10 Days – Best of Uganda – Rwanda Safari

After your breakfast, you will be picked from your Hotel at exactly 7:00 am by our Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari guide and drive through the famous Luwero Triangle. This journey takes 6-7 hours. You will make a stopover at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary to track white rhinos. The trek will be for one hour after which we shall continue the journey to Murchison Falls National Park with another stopover for lunch in Masindi town, arriving in the late afternoon. Dinner and overnight will be at your lodge of booking.

Accommodation options

Mid-range: Murchison River Lodge/Pakuba Safari Lodge/Bwana Tembo Safari Camp

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will wake up very early and set off at 6.30am for a sunrise Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari game drive in the Nyamsika plateau to see the Cape buffaloes, Rothschild’s giraffes, Uganda kob, hartebeest and waterbucks. You may also spot oribi, bushbuck, Bohor reedbuck, shy sitatunga, bush duiker, warthog and bush pig plus large carnivores including lions, leopards and spotted hyenas. Chimpanzees and olive baboons head the list of six species of primates found in the park.

Crocodiles and hippos will be seen along the banks of the Nile River. Some of the more common birds that can be seen include goliath heron, Egyptian geese, pelican, bee-eaters, kingfishers, hornbill, cormorant, saddle-bill stork and the rare shoebill stork. You will return to your lodge for lunch some relaxation before you set off in the afternoon for a boat launch on the placid Victoria Nile, upstream, to the base of the falls. En-route you will see hippos, crocodiles, water buck and a wide variety of birds like the rare shoebill stork. The Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari boat stops just tens of meters from the “Devil’s Cauldron” for pictures to be taken of the photogenic and majestic Murchison Falls.

Accommodation options

Mid-range: Murchison River Lodge/Pakuba Safari Lodge/Bwana Tembo Safari Camp

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will after your breakfast visit the “top of the thunderous Murchison falls”, where you will observe the Nile River squeezing itself in a 7 meter gorge before tumbling 40 meters down in a thunderous explosion and then flows down into a very peaceful river whose water banks are swarmed with a profusion of water and land animals as well as birds. You will thereafter set off on a 9 hour journey to Kibale Forest National Park. This Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari drive is through verdant countryside dotted with traditional homesteads and farms and via the towns of Hoima and Fort portal in the backdrop of the fabled Mountains of the Moon. Have dinner and overnight at the lodge of your booking

Accommodation options

Mid-range: Isunga Lodge/Kibale Forest Cottages.

Meal plan: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

After breakfast you will go for chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest National Park, where the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa is exceptionally represented. The most famous of its 13 species is the Chimpanzee known to be a delightful ape. It is also a home of species like the rare I’Hoest’s monkey, the black and white Colobus, Blue monkey, Grey cheeked mangabey, Red tailed monkey, Olive baboon among others.

The walk takes 2-3 hours after which you will return to your Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari lodge for lunch. In the afternoon you will go for a guided nature walk in the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary or visit the beautiful Crater lakes region for a picturesque view of the breathtaking scenery. The sanctuary offers great birding opportunities and nature walks. Bigodi is also a rich cultural heritage site where you can mix with the local people to learn about their traditional activities and lifestyles. You’ll be transferred to Queen Elizabeth National Park arriving late in the evening and checking into your booked lodge.

Accommodation options

Mid-range: Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge/Ihamba Safari Lodge/Parkview Safari Lodge/Twin Lakes Safari Lodge

Meal Plan: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

We set out early in the morning for a game drive in the northern part of the park in search of lions, elephants, leopards, Uganda kob, giant forest hog and solitary buffaloes. This is the best time for viewing the cats in action owing to the vast population of Uganda kobs. You will have an excellent chance to view just about every animal here at very close range.

Return to your booked lodge for lunch and later go for a boat launch along the Kazinga channel whose shores habour a profusion of water animals and birds including pink backed pelicans, pied and malachite kingfishers, saddle billed stork and many others. Dinner and overnight will be at your lodge of booking.

Accommodation options

Mid-range: Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge/Ihamba Safari Lodge/Parkview Safari Lodge/Twin Lakes Safari Lodge

Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

After breakfast we drive to the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park for another game drive. Ishasha Sector is famous for its tree climbing lions which you will see resting on the branches of Fig trees as they scan for kobs in the neighbouring mating grounds, their favourite prey. You will also see a variety of other wild animals and later take a Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari road drive to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Dinner and overnight will at the lodge of your booking.

Accommodation options

Midrange: Gorilla Mist Camp/ Mutanda Lake Resort/Rushaga Gorilla Camp/Gorilla Valley Lodge.

Meal Plan: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

You will have an early Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari breakfast and be driven to the Park Headquarters for a briefing at 7:30am about the rules of Mountain Gorilla tracking. After the briefing, you will set off for the Mountain Gorilla trek in the thick jungle every lively with rich forest sounds. The trek takes between 2 – 8 hours and you have one hour to stay with the Mountain Gorillas once sighted. In the afternoon you can opt for either a community walk among the Batwa people who used to live in the Bwindi forest before it was gazetted as a National Park and learn about their life and culture as a forest people or spend the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge.

Accommodation options

Midrange: Gorilla Mist Camp/ Mutanda Lake Resort/Rushaga Gorilla Camp/Gorilla Valley Lodge.

Meal Plan: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

You will have an early breakfast and move to the Park headquarters where you will receive a briefing on the rules of golden monkey tracking and be allocated the golden monkey family you will be trekking. You will after the briefing, be led by the ranger guides into the forest to search for the Golden monkeys in the Volcano Virunga Hills and the verdant Valley. Once traced, you will spend a maximum of one hour observing them in their natural setting. The tracking will be a 2-4-hour exercise after which you will return to your Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari lodge for lunch and later you will be taken to visit the Diana Fossey Research Centre.

You will have dinner and overnight at your lodge of booking.

Accommodation options

Mid-range: La Palme Hotel/Le Bambou Gorilla Lodge/Mountain Gorilla View Lodge

Meal Plan: Breakfast Lunch and Dinner

You will have breakfast and transfer to Kigali City where you will visit the Gisozi Genocide memorial site for a historical firsthand account of the genocide that claimed more than 1,000,000 people in the 1990s and visit one of the colorful markets for souvenirs and to experience the life of the people in this city. You will later be transferred to the Airport to catch your departure flight. End of the Best of Uganda Rwanda Safari