8 Day Best Gorilla and Uganda Chimps.

You will arrive at the airport and embark on a journey 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, hartebeests, buffalos, and elephants. Then surely, you will be fascinated by the concentration of hippos and the Nile crocodiles here. For birders, Murchison Falls boasts 450 bird species including the elusive shoebill stork, dwarf king fisher, the white-thigh hornbill, and the Goliath heron among others. You will have a stopover at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for rhino tracking before continuing to the park. We shall have another stopover at Kabalega Dinners Restaurant near Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for our late lunch before we continue to Murchison Falls National Park. On arrival at the park, we shall first go to the top of the falls to experience the strongest falls in the whole world before heading to our lodge.

Eat breakfast in the morning before going on a game drive in the park’s northern area in search of some of the ‘Big Five’ (buffaloes, lions, elephants and possibly leopards). Other animals you might see include Rothschild giraffes, bushbucks, warthogs, waterbucks and a variety of antelopes. Return to your accommodation for lunch and a brief repose. After lunch, you will embark on a 3-hour boat trip to the base of the fall. 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, so carry your camera with you if you like.
After the boat cruise, you will drive slowly back to the lodge while having some game drives.

You will have breakfast early in the morning and transfer to the Kibale Forest National Park. On the way to Kibale National Park, you will have the opportunity to see tea plantations and banana plantations. We shall also have a stopover at the tea plantation for some photos before we proceed to our lodge.

Today you will track the most famous inhabitants of the Kibale National Park, the chimpanzees. Chimpanzees share 98% of the human genes making them our closest living relatives. They are found in 21 countries throughout Africa but are most easily sighted in Uganda due to their dense populations. Today, in Uganda, there are approximately 5,000 chimpanzees left in the wild. The chimpanzee trekking experience here is done on several well maintained walking trails. There is also a wonderfully diverse concentration of other primates, more than any other forest in East Africa. In fact, besides our colorful cousins, the chimpanzees, you can find red Colobus, red-tailed guenon, white-nosed monkey, gray-checked mangabey, blue monkey, L’Hoest’s monkey, and the black and white Colobus monkey. Afterwards, you will transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park for a night game drive and if we have time, we may also have an evening game drive.

On this morning, you will drive to the famous Queen Elizabeth National Park and embark on your morning game drive. It is time to explore Queen Elizabeth National Park with her 200 kilometers of well-maintained game viewing tracks. With an astonishing 5000 hippos, 2500 elephants and over 10,000 buffalo thriving in its grasslands and shorelines, this park guarantees sightings of some of Africa’s most iconic species such as elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, different species of antelope, predators such as lions, leopards, civets, genals and serval cats, black-and-white Colobus monkeys are easily spotted in the trees, and of course, the boldest species; baboons etc. After the morning game drive, you will go back to the lodge for lunch and then head for a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel.

Be up and have your breakfast served. Go for tree-climbing lions’ sighting and thereafter transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable 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. With a strenuous day ahead, you will do less on arrival but just check into your accommodation and 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 a dramatic steeply forested landscape and is incredibly dense, but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access to tourists. The time taken and the terrain varies 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-savoured. Return to your lodge for some rest time and lunch. Thereafter, embark on a transfer to Lake Bunyonyi. You will reach and do little but check into your accommodation, relax and enjoy your dinner and overnight stay.

Have a relaxed breakfast at the accommodation with spectacular views of the Bunyonyi hills just right in front of you. Thereafter, embark on your return journey to Entebbe Airport. Expect en route stopovers in Mbarara town for lunch and the Uganda Equator line mark in Kayabwe for some memorable photos and maybe buy some art pieces of interest. Proceed with the journey arriving late afternoon/evening for a drop-off at the airport. We hope to see you (or any referral) when next, you visit and thanks for choosing Ngoni Safaris Uganda.