5 Days Gorilla Habituation Experience and Wildlife Safaris
The places you will explore on this Uganda Gorilla safari include Bwindi, Lake Bunyonyi, Lake Mburo National Park and Jinja Source of the River Nile.
Safari Highlights:
Day 1: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
After enjoying your breakfast, move southwards to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. You can have a stopover at the Uganda Equator for photo session and proceed to Mbarara where you will lunch and continue Bwindi arriving in the late hours of the afternoon. You may spend the evening hours having community walk and you will be entertained by some cultural dancers in the area. Then have dinner and overnight at Volcanoes Bwindi Camp, Gorilla resort/ Forest Camp, Buhoma homestead, Lake Kitandara Bwindi Camp, Buhoma community Bandas.
Day 2: Gorilla Tracking Adventure
Have your breakfast and get you guides briefing at the park headquarters and park your lunch boxes and then depart to start an eight-hour trek to find the Mountain gorillas in the impenetrable forest. The tracking exercise begins from the area where the gorillas were seen yesterday. Looking for the habituated gorilla family is on probability as you may spend 3 hours or a day wandering for the primates. But once you get them, you will have one hour for observing and photographing of the apes, so it is better to go for with a good camera. After an hour with these charming gorillas, go back to Camp for dinner and overnight at Volcanoes Bwindi Camp, Gorilla Forest Camp, Mantana Tented Camp (Luxury camp), Lake Kitandara Bwindi Camp and Buhoma Community Campsite/Bandas.
Day 3: Lake Bunyonyi Tour
In the morning after having breakfast, drive via Kigezi areas (the Switzerland of Africa) as popularly known because of it beauty and head the wonderful magnificent Lake Bunyonyi. This water feature was formed from lava flow from one of the Virunga Mountains that blocked off the Ndego River at present-day Muko to create a natural dam. The lake made up of about 20 small islands and surrounded by steep terraced hills, Bunyonyi is a magical spot that is worth visiting by any Ugandan tourist. This Bilharzia-free lake with no crocodiles and hippos is very ideal for swimming is very safe. Travelers can hire kayaks, canoes and mountain bikes for excursions to keep busy for days. Bunyonyi has beautiful weaver colonies along its shores and larger birds are also represented by birds like the grey-crowned crane and a number of herons and egrets. Bunyonyi is one of the best places in Africa for one to watch otters (the diurnal spotted-necked otter) in particular with several pairs resident around Rutinda and the islands in the proximity. Dinner and overnight at Arcadia Cottages (FB)
Day 4: Lake Mburo National park Game Drive
Drive gently to Lake Mburo National Park in the morning after having breakfast. Driving around the park will expose several animal species reward to you, very rare elsewhere in Uganda. Mburo is the only park Uganda National Park to harbour the handsome antelope, impala from whom, Kampala that Uganda Capital city was named. It’s also among the 3 protected areas countrywide where Burchels zebra live, the two areas being the remote Kidepo Valley National Park and Pian Upe. topi, bushbuck, common duiker, oribi, Defassa waterbuck and Bohor reedbuck are the other antelope species that are also found there.
Bush pigs, Warthogs, hippos, Leopard, buffallos, side-striped jackal and numerous smaller predators exist are also in the park and only two diurnal primates are found here, the vervet monkey and the olive baboon. There are also 315 bird species are recorded in Mburo national park and this makes it the best place in Uganda to see acacia-associated birds like the mosque swallow, black-bellied bustard, bare-faced go-away bird and Rupe long-tailed starling. Birds recorded in Mburo National Park southern species at the very northern limit of their range, like the southern ground hornbill, black-throated and black-collared barbets, and green-capped eremomela. For bird watching, it’s the swamps in which six papyrus endemic are present including the striking blue-headed Coucal, the brilliantly colored papyrus Gonolek, and the popularly localized white-winged and papyrus yellow warblers, the last recorded nowhere else in Uganda.
In the afternoon or evening, drive to Kampala en route enjoying your lunch in Lyantonde and stop at the Equator in Mpigi to shop for beautiful African handicrafts and taking photographs. You can also stop at Mpabire for drums of all sizes and a variety of handicraft. Arrive in Kampala in the evening and relax at your hotel.
Day 5: Jinja Tour
After breakfast head to Jinja going through the tropical Mabira forest, watch out for possible Colobus and birds. After 50 minutes drive arrive at the well-known Owen Fall Dam the, biggest dam in Uganda and the main source of hydro electric power. After crossing the dam, head to the source of the Nile (Ripon Falls where John Speke stood). After lunch in the descent Jinja Hotels, use the afternoon for the thrilling white water rafting adventure on the same rive Nile at Bujagali Falls. And in the evening, drive back to Kampala for your overnight and dinner.
