Flight Safari Highlights
Day 1: Entebbe – Kampala
Day 2: Kampala – Murchison Falls National Park
Day 3: Murchison Falls National Park –Game drive/Boat ride
Day 4: Murchison Falls National Park – Kibale Forest National Park
Day 5: Kibale Forest National Park – Chimps Walk – Queen Elizabeth National Park
Day 6: Queen Elizabeth National Park – Game drive/Boat ride
Day 7: Queen Elizabeth National Park – Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Day 8: Bwindi – Gorilla Tracking
Day 9: Bwindi – Lake Mburo
Day 10: Lake Mburo – Entebbe
Day One: Airport Transfer.
Meet and greet our guide who will transfer you for dinner and overnight at Fairway Hotel.
Day Two: Kampala to Murchison Fall National Park
Leave Kampala after your breakfast and have a stopover at New Court View hotel for lunch. We will continue through the park stopping at the top of the falls which is a fantastic sight. Here the Nile, the longest river in the world, is forced through a narrow gap in the rock (only 6 meters wide), before ferociously plunging down 45 meters. From here we will continue to Murchison River Lodge for Dinner and overnight.
Day Three: Game Drive and Boat Trip
After a cup of tea, embark on an early morning game drive on the northern bank where your guide will help you spot elephants, lions, Cape buffalo, Rothschild’s giraffes, hartebeests, waterbucks, oribi, bushbucks, bohor reed bucks, hyenas, and on rare cases leopards. Return to the lodge for mid morning breakfast. Relax at the lodge. After lunch, you will take an afternoon trip to the foot of Murchison Falls. This boat trip along the Nile is often cited as being the highlight of a trip to Murchison since it allows you to get up-close and personal with the animals. Along this stretch of the river, there are reported to be around 4,000 hippos in addition to some enormous Nile crocodiles. The bird life is stunning with brightly colored kingfishers and bee-eaters darting along the riverbanks. If lucky, you may see the rare and prehistoric looking shoebill, which is a cross between the dodo and a dinosaur. The boat takes you to the base of the falls which only adds to their impressiveness. Dinner and overnight at Murchison River Lodge.
Day Four: Murchison Fall National Park to Kibale Forest National park
After breakfast, we will depart with our packed lunch to Kibale National park. We will arrive in Fort portal town in the late afternoon. Tonight you will spend an overnight at primate Rwenzori View Guesthouse.
Day Five: Kibale Forest National park –Chimps Walk – Queen Elizabeth National park.
A relatively early morning start, to report to the ranger station in Kibale National Park to track habituated chimps – these delightful apes, more closely related to humans than to any other living creature, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees. The incredibly diverse forest is home to over 13 species of primates including red Colobus monkey, the rare L’Hoest, blue monkey, grey mangabey, pottos, black faced vervet monkeys, baboons and also bushbabies.
A network of shady forest trails provides much to delight botanists and butterfly lovers, while birders are in for a treat with 335 species recorded including the endemic Prirogrine’s ground thrush. The elusive forest elephant, smaller and hairier that its savannah counterpart, moves seasonally into the developed part of the park, while other terrestrial mammals include buffalo, giant forest hog and a half dozen antelope species. After this wonderful experience, we will depart to Queen Elizabeth National park. Dinner and overnight at Hippo Grill Camp.
Day Six: Queen Elizabeth National park – Game drives/Boat cruise
This morning you will leave for early morning game drives. Expect to see various mammals like buffalo, hippo, lion antelopes, and hyenas among other species. We will return to the lodge for lunch and a chance to relax before taking an afternoon boat trip along the Kazinga channel. This will give you the opportunity to view wildlife up close: hippo’s huff and spray mere feet away from the boat, 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. After this wonderful afternoon, a slow drive back to the lodge. Dinner and overnight at Hippo Grill Camp.
Day Seven: Queen Elizabeth National park – Bwindi National Park
This morning, you will leave for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. You will drive through the seasonal southern sector of Queen Elizabeth called Ishasha. Here we will take lunch by the Ishasha River and try to find the famed Ishasha tree-climbing lions before continuing to Bwindi, home to the few remaining mountain gorillas. Bird life and primate life in Bwindi is quite superb, and there is an incredible variety of flora.
Bwindi is the Bird watchers haven! It holds 348 species of birds and supports 24 of 26 Albertine Rift Endemics that occur in Uganda; and seven red data book species. Once continuous with the forests of the Virunga Volcanoes (Dian Fossey’s stomping ground), Bwindi is now an ecological island, surrounded by cultivation on the rich volcanic soils. Dinner and overnight at Lake Kitandara Camp.
Day Eight: Gorilla Tracking.
Today is the big day… After breakfast with packed lunch, prepare yourself for an encounter with one of Bwindi’s gentle giants: the rare Mountain Gorilla. For most people this is the absolute highlight of their tour in Uganda. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest boasts both Mountain Gorillas and Chimpanzees – the only forest in Africa which can make this claim, in fact. It also hosts five other species of primate, 113 species of mammal, over 200 butterflies and 360 birds.
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’. Dinner and overnight at Lake Kitandara Camp (FB).
Day Nine: Bwindi – Lake Mburo National Park.
Transfer to L.Mburo National park. You will have lunch in Mbarara and then proceed to the park for an evening boat ride or a game drive. Dinner and over at Rwakobo Rock.
Day Ten Lake Mburo National Park – Entebbe.
Transfer to Kampala for a city tour from where you will be taken to the airport for your next flight back home.