaged klipspringers and topis. Due to cattle herding in the area, it is amusing to see zebra grazing peacefully alongside the long-horned Ankole cattle. It is exciting to approach wildlife at such close range.

Later, drive to Entebbe with a stopover at the equator for a wonderful experience. Here you will have an opportunity to stand in 2 hemispheres at the same time. Take some photos, then another stopover at the Mpigi Royal Drum Makers, where you will be able to watch the ceremonial drums being crafted, using methods passed down through the generations. Arrive in the afternoon, which marks the end of your tour.

• Time: 8-10hrs
• Meals: Meals at own expense Drinks not included

•  Accommodation:No accommodation (End of tour)