Primates of Uganda Safari

After your early morning breakfast, depart Kampala and drive southwest towards Bwindi Impenetrable National Park—the fabled home to the rare mountain gorilla. The largest living primate and the rarest of all the apes, an estimated population of only 1000 live in tropical rain forest in the border area of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in equatorial East Africa. Along the way you will have expansive and ever-changing views as the landscape changes from flat bush and farmland to richly green rolling steep hills of the Kigezi highlands—it really is a breath-taking journey and you’ll also pass through animated and colourful market towns and villages.We stop and have lunch in the town of Mbarara and later proceed to Bwindi arriving in the late afternoon. Check in at your preferred lodge close to one of the gates of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park from where you begin your gorilla-tracking the next morning. Whichever lodge you choose, you will experience the sights and sounds of the ‘impenetrable forest’, so-called because of the dense and tangled foliage and towering trees. Enjoy your dinner and prepare for the once-in-a-lifetime experience of meeting the mountain gorillas.

• Overnight in Bwindi National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

You will wake early for breakfast and be taken to the park headquarters where you will have a briefing from your gorilla-tracking team at 8 am about the rules of the park, and what to do and what not to do when you meet up with the gorillas. Then head off with your group through the foothills and higher-altitude forest—ensure you have strong shoes, wet-weather gear and a stout walking stick. As the gorilla family sleeps in a different place every night and travels through the day, pausing occasionally to eat and rest, you’ll have several guides and trackers to find their location and tracking takes between 2 and 8 hours. But once your group catches up with the mountain gorilla family, all fatigue is immediately forgotten when you discover that you are sitting only a few metres from the gorillas in the undergrowth. You are allotted one hour to observe them, and will perhaps see the babies scrambling up trees, juveniles playing, females grooming each other or feeding their young, or even a giant silverback (dominant male) pounding his chest. The gorillas are just as interested in their human visitors and will stare curiously back and it is a spine-tingling hour. Afterwards the guide will lead you gently away for the long but exhilarated walk back, and later head back to your lodge and rest. In the evening you can choose to relax at the lodge or take an evening interactive walk with the local Batwa people—the original hunter-gatherer community of the forest and you will have the opportunity to learn how they live and also watch them perform traditional singing and dancing.

• Overnight in Bwindi National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

After a tasty breakfast, check-out from the lodge and start your journey from Bwindi northwards to Kibale National Park. The beautiful Kibale Forest lies in the pretty crater lake region around the town of Fort Portal which has a backdrop of the magnificent Rwenzori Mountains. Kibale’s varied altitude supports different types of habitat, from wet tropical forest on the plateau to woodland and savanna on the floor of the Rift Valley. Check-in at your comfortable lodge and enjoy dinner and the surrounding brilliantly-green trees and foliage. Depending on the accommodation facility you are using, you could opt for an evening forest walk where you might spot nocturnal bush babies.

• Overnight in Kibale National Park
• Accommodation at your camp or lodge
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner included
• Drinking water is provided. All other drinks are extra

After an early morning breakfast, proceed to the park headquarters and gate for the chimpanzee-tracking excursion. In much the same way as you go gorilla-tracking, a team of guides and trackers will escort you through the forest looking for a family of chimpanzees to observe them in their natural habitat. The walk lasts between 2 and 5 hours, and the chances of locating them are excellent (over 90%). This is also an opportunity to see beautiful birds and the forest is home to over 375 species, and other primates such as black-and-white and L’Hoest’s monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys and olive baboons. When locating the chimpanzees, it’s an amazing experience to watch them jump through the high branches, watch them feed and play, and see their nests in which they rest/sleep.Later return back to the lodge for lunch, check-out and get back on the road for the drive to Kampala. This exciting 4-day tour ends at you hotel or at Entebbe International Airport for your onward flight.

• Accommodation: No accommodation
• Meals & drinks: Breakfast & Lunch
• Drinking water (Other drinks not included)