10 DAYS CHIMPANZEE AND GORILLA TRACKING
Starting from
$0
per person
About This Trip
This tour will take you to Murchison Falls National Park. Expect a detour visit to Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary, a game drive, and a launch trip to the bottom of the falls. Thereafter, transfer to Kibale National Park for the chimp trekking experience. Exit Kibale and go to Bwindi for the ultimate gorilla experience. From Bwindi, you will go to Queen Elizabeth National Park, where you will enjoy a game drive plus a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel before concluding in Entebbe.
What's Included
- Ground transport in a 4x4 land cruiser
- Accommodation
- Full board meals at the lodge
- Entrance fees
- A professional driver/guide
- Game drives
- Visit top of the falls
- Boat rides
- Gorilla trekking
- Chimpanzee tracking
- Batwa experience
- Nature walks
What's Excluded
- Air ticket & visa
- Tips and Gratitude
- Personal items (Souvenirs, travel insurance, visa fees, etc.)
- En-route meals
- Any other activities not mentioned in the itinerary
Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival in Uganda
Upon arrival at Entebbe International Airport, our representative driver (guide) will receive and welcome you to Uganda – the Pearl of Africa. Thereafter, you will transfer to the booked accommodation in Entebbe.";
Day 2: Transfer to Kibale Forest
After breakfast at your Entebbe hotel, drive north to Fort Portal and onwards to Kibale National Park. The journey passes through rolling tea estates, the Rwenzori foothills and lush equatorial farmland. Check in to your forest lodge near Kanyanchu and spend the evening on a guided nature walk to spot black-and-white colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, and the first forest birds of the trip. Dinner and overnight at Primate Lodge Kibale or similar.
Day 3: Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale Forest
Set out at dawn for the Kanyanchu briefing point where rangers assign your group and lead you into the forest. Kibale holds the largest protected population of chimpanzees in Uganda — over 1,500 individuals. Spend one hour observing a habituated community as they feed, play, and call across the canopy in their complex social hierarchy. Return to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, visit the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a community-run reserve where local guides identify sitatunga antelope, papyrus gonolek, and over 200 bird species from elevated walkways.
Day 4: Crater Lakes & Transfer to Queen Elizabeth NP
After an early breakfast, enjoy a guided walk around the scenic crater lakes of Fort Portal — each one a perfectly circular volcanic crater filled with water and surrounded by tea farms and papyrus. The most photogenic include Lake Nkuruba and Lake Nyamirima. After lunch, drive south through the Kyegegwa plains into Queen Elizabeth National Park, checking in to your lodge on the Mweya Peninsula as the afternoon light turns the Kazinga Channel gold.
Day 5: Kazinga Channel Boat Cruise & Kasenyi Plains
Begin with a morning game drive across the Kasenyi plains, scanning the open savanna for lions, elephants, and the park's iconic Uganda kob antelope, which gather here in their thousands. Return to the lodge for brunch, then embark on an afternoon boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel. The channel supports Africa's highest density of hippos — over 5,000 — alongside Nile crocodiles, African fish eagles, goliath herons, and pink-backed pelicans. Sundowner drinks on the Mweya Peninsula as the Rwenzori Mountains glow in the evening light.
Day 6: Ishasha Sector — Tree-Climbing Lions
Drive south through the park to the remote Ishasha sector, famous for its population of lions that have learned to rest and sleep in the branches of giant fig trees — a quirk shared with only one other lion population in the world (in Tanzania's Lake Manyara). Spend the morning game-driving through Ishasha's acacia woodland and open grassland, looking for lions overhead, as well as giant forest hog, topi, and cape buffalo. Overnight at Ishasha Wilderness Camp.
Day 7: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
After a final morning game drive in Ishasha, drive through the stunning Kigezi highlands — terraced hills, crater lakes, and small-scale farms stretching as far as the eye can see — to the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Check in to your mountain lodge, perched on a ridge above the ancient forest with views across to Rwanda and the Virunga volcanoes. Attend an evening briefing on gorilla trekking safety and etiquette. Overnight at Gorilla Hills Eco Lodge or similar.
Day 8: Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi
This is the highlight of the entire safari. After a very early breakfast, transfer to the Uganda Wildlife Authority briefing point where rangers assign your group to a habituated gorilla family. Trek into the dense rainforest — altitude and terrain vary by family — following trackers until you locate the gorillas. Spend one profound hour in the presence of these great apes: watching silverbacks beat their chests, youngsters tumble through undergrowth, and mothers nurse infants just metres away. A life-changing experience that few other wildlife encounters can match. Overnight at Bwindi.
Day 9: Batwa Community Experience & Lake Bunyonyi
In the morning, visit a Batwa pygmy community for a guided cultural experience led by the Batwa themselves — learning about forest survival skills, traditional medicine, music, and the ancestral relationship these people had with the gorillas before the forest became a national park. Afterwards, drive to the breathtaking Lake Bunyonyi for lunch on the lakeshore. A short boat trip to Punishment Island rounds off the afternoon. Overnight at a lakeside lodge at Bunyonyi.
Day 10: Return to Entebbe
Take a final canoe paddle on Lake Bunyonyi at sunrise if time permits, then check out after breakfast and begin the long but scenic drive back to Entebbe via Mbarara and Masaka. The journey passes through the Ankole cattle country, home of the long-horned Ankole cattle breed. Arrive at Entebbe International Airport in the evening for your departure flight, carrying memories of ancient rainforests, mountain gorillas, and the extraordinary wildlife of the Pearl of Africa.
Trip Location
Photo Gallery
Destination
Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
Duration
10 Days
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