Ugandan Odyssey

Day 1: Entebbe

International flight into Entebbe Airport. Upon landing, clear Immigration and collect your luggage before leaving the airport to meet your driver by the terminal doors. 10 minute transfer to your hotel where you will spend the night. 

Overnight: Protea Hotel

Meals: Breakfast

Day 2: Murchison Falls National Park

After a good night's sleep and breakfast, you will be met by your guide to begin your safari. Drive north through a beautiful and varied landscape to Murchison Falls National Park, a journey of (350kms/6-7hrs). En route, visit the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.

Together with a guide you can track the rhinos and observe them in their habitat at a close (but safe) distance. Have lunch at the Rhino sanctuary before pressing on to Murchison Falls National Park. 

A further one hour drive into the park takes you to the Murchison Falls that give the park its name. Take in the incredible sight of the falls before heading to the lodge for sundowners. 

Overnight: Bakers Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 3: Murchison Falls National Park

After an early breakfast, start the day with a game drive on the northern bank of the Nile. You'll likely see Rothschild giraffes, elephants, lions, Jackson hartebeest, oribis, waterbucks, different species of savannah woodland birds. If you're lucky, you might even find the elusive leopard lurking in the bushes. 

In the afternoon, enjoy a Nile cruise to the bottom of the falls for game viewing at close quarters. Disembark at the base of the falls and hike up to the top of where you're rewarded with amazing views of the Nile. Meet your guide for a transfer back to your lodge.

Overnight: Bakers Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 4: Murchison Falls National Park

Another full day exploring the wildlife of Murchison Falls with game drives in the morning and afternoon. 

Overnight: Bakers Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 5: Kibale Forest National Park

The safari heads south today with a 400km/7- 8hrs drive down the Escarpment of the Albertine Rift to Kibale Forest. The journey is broken up for a picnic lunch at a scenic spot. Fort Portal sits near the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains and is your springboard into the Kibale Forest. 

Overnight: Primate Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 6: Kibale Forest National Park

After an early breakfast, make your way to the nearby Park HQ for the pre-tracking briefing, after which you will walk or drive to the trailhead for the start of your chimpanzee trekking adventure. As you walk deeper into the forest, you'll learn about the flora and fauna of Kibale from your trekking guide. 

Once contact is made, you'll spend one hour with the chimpanzees as they go about their daily life - feeding, playing, grooming, taking care of their young, howling and screeching. Return back to the lodge for lunch.

In the afternoon, enjoy a guided nature walk through the Bigodi wetlands. The Bigodi Swamp Walk is an initiative of the local community. It's a gentle trek with local community guides that takes your through 4km (3-4 hours) of wilderness where you'll encounter a rich diversity of birdlife and primates. All proceeds from eco-tourism go back to into the community, a conservation project well worth supporting. 

Overnight: Primate Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 7: Queen Elizabeth National Park

After an early breakfast, leave the forests of Kibale behind and drive 3 hours Queen Elizabeth National Park, a journey marked by scenic views of crater lakes and rolling hills. Arrive at the lodge and spend the afternoon at leisure. 

Overnight: Elephant Plains Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 8: Queen Elizabeth National Park

After breakfast at the lodge overlooking the plains of Queens, go out in search for lions. Your guide will teach the basic telemetry used to locate the lions, as well as discussing the history of the park itself, the human-animal conflict in communities around the park, veterinary issues within the park, and lion family dynamics.

In the afternoon, leave the vehicle behind to join a scenic boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, a 33km long natural and pre-historic canal that joins Lakes Edward and Lake George. Formed by tectonic activity millions of years ago during the formation of the rift valleys, the canal, 2 to 3kms at its widest, is now the most dominant feature of Queen Elizabeth National Park. You are almost always guaranteed excellent wildlife sightings including large schools of hippopotamus, Nile crocodiles, wallowing buffaloes on its reedy banks, elephants, multitudes of birds including many endemics as well as numerous other plains game that come to drink at the water's edge. 

Overnight: Elephant Plains Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 9: Queen Elizabeth National Park

After the mornings game drive, head to the southern section of the park in search for the famous tree-climbing lions in the Ishasha sector. Like most road trips in Uganda, beautiful views frame the journey with the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains on your right and the luscious green valleys on your left. Explore the Ishasha sector and find lions in the trees before heading the Ishasha Tented Camp in time for drinks as the sun goes down. 

Overnight: Ishasha Tented Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Spend the morning exploring the Ishasha sector. There are low visitor numbers in this part of the park and it has a real wilderness feel. In the afternoon, visit the nearby Agatha's community project to learn real stories of how the community in Ishasha is devising ways to pull themselves out of poverty, guests can participate in preparing a meal of millet Pap/porridge from scratch.

Return to the lodge to spend the evening relaxing in this beautiful part of Uganda. 

Overnight: Ishasha Tented Camp

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 11: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Enjoy a leisurely breakfast by the river before leaving Ishasha and drive 1.5/2 hours to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to the mountain gorillas. Check in to your lodge at Buhoma and have lunch. After some relaxation, head out on an evening village walk to meet the local people around Buhoma.

Overnight: Mahogany Springs

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 12: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

The Big Day arrives! Wake up early for a nourishing breakfast (you will need the energy) and then a short transfer to the national park offices where you will be allocated a gorilla family and a gorilla tracking guide. After a pre-tracking briefing on the ecology and history of the gorillas, as well as appropriate safety precautions, you head out by road to the trail-head for the start of your adventure.

The trek begins. Expect to walk between 2 and 8 hours in steep and sometimes muddy conditions, with showers often appearing. The trek can be tough and requires a degree of (average) fitness. When contact is made with the gorillas, you will be able to spend up to one hour with them. Watch them feed, move, play and wrestle. When the hour is up, return through the forest to your vehicle and the lodge for a second night stay.

Overnight: Mahogany Springs

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 13: Lake Mburo National Park

As we head back east towards Kampala, we break up the journey with a night at the charming Lake Mburo National Park. As you head into the park, you'll likely spot impalas, topis, warthogs, zebras, and buffaloes. Take a boat ride across Lake Mburo where hippos and birds flock. 

Overnight: Mihingo Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 14: Jinja

Up early to go for a guided nature walk. Return to the lodge for a late breakfast before hitting the road for the final stretch to Jinja (~6 hours). Stop off at the equator en route for photos and shopping in the area. Arrive in Jinja in the late afternoon and spend the rest of the day at leisure. 

Overnight: Wildwaters

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 15: Jinja

Today is a full day in Jinja and there's plenty you can do, including white-water rafting, canoeing, horse-riding, bungee jumping and fishing that can be paid for locally.

Overnight: Wildwaters

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 16: Jinja

After a final leisurely breakfast, you will be driven back to Entebbe in time to connect with your international flight home.

Meals: Breakfast