On this 1^st day of our 10 days safari, we shall meet you at your hotel or place of residence in Kampala or Entebbe after your breakfast, give you a briefing of the tour mainly focusing on the day’s program. We will set off to Queen Elizabeth National Park, roughly an 8hours drive including a stopover at the equator monument in Kayabwe and lunch break in Mbarara. Arrival at the lodge in the evening.

Lodge options: Bush Lodge or Simba Safari camp (budget), Marafiki Safari Lodge (mid-range), Mweya Safari Lodge or Park View Safari lodge (luxury)

We shall wake up early, have a cup of coffee and drive to Kasenyi plains where we expect to see various grazers including Uganda kobs, buffaloes, and waterbucks among others. These animals attract lions and leopards for food and the game drive offers an opportunity to sight them too. During this game drive, we also get to enjoy scenic views at Bunyampaka.

We’ll drive back to the lodge, later have lunch and head to Mweya for the afternoon boat cruise. We enjoy the launch cruise watching schools of hippos and various bird species including pied kingfishers, malachite kingfishers, long-tailed cormorants, pink-barked pelicans, and African spoon bills among others. Nile crocodiles can also be seen sunbathing on the water channel shores. At the point where Kazinga channel joins Lake George, our boat will make a U-turn and we return to the lodge.

Expect to wake up early morning and drive to Kyamubra for chimpanzee tracking. At the office of this unit of the park, we shall be briefed and therafter slope down into the forest in the gorge to such for the chimps. Kyambura has few chimpanzees and the possibility to spot them is just 50%. When we spot the community of chimps, we shall have a hour with to observe them and hike back to the office where we’ll meet our safari guide waiting to transfer us to Bwindi.

An enroute lunch and arriving in Bwindi in the evening.

Meeal plan: Full board

Where to stay in Bwindi depends on visitors’ trekking sector.

Starting the day with an early morning breakfast. Pack your lunch and let us move to the park offices of our trekking sector. We’ll be briefed about gorilla trekking, the dos and don’ts when trekking and thereafter get ready to enter the forest with ranger guides. When we spot the mountain gorillas, we stay with them for one hour; a precious moment of learning about these apes and watching how amazingly they behave. Back to the lodge for relaxation.

In the evening, we shall visit the Batwa pygmies. It is an opportunity to get insights about how they lived in Bwindi forest and Mgahinga with gorillas and other wildlife before they were evicted because of conservation purposes. They also entertain visitors with their traditional music and dance.

Dinner and overnight at the lodge

As we mark the halfway point of our trip, we head to Lake Bunyonyi for a canoe ride that takes us exploring some of its islands. There is shocking history about some of these islands, such as Akampene island where umarried girls who became pregnant were dropped, abandoned and left to die there. After the ride, we’ll have lunch and relax. Those who wish to go swimming can swim in the lake as it is safe with no hippos, crocodiles and bilharzia free.

Lodge options: Bird’s Nest (luxury), Arcadia cottages (midrange), Lake Bunyonyi Overland Camp

After having breakfast at our lodge, we check out and drive to Lake Mburo national park. On arrival, we shall have lunch and go for the afternoon boat cruise. This exposes some of the wildlife and beauty of the park. Hippos, crocodiles and water birds are common sightings.

Lodge options: Mihingo Lodge (luxury), Lake Mburo Safari Lodge (midrange), Eagle’s Nest Camp (budget)

Following an early breakfast, we shall check out of the lodge and go for a game drive. Animals we expect to see include zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, waterbucks, elands, and impalas among others. We can opt for a horse ride or cycling safari instead of a game drive.

After this day’s activity, we shall transfer to Kampala or Entebbe.

Lodge options: Forest Cottages (budget), Pineapple Guesthouse (midrange), Kampala Serena Hotel (luxury)

After breakfast at the hotel, we’ll go for a partial city tour in Kampala. We’ll either visit Kabaka’s palace, Kasubi tombs, Rubaga Cathedral and Namirembe Cathedral or Kabaka’s palace, Gaddafi mosque and Namugongo martyrs shrine. At the end of the city tour, we transfer to Jinja.

Lodge options: Source of the smile Guesthouse or Jinja Nile Resort

Have breakfast at the hotel and transfer to the quad biking starting point. We’ll be briefed and orientated on how to control the bikes while on the tracks and then get ready for the adventure with riding gear. The ride takes us through villages where we shall see the locals going on with their day-to-day activities. After the ride, have lunch at the hotel and go for the boat ride to the source of the Nile.

Dinner and overnight at the hotel

What better way to end our 10-day Uganda safari than facing our fears at the Nile. This is the “rafting day”. We shall wake up, have breakfast and drive to the rafting starting point. Rafting experts will give us rafting gear and take us through a briefing and orientation. Then get onto the raft and start sailing through the calm water to the turbulent sections. The thrilling part of it is when we are hit by waters of the rapids and all wet. The activity takes 4 hours, after which we shall embark on our journey back to Entebbe.

End of safari