Uganda Wildlife Safari and Primates

6 Day/ 5 nights Primate Safaris- Queen Elizabeth National Park and Murchison Falls National Park

Day 1    Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National park

Drive to Queen Elizabeth national park in the company of a tour guide, south in the Great Rift Valley escarpment, with excellent views of the glaciers on Mt. Rwenzori at a distance. The park is the eastern slopes of the mountains, particularly home to several wild animals and over 500 different species of birds, migrant Albertine endemics.

Stop by a hotel for lunch; visit Mpambire drum makers for a while. Have a short game drive on arrival in the park and visit the crater lakes L. George and Albert with sight of kobs, elephants, zebras, giraffes and leopards among others on the trail.

Dinner and accommodation is from Mweya Safari lodge, Jacana Lodge and kingfisher resort if you want luxurious facilities. Moderate options are available from Hippo Hill Camp, Ihamba Lodge and Institute of Ecology.

DAY 2 Game Drive and Launch Cruise along the Kazinga Channel

Have an early morning game drive before breakfast for big five, hippos, hyenas, elephants, bushbucks, giraffes, buffalos and so much more. Return to the lodge for breakfast/ lunch and then set off for a 2 hour boat cruise tot Kazinga channel for birding and a few animals by the lake, schools of hippos, crocodiles and water fowl.

Retire for dinner and over night at your lodge.

DAY 3; Chimpanzee Trek in Kyambura Gorge and Transfer to Hoima

After your breakfast, drive to Kyambura Gorge and then go trekking for habituated families of Chimpanzees that live here. You however need to have your chimpanzee trekking permit for this adventure which normally last for 2-4 hours. On the trails are other primates like olive baboons, black and white colobus monkeys, red tailed vervet monkeys as well as birds. The forest on the gorge is lush and is often impassable after/ during the rains. the gorge is also home to thousands of bats in the different caves and python snakes that feed on these bat prey.

Continue on the journey to Masindi passing through towns of Fortportal and Hoima, having lunch en-route and get budget overnight and dinner from Hoima’s Kontik Hotel or Kolping Hotel or African Village Guesthouse.

DAY 4; To Murchison Falls National park

Drive to Masindi after breakfast making a stop on the journey for lunch at hotel en-route. Arrive to Murchison falls national park, one of the biggest game parks and speckled with the beautiful Murchison falls plunging some 47m deep through a narrow gorge. The park is actually located on the banks of the Victoria Nile in the north.

Take a nature walk to the top of the falls, a vantage point for wide views of the river boiling into a water caldron below and stretching up northwards, the savannah grasslands of the park. Take a ferry across the Nile to game drive in the Northern sector of the park. Game in this National Park is concentrated in the northern section of Victoria Nile and East of the Albert Nile and Lake Albert due to presence of lush savannah and enough water supply. The launch boat introduces you to aquatic birds like the rarely sighted Shoebill stock, pelicans, kingfishers, fish eagles and other birds en route. Also in abundance are Nile crocodile and Hippopotamus.

Dinner and overnight at the luxurious Paraa safari lodge, Nile safari camp and the moderate Sambiya River lodge, Budongo Eco-lodge and budget accommodation at Red Chillis.

DAY 5; Game drive and boat rode on Victoria Nile

Take breakfast and then go on a game drive through the trail and circuits to the north of the park, either on Albert or Queen’s tracks. The vast north sits in savannah grasslands, rock kopjes and cliffs, acacia woodland and riverine swamps. Sights here include; lion, antelope, giraffe, zebras, antelopes, leopards, elephant, the Uganda kob among others.

Return to the lodge for lunch and then go on a boat ride on the river, below the plunging falls. The boat trip on the Nile takes you to the tranquil waters with several hippos yawning, buffalos in the shallow banks and Nile crocodiles of up to 6m in length resting at the banks. The papyrus and reed swamp shores is home to many endemic species like the sitatunga, the rare shoe bill stork, herons, malachite kingfishers, skimmers, cormorants, fish eagles and many other birds.

Return to the lodge for dinner and over night.

DAY 6; Departures to Kampala

After breakfast, board van for departures to Kampala with a stop at Budongo forest. The forest hosts 6 families of habituated chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, olive baboons and other primates in Kaniyo Pabindi, popular tourist spot within the forest. (Chimpanzee tracking permit is required for this visit). Other sights in the park include birds like weavers, warders, chocolate-backed kingfishers, Bellied crombec and other albertine rift endemics.

Continue the trip to Kampala for departures at Entebbe airport.