11 Days 10 Nights – Murchison Falls, Kibale Forest, Queen Elizabeth ,Bwindi Forest National Parks

The scheduled internal flight to Murchison falls from Entebbe is an afternoon flight departing at around mid-day. Clients that arrive in the dawn hours, they need to wait in the airport lounge until check in time or preferably clients can move out of the airport for a short trip around Entebbe.

Clients depart Entebbe to either Pakuba or Bugungu airstrip found inside the park which creates an opportunity an enroute game drive to your accommodation.

In the North end of the Albertine Rift valley exists the largest and oldest conservation area in Uganda. Before it became Murchison falls National Park, it was initially gazetted as a game reserve in 1926

Murchison Falls National Park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into vast, palm-dotted savannah. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926, it is Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area, hosting 76 species of mammals and 451 species of birds.

The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45 meters over the remnant rift valley wall, creating the dramatic Murchison Falls, the centerpiece of the park and the final event in an 80 meter stretch of rapids.  The mighty cascade drains the last of the river’s energy, transforming it into a broad, placid stream that flows quietly across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert.  This stretch of river provides one of Uganda’s most remarkable wildlife spectacles.  Regular visitors to the riverbanks include elephants, giraffes and buffaloes while hippos, Nile crocodiles and aquatic birds are permanent residents.

Optional activities include: Delta cruise, Sunset cruise among others.

Accommodation options in Murchison falls.

Luxury:
Nile safari Lodge, Paraa Safari Lodge, Chobe safari lodge

Mid – range:
Twiga safari Lodge, Murchison River lodge, Pakuba safari Lodge, Budongo Eco lodge

Budget:
Bamboo village, Red chili camp, Kabalega Wilderness Lodge, Sambiya river lodge

Murchison falls national park is a home to the worldly known big 5 which includes Lions, buffalo, hippo, Elephant and Leopard. Alongside the big five, Murchison falls is a home to so many other mammals like the Uganda Kob, Rothschild’s giraffe and Orbi, antelopes among others.

Embark on a morning game drive around Murchison falls national park which is divided into the northern and the southern side, Northern side known as Paraa and the southern side known as Bugungu which is also known as the heart of Murchison.

The major areas of the drive are Buligi peninsula and Delta. The Delta area offers visitors an opportunity to see Lions, while the triangle of grassland in the Buligi Peninsula provides an opportunity to see elephant, buffalo, antelopes, and giraffes. This grassland is bound by the Victoria Nile entering Lake Albert with the Albert Nile flowing out of it and Lions, leopards, plus water birds along with hippos can also be spotted here. Much of the southern part is populated with dense bush and forest, where lions and giraffes can also be seen.

A morning game drive creates a great chance to see animals while still in their habitants before dispersing away for the day’s hunt. Don’t forget to carry along an insect repellant for the case of tsetse flies.

Return to the lodge for lunch and a relaxation before proceeding for your afternoon scheduled boat cruise to the bottom of the falls.

The Murchison falls trip to the bottom of the falls cruises starts from the jetty right to the bottom of the falls, the start of the Fajoa Gorge. The boat cruise can be arranged as a scheduled or an exclusive activity lasting for 3 hours.

The spectacular views have left many short of breath as the water pushes through the narrow seven meter gap down the forty meter cliff as it gushes down to join the waters of river Nile.

The boat trip also offers beautiful sightings of so many residents of the park along the shores of the river Nile like the hippos, crocodiles, elephants as they feed, never can you miss out glimpsing at the buffaloes and antelopes.

The trip is highly recommended for birdwatchers as it a great opportunity to view a variety of many birds nesting in the cliffs along the river and savanna plains.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

Proceed for your morning chimp trek in Budongo forest after your breakfast. Budongo forest located in the southern tropical side of the national park is a semi deciduous forest covered in mahogany trees. It is a home to over 900 habituated chimpanzees, 290 butterflies, 130 moth, and 465 tree species conserved for tourism and research purposes. The guides will walk you through the forest canopy to search for the chimpanzees while providing you with information about the chimps like the different families, mating periods, way of living, feeding ways among others, be ready to learn as you enjoy.

After about an hour of remarkable experience with the chimps, you will exit the forest.

Return to the lodge for lunch before heading out for a game drive and a visit to the top of the falls.

Your guide will drive you to the top of the falls, upon arrival at the gazetted area you are welcomed by the thunderous sound even before you sight the waters as you feel your body being cooled down by the cold breeze from the gushy water. The activity is done on foot, following the mighty sound with your guide, you hike down to the top of the falls. The magnificent view leaves many overwhelmed with joy and excitement as the water purges out of a seven meter gorge, gushing down a forty meter cliff to join the longest river in the world – River Nile. You can spend here 1 hour as you take on a short hike to the bottom of the falls, allow yourself to be sprayed by the sparkles of water from the big volume and bask in the cool mist around you.

The views are spectacular and the spray of the falls, really refreshing. The walk takes approximately 45 minutes and requires average fitness.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

Kibale forest national park is the most accessible of Uganda’s rainforests. It covers an area of 766km2 of which the dominant vegetation is lush and shady rainforest, interspersed with patches of grassland and swamp. This enchanting and exotic environment is home to at least 60 mammals species, remarkably 13 of which are primates. It has a rich diversity of birds with 335 species identified. 

Kibale forest national park is home to 13 primate species and a guided forest walk can be taken in search of one of the most popular primate species in the world – the chimpanzee. There are 9 diurnal primates, these include vervet, red-tailed, L’Hoest’s, blue monkeys, grey-cheeked manabey, red colobus, black and white colobus, olive baboon and of course the chimps. Although chimp sightings are not guaranteed, the odds are good with the chance of encountering them at about 90%.

Accommodation options in Kibale National Park

Luxury:
Primate Lodge, Ndali Lodge, Chimpundu Lodge, Kyaninga Lodge.

Mid-range:
Turaco Lodge, Chimpanzee forest guest house, Isunga Lodge.

Budget:
Kibale forest camp

After your breakfast, drive to the National Park Headquarters to meet your ranger guides for the day and begin you chimpanzee experience. Follow your ranger guides together with other trackers on an early morning trek into the forest to view wild chimpanzees as well as several other species of primates in their natural niche.

Whilst touring in the depths of the green forest you will be girdled by the chattering of the birds and actually anticipate seeing at least 5 or 6 other types of primates. The walking is fairly easy due to the well- maintained trails and reasonable flat terrain.

For the chimp trackers and researchers, this is the best experience which involves staying with the chimps from sun up to sun down and provides the occasion to really connect with the group and learn about the diurnal behaviours and different characteristics of the chimpanzees.

You’ll witness the chimpanzees within a few metres of these entertaining and veritably social hams, participating in their daily lives and passing through their day- to- day conditioning. Chimpanzees, our closest relatives are extremely risked with only an estimated 5000 remaining in Uganda.

After an hour with the chimpanzees, return to the lodge for a refreshment and lunch and later head out for the swamp walk.

The Bigodi wetland sanctuary is a small but impressive wetland project that protects the Magombe swamp and is an important contribution to Ugandan conservation. It is run by the Kibale Association for Rural and Environmental Development (KAFRED) and all the funds received are used to support the local community projects in the Bigodi area. The trail offers one of the best guided bird trails in Uganda and gives walkers the attractive prospect of seeing various different primate species in just a few hours. The swamps are a haven for a huge number of bird and butterfly species and visitors can also expect to see at least 2 or 3 primate species.

Breakfast, Lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

Depart Kibale National park and head to the Mweya sector of Queen Elizabeth National park. The drive is 3 – 4 hours approximately.

Queen Elizabeth National park has been in existence since 1952 and was initially called Kazinga channel national park but later changed to Queen Elizabeth National Park after a visit by Queen Elizabeth ii of England. Queen Elizabeth spreads over 1978 square kilometers in the western arm of the rift valley.

The home to the big five including tree climbing lions in the ishasha sector, buffalo, elephant, hippo and leopard is the most visited park of all Uganda national parks, its rich eco system with diversity of flora and fauna from the savannah grassland, humid forests, lakes, wetlands has made it an ideal habitat for so many wild life including mammals, reptiles, primates and over 600 bird species

The park offers sighting to some of the most famous physical features in Uganda like the kazinga channel which joins Lake Edward and George with its banks lined with elephants, hippos, buffaloes and different bird species, sight of Mountain Rwenzori steep escarpments, numerous crater lakes flooded with flamingos, maramagambo forest one of the largest surviving natural forest.

Return to the lodge for lunch and later proceed for the Lake Katwe salt mining visit and afternoon game drive.

Lake Katwe is a salt water lake in the north side of Queen Elizabeth National park. A visit to the crater salt mine brings you to a close interaction with the local salt miners, they will take you through the salt mine production and also observe how salt is evaporated and purified. Salt mining visit takes about an hour and then proceed onto the game drive through the savannah wilderness in your safari vehicle on the lookout for the diverse wildlife such as buffaloes, elephants, Uganda kobs.

Accommodation options in North Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Luxury
Kyambura Gorge Lodge, Mweya safari Lodge, Elephant plains, Katara Lodge

Mid-range
Buffalo Safari Lodge, Ihamba Safari Lodge, Marafiki Safari Lodge

Budget
Bush Lodge, Mazike Valley Lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

Embark on the morning lion tracking experience in the kasenyi plains found in north of Queen Elizabeth National park. Queen Elizabeth National park is a cat family sustainable and conservation unit with over 250 large cats spread in both mweya and ishasha sectors including lions, leopards. Apart from the usual lions, QENP is a home to the rare but famous tree climbing lions in the world in the southern sector of the park that can be seen on a game drive. However the predator tracking activity is done in the north peninsular of Mweya in the kasenyi plains.

After registration at the Park Entrance with the rangers, meet your researcher and proceed to look out for the cat family in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Lion tracking in Queen Elizabeth is more of a researcher activity done in 3 sessions like the early morning, afternoon and night and goes for about 2 – 3 hours with your researcher who informs you of the rules and regulations of the tracking before you proceed to the savanna regions.

The researcher uses the radio collars to track the predators and their movements on and off the demarcated tracks. It being a research project the number of people is limited hence an advance booking is important.

Upon sighting the lions, the researcher will turn off the vehicle engine to avoid disrupting the lions, you will learn and monitor how they feed, behave, defense mechanisms and watch how the juveniles play among others. The data collected is used to better understand the lives and ways of the predators.

Return to the lodge for lunch and later proceed for the 3 hours boat cruise on the kazinga channel offering amazing scenery of wildlife resting along the shore of the channel like African buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles, and monitor lizards, numerous bird species like the flamingos, African skimmer, kingfishers, and fish eagles among others.

Bwindi National park is situated at the border of the Great Rift Valley, in the south-western part of Uganda. In the early 90s, Bwindi Forest was just a reserve but it was later changed to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in 1992 and awarded the world Heritage site status in 1994 due to its rich eco system.

Bwindi impenetrable forest is one of the few large expanses of forests in East Africa on 327 square km2 covered in dense vegetation of shrubs, trees, vines, all these draped over the steep, haughty ridges and slippery valleys of Bwindi Forest terrain.

The Bwindi Impenetrable forest is a habitant to over 120 mammals like monkeys, wild pigs, forest elephants, baboons among others, and 345 different birds, insects of all kinds inclusive of over 200 species of butterflies and about 160 tree species that help in the continuous rain formation. Bwindi receives rain throughout the year and guests are requested to move with warm clothes.

Accommodation options in Bwindi National Park.

Luxury
Bwindi Volcanoes Lodge, Gorilla forest camp, Buhoma Lodge, Mahogany springs

Mid – range
Engagi lodge, Ruhija Safari Lodge, Buhoma Haven Lodge

Budget
Buhoma community rest camp, Ruhija Gorilla mist lodge

Breakfast, Lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

After your breakfast, your guide will transfer you to Uganda wildlife Authority (UWA) Park headquarters. While at UWA park headquarters, you will be requested to register in the UWA book before proceeding for a briefing by the ranger guide about the dos and don’ts during your trekking like no flash lights when photographing gorillas and after you will be allocated a gorilla family to trek and you will match out with your ranger on your day’s excursion.

Get ready to face the gentle giants of Africa, dream come true right! You will set off from the park headquarters through the demarcated trails in the dense forests with your ranger to search out for the gorillas, the gorillas are wild animals that move from one location to another looking for food which makes the trek sometimes go on for 9 hours, however this could be different because you might find the gorillas a few hours after the start of your trek. Although the gorillas are always on the move, the chance of seeing the gorillas is at 95%.

After you have located a family, you are allowed to spend an hour with them, take photos of them, and observe them go on with their daily activities, a very life changing moment and feeling that many have expressed as exhilarating, enthralling and indeed humbling.

Although the trek mainly focuses on the gorillas, you will sight other primates like monkeys, birds and rare tree species.

After the time with the gorillas, return to the Park headquarters for your certificate of participation and your guide will return you to the lodge.

Tips for trekking

• Wear long trousers and a long sleeved shirt with a t-shirt underneath.
• Wear walking boots with long socks.
• Day bag to carry your waterproofs, water (2-3 litres) and packed lunch.
• Gardening gloves can prove useful to protect your hands from thorns and stinging nettles.
• Secure the services of a porter to carry your day bag and help you with the terrain.
• No flash photography is allowed when photographing the gorillas.

Breakfast, picnic Lunch, dinner and overnight at your accommodation.

Second gorilla trekking

Meet your guide and drive to Kihihi Airstrip for your domestic flight to Entebbe Airport. Drive time is approximately 2 hours.

End of services.