Day 1: Arrival and Kampala City Tour
Your Kampala City Tour will begin shortly after your arrival and you will start off with a visit to Kasubi Tombs a great World Cultural Heritage site in Uganda for the Buganda Kingdom. Proceed to Namugongo Martyrs Shrine where the 22 martyrs were killed between 1885 and 1887 by Kabaka (King) Mwanga of Buganda in Uganda; 13 of the martyrs were burnt to death at Namugongo.
Proceed to visit the Uganda museum on your Kampala City Day Tour. Lunch break at any good restaurant in Kampala preferably your choice. Thereafter drive to Kabaka’s Palace in Mengo and a visit to Kabaka’s Lake is amazing.
Accommodation: 2Friends Beach Hotel
Meals: Dinner and Drinking water.
Day 2: Visit Mabamba swamp and transfer to Jinja
On this day, you will wake up early, have breakfast and later be transferred to Mabamba swamp by a Pamoja Tours and Travel guide. It is on the Northern shore of Lake Victoria, Mabamba swamp is just 12km West of Entebbe. Mabamba will captivate birders and non-birders alike. The wetland is Uganda’s most important birding site and it is home to over 300 bird species.
Accommodation: Source of the Nile Hotel
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 3: White water rafting and visit to the Source of the Nile.
The rafting begins at The Nile Source at 09:30 am with a comprehensive briefing and being fitted with the special rafting gear and is done on an 18-kilometer stretch of the Nile River. No prior experience with rafting is required. The first few rapids are of low grade (1, 2) to build the confidence of the participants before guiding them gradually into the more challenging grades.
A total of eight major rapids are rafted to maximize the adrenaline rush of this adventure. You will, after the rafting adventure, visit the Source of the Nile and later transfer to your hotel.
Accommodation: Source of the Nile Hotel
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 4: Transfer to Murchison falls National Park via Ziwa rhino sanctuary.
After your breakfast, a Pamoja guide will pick you up from your hotel. Along the way, as you are about to reach Murchison falls, you will stop-over and branch to track black and white Rhino at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Rhinoceros are among the big 5 and due to heavy poaching had disappeared from Uganda since the early 1980s. The sanctuary was set up in 2005 to breed and later introduce Rhinos to Uganda’s major game parks. You will then continue to the Murchison falls national park to check in at your lodge.
Accommodation: Fort Murchison
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 5: Early morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise
The day begins with early breakfast. At 7:00am, you will be taken for your first morning game drive (Usually along the Delta of Lake Albert) where you will finally see the parks great Savannah grasslands and overlooking Budongo forest. Throughout the safari, you will be escorted by a park guide/ranger who is familiar with the area and where to find the animals. You will also see several mammals including warthogs, antelope, lions, hyenas, giraffes and primates among others. You will then head back to your lodge to have lunch, freshen up and prepare for the mega launch cruise.
While on the cruise, be prepared to spot more than 200 bird species (Kingfishers, the shoe billed stork etc), Nile crocodiles, hippos, monitor lizards, elephants and many of the animals seen during your early morning safari drinking along the river Nile shores. The boat slowly takes you up to the foot of the Murchison falls. After this, our guide will pick you up and take you back to your lodge.
Accommodation: Fort Murchison
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 6: Top of the falls and transfer to Kibale
On this day, you have breakfast and head to the top of the falls where you will view it from above. At the top of Murchison Falls “also known as Kabalega Falls”, the Nile forces its way through a gap in the rocks that is only 8 meters wide, and tumbles 43 meters before flowing westward into Lake Albert.
Later you continue to Kibale Forest National Park via Hoima and have a stopover in Fort portal for lunch. Reach the lodge, check for dinner and overnight stay.
Accommodation: Kibale Forest Camp
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 7: Chimpanzee habituation and transfer to Kasese
The full-day Chimpanzee Habituation Experience works with a chimp community which is undergoing habituation. Early visitors can watch chimps leaving their overnight nests between 6:00 – 6:30am before feeding, copulating, hunting, breast feeding, resting, patrolling and displaying until it is time to build new nests around 7pm.
For habituation to work, animals need to see people regularly over a long period of time in non-threatening circumstances. For a long time, the habituator will get only sporadic glimpses through binoculars and will have long hours of seeing nothing at all. However, for those who are patient, have an interest in natural history, and enjoy activities like bird watching, identifying plants and insects, hiking and camping, habituating primates can be enjoyable and immensely rewarding. This habituation will take place for about 4 hours and later you will be transferred to Kasese for dinner and overnight stay
Accommodation: Trekkers Hostel
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 8: Rwenzori hike, Nyakalengija (1615m Asl.) – Nyabitaba Camp (2651m Asl.)
The central circuit starts at the Rwenzori Mountaineering Services offices at Nyakalengija. You need to arrive in the morning to allow ample time to rent equipment (extra 30 dollars for renting) and meet your guides and porters. The trail begins by passing through farmland to the park boundary beyond which it follows a thick forest along the Mubuku River. Then a steep climb up onto a massive ridge to reach Nyabitaba hut. During this part of the trip, you may hear chimpanzees and see black and white colobus, blue monkey and the brilliantly coloured Rwenzori turaco. The hike takes an average of 6 -7 hours.
Accommodation: Wooden huts
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 9: Nyabitaba and descend back down
From Nyabitaba follow the trail that drops down through the forest to the Kurt Shafer Bridge, just below the confluence of the Mubuku lake where you will pass through bamboo forests and slope downwards to where you will meet your guide.
Accommodation: Sandton Hotel
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 10: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park for morning game drive and afternoon boat cruise.
The day begins early as we go for our morning game drive, heading for Kasenyi plains, towards the Kobs mating grounds, in search for wildlife that may include the Bushbuck, Waterbuck, Elephants, Buffaloes, lions, Leopards and other wildlife in their natural habitat.
The game drives normally take 3 -4 hrs before returning for breakfast. In the afternoon we take on a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, a natural link between Lake Edward and Lake George.
The Channel accommodates abundant wildlife, hundreds of birds that are sighted fishing in the channel and hundreds of hippos that are cooling off at the shores, this cruise will definitely be one of the highlights of your safari.
Accommodation: Buffalo Safari Lodge
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 11: Community walk, coffee tour, twin lakes visit.
On this day, after our early morning breakfast, we shall have a community walk where we shall learn about the local people, their culture and also visit coffee farms. Later, you will visit the twin lakes, also have a local meal preparation experience where you will later have lunch. Then finally transfer back to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.
Accommodation: Buffalo Safari Lodge
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 12: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park via Ishasha sector
On this day, you will have your breakfast and engage in a game drive to the famous Ishasha sector for tree climbing lions and other animals on your way. You will have lunch enroute and arrive in Bwindi for dinner and overnight stay. Relax early so as to prepare for the next day’s activity.
Accommodation: Buhoma Gorilla Camp
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 13: Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Forest and transfer to Lake Bunyonyi
You will have an early morning breakfast at 6:30 am and with packed Lunch you will move to the park headquarters to join other trackers in a briefing about the gorilla trekking rules at 7:30 am. You will trek through thick creepers and undergrowth with your guides to find the Gorillas, which can take you 1-8 hours. The steeply forested landscape is incredibly dense but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access by tourists. You will will stay with Gorillas for one hour once sited and later transferred to Lake Bunyonyi.
The drive will be in the beautiful part of the country often referred to as ‘the Switzerland of Africa’ because of its unique cool weather despite being near the Equator. This lake is said to be one of the most beautiful places in western Uganda. It is the second deepest lake in Africa (900 meters deep) and also one of the few places in the country where it is considered safe to swim as it is bilharzia free.
Note: Depending on your time of arrival at Lake Bunyonyi, you can pay the extra amount for the activity (Community Walk, Canoe Ride, Boat Ride, Bicycle Ride, Bird Watching and Cray Fishing…) directly at the accommodation and do the activity on this day or on the next day before departing to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Accommodation: Lake Bunyonyi Eco Resort
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 14: Drive to Lake Mburo National Park and have an afternoon game drive.
On this day, wake up very early, have your breakfast and then you will be transferred from Lake Bunyonyi to Lake Mburo National Park where you will have an afternoon game drive. Head to your hotel, check-in, freshen up and prepare for a night game drive. Expect to see a number of animals in the parks such as zebras, antelopes, impalas, elands, buffalos, oribi, Defassa waterbuck, hippo, hyena, Topi and reedbuck among others.
Accommodation: Kigambira Safari Lodge
Meals: All meals and drinking water.
Day 15: Morning game drive, walking safari and transfer back to Kampala/ Entebbe.
Early morning breakfast and later go for a game drive, walking safari and get back to your hotel to check-out and then transfer back to Kampala.
(Optional activities at an extra fee include: horseback riding, quad biking, cycling or visiting a dairy farm)
You will have a stopover at the Equator, for pictures if time allows. You will also be able to do souvenir shopping along the way to the airport.
We recommend you to book a late-evening flight back home.
Meals: Breakfast and Lunch with drinking water.
End of your 15 Days Uganda Wildlife Expedition