Start in Entebbe, Uganda, and fly out of Kigali, Rwanda, on this 13-day safari in the Heart of Africa.
Trip Highlights
- Rhino tracking
- Top of the Falls
- Chimpanzee tracking in Uganda
- One day of Golden Monkey tracking in Rwanda
- Visit to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which was established in association with the Jane Goodall Institute
- Game drives
- Boat safaris
Day 1: Airport Pick-Up
Your Uganda Rwanda Safari begins at Entebbe Airport, where our company representative, together with the guide, will welcome you and transfer you to your lodge.
Depending on the time of your arrival, you might be able to do some optional activities in Entebbe, such as a visit to the Botanical Gardens or the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC). Please note that all activities today are at your own cost.
Journey Time: 10 minutes
Accommodation: The Boma Hotel Entebbe
Meal Plan: No meals included
Day 2: Ngamba Island
After breakfast, you will take a short boat ride to Ngamba Island to visit the Chimpanzee Sanctuary, established in association with the Jane Goodall Institute. The island is also home to monitor lizards and many species of birds and is a natural habitat for chimpanzees that have been orphaned or rescued from captivity.
You will watch these fascinating primates from a viewing platform. Later in the evening, you will transfer back to Entebbe and proceed to Kampala to break the journey and cut out the morning traffic jam for the next day.
Dinner and overnight stay at Cassia Lodge.
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 3: Transfer to Murchison Falls National Park via Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary
Today, after breakfast, your guide will pick you up from Kampala and drive you to Murchison Falls National Park. En route, you will visit Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, where you will go for a game walk with an experienced ranger, giving you a unique opportunity to view the rhinos from close range.
Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley National Parks once had both black and white rhinos; however, widespread poaching during the Idi Amin era resulted in the disappearance of these majestic animals from the wild. Founded in 1998, Rhino Fund Uganda works to reintroduce black and white rhinos into Uganda and runs a breeding programme.
Murchison Falls National Park is the largest conservation area in Uganda, covering an area of over 3,840 km². The park’s name derives from its famous waterfall, the mighty Murchison Falls, which are formed where the Victoria Nile powerfully forces its way through a narrow cleft before plunging 43m down with a thunderous roar.
The mighty Nile River divides the park into its north and south sections. At the spectacular Murchison Falls, the world’s longest river explodes violently through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment before plunging into a frothing pool 43m below.
As the river attracts large numbers of game, a boat safari up the Nile provides the perfect opportunity to see and photograph the animals. Carefully watched by crocodiles, hundreds of hippos, buffaloes, water birds, apes, and all the other thirsty wildlife that the Nile attracts, you go to the bottom of Murchison Falls, which approaches you with a thunderous sound.
By car or after a short hike, you can reach the Top of the Falls, from where you have a perfect view of the impressive falls and the river snaking below.
You will be staying at a great mid-range lodge, where you can relax during the rest of your day.
Journey Time: 7 hours
Accommodation: Paraa Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 4: Morning Game Drive – Afternoon Boat Safari – Top of the Falls
Today, after breakfast, you will depart for an early morning game drive across the rolling plains of Uganda’s largest national park. The 3,893 sq km park is home to a range of animals, and you will have a chance of viewing some of the park’s residents, including lions, giraffes, hartebeest, buffalo, and elephants. For the birders amongst you, these areas support the secretary bird and the black-chested snake eagle, to name a few.
In the afternoon, go for a boat trip to the base of Murchison Falls, where the Nile thunders through a small 7-meter gap, plunging 43 meters into the Nile on the way to Lake Albert. The banks of the Nile are densely populated with crocodiles, hippopotamus, and a range of other wildlife that come to the river to drink.
After the boat safari, you will hike to the top of the falls. From here, you have a wonderful view and fantastic photo opportunities.
Accommodation: Paraa Safari Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 5: Transfer to Kibale National Park
Today, you will begin your journey to Kibale Forest National Park. The long drive is incredibly scenic, passing through tea plantations and the lush green countryside that characterizes so much of Uganda.
Kibale Forest National Park is located in west-central Uganda, just east of the Rwenzori Mountains, near the town of Fort Portal. The 766 km² park predominantly covers evergreen rain forest and ranges between 1,100 and 1,600m in elevation. Kibale Forest is one of the last remaining expanses to contain both lowland and montane forests and forms a continuous forest with Queen Elizabeth National Park.
You will have a packed lunch en route, arriving in the evening for overnight and dinner.
Journey Time: 8 hours
Accommodation: Kyaninga Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 6: Chimpanzee Habituation Experience (Full Day)
Have breakfast and report to the park headquarters for a briefing, after which you embark on the Chimpanzee Habituation Experience, where you attend to the chimpanzees as a caretaker.
You will enter the forest early and watch chimps leaving their overnight nests between 6:00 and 6:30am before feeding, copulating, hunting, breastfeeding, resting, patrolling, and displaying until it is time to build new nests around 7pm.
Return for dinner and overnight as above.
Accommodation: Kyaninga Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 7: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park
Have breakfast at leisure and go for a guided nature walk in the Bigodi Swamp, after which you continue your journey to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s second-largest park, located at the base of the majestic Rwenzori Mountain range, adjacent to Lake Edward and Lake George. The park has game including Uganda kob, warthog, and waterbuck. Lions are often sighted both in and at the entrance to the park. Be ready to see huge numbers of hippos and elephants, and keep your eyes on the lookout for a leopard lazing in the sunshine.
In the late afternoon, you will relax at the lodge, enjoying this Uganda Rwanda Safari.
Journey Time: 3½ hours
Accommodation: Enganzi Game Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 8: Game Drive & Kazinga Channel Boat Safari
Today, you wake up early. A little before sunrise, coffee, tea, and donuts will be served in the lounge before we head out for a long game drive in time to see the first rays of light. You will search for all the wildlife in the park and are likely to come across elephants, buffalo, lions, waterbuck, leopards, Uganda kob, and many warthogs.
A well-deserved brunch will be served back at the lodge in the late morning.
In the afternoon, you will take a boat safari along the Kazinga Channel, which joins Lake George and Lake Edward.
Here, you will see a lot of hippos (more than you can possibly imagine!), as well as a variety of other animals that come to the waterhole to drink or bathe. You can expect to see buffalo, crocodiles, bathing elephants, and a range of beautiful birds. This will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of your tour.
After the boat safari, you will game drive back to the lodge.
Accommodation: Enganzi Game Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Optional Activities
Lion Tracking
For visitors who yearn to get up close to wild African fauna, a research trip is a rewarding adventure. This new and unique experience allows visitors to actively participate in monitoring some of the lions in the park, using locator devices and learning habituation calls, as well as monitoring weather, surroundings, and behaviour.
The results are added to researchers’ databases, contributing valuable information to the overall understanding of wildlife ecology and helping to conserve this wonderful ecosystem. This will also give you a 95% chance to see the lions.
The number of people on each outing is limited in order to reduce stress on the animals and to increase the quality of the experience for visitors.
The experiential tourism activities currently available are Mongoose Tracking, Lion Tracking, Hippo Census, and Bird Counts.
Experiential tours last between one and three hours. They usually take place in the early morning or evening, or occasionally at night. All activities must be booked through the Visitor Information Centre in Mweya at least 24 hours in advance.
Cost: $100 US dollars p.p.
Kyambura Gorge
Another optional activity in Queen Elizabeth National Park is to visit the Kyambura Gorge. A hike through the gorge gives you the opportunity to see habituated chimpanzees and other types of primates, including red-tailed monkeys, black-and-white colobus, baboons, and vervet monkeys.
Although the chance of spotting chimpanzees is only 50%, the landscape is among the most impressive in Uganda and is absolutely worth it.
Cost: $50 US dollars p.p.
Reservation needed? Yes, 24 hours before.
Day 9: Tree-Climbing Lions – Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Today, in the morning, on your way to Bwindi, you will go for a game drive in the Ishasha sector for a chance to see the tree-climbing lions.
After lunch at Ishasha Wilderness Camp, you will be transferred to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home of the mountain gorillas.
Journey Time: 3 hours to Bwindi
Accommodation: Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 10: Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi
Today, after an early breakfast, you will be transferred to the park headquarters for a briefing about gorilla tracking. You will encounter one of Bwindi’s endangered mountain gorillas. For most people, this is the absolute highlight of their tour in Uganda.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park boasts both mountain gorillas and chimpanzees – the only forest in Africa that can make this claim. It also hosts five other species of primates, 113 species of mammals, over 200 species of butterflies, and 360 species of birds. The gorillas you track are habituated and can tolerate the presence of humans for a brief period of time every day.
The time taken to track the gorillas can be as few as 2 hours to as many as 7 hours. Once the gorillas have been located, your group will be allowed a maximum of one hour with them. Coming face-to-face with a mountain gorilla is a truly humbling and emotional experience. This is a fantastic and privileged opportunity to get up close and personal with Uganda’s very own ‘Gorillas in the Mist’.
Accommodation: Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Optional Activities
Batwa Trail: During this moving tour, the Batwa demonstrate hunting techniques, gather honey, point out medicinal plants, and demonstrate how to make bamboo cups.
Guests are then invited to the sacred Ngarama Cave, once home to the Batwa King, to be entertained by traditional music and dance.
Village Walk: Overlooking the imposing hillsides of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, with the mist swirling over the summits, this is one of the most dramatic settings for your cultural tour. Among others, meet a traditional healer who not only treats the sick but uses his knowledge to conserve and educate about the various medicinal plants.
Day 11: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park – Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda
Today, after an early morning breakfast, you will cross the border into Rwanda for the last leg of this Uganda Rwanda Safari, with about 2 hours at the border. You will check into your lodge and, in the afternoon, you will relax.
Journey Time: 4 hours
Accommodation: Da Vinci Gorilla Lodge
Meal Plan: Full Board
Day 12: Golden Monkey Tracking – Transfer to Kigali
After breakfast, you will be transferred to the park headquarters for golden monkey tracking, which is a completely different experience but just as rewarding. These beautiful, lively creatures are on the endangered list and are fascinating to watch as they leap through the vegetation.
You will return to the lodge, have lunch, and after lunch, you will be driven to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city.
Journey Time: 3 hours
Accommodation: Hotel de Milles Collines
Meal Plan: Breakfast and Lunch
Day 13: Airport Transfer
Today, depending on your flight time, you can visit the Genocide Memorial and Education Centre. It’s a dignified tribute to the victims, including a poignant Children’s Memorial, and a detailed description of the darkest hour in Rwanda’s recent history.
Later, you will be transferred to Kigali Airport for your outbound flight.
Dates
This is a private tour, and departure can be organised for anytime throughout the year, subject to the availability of accommodation and transport.
Hotel Booking
The bookings with the hotels mentioned in the program depend on availability. Reservations will only be made after your booking.
In case the mentioned hotels are not available during the requested period, we will do our utmost to book a hotel in the same class for you. Of course, we will only do this after consulting you.
Gorilla and Chimpanzee Permit Reservation
It is not possible to ‘reserve’ gorilla and chimpanzee permits. Therefore, we can only buy them after your booking and down payment, and this also depends on availability.
Transport
Our standard offering for this tour is a customized 4 X 4 safari van, dustproof and fitted with a charging system, with a pop-up roof for easy safari viewing. All passengers will have a dedicated window seat. Your professional and courteous driver/guide will be at your disposal for questions or translations.
Important
Gorilla tracking is dependent on permit availability at the time of your booking. Gorilla permits in all national parks are in very high demand, and we advise that you book them as early as possible.
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