Uganda, The Uganda Wildlife Circuit

Uganda Primates – 8 days 🇺🇬

Africa's Biggest Ape

Travel details

Trip duration

7 nights

Price

starting from 4.999 € per person

HIGHLIGHTS

Season

Best from April to September

The Uganda Wildlife Circuit

Western Uganda is primate country. Along the Albertine Rift, between the Rwenzori Mountains and the volcanic hills on the borders with Congo and Rwanda, ancient rainforest and open savannah lie side by side. It is one of the very few regions on earth where you can see mountain gorillas and wild chimpanzees on the same trip, together with classic African wildlife.

Kibale National Park is a tropical rainforest with one of the highest densities of primates in Africa. It is home to around 1,500 chimpanzees and a dozen other primate species, such as red colobus, L’Hoest’s monkeys and grey cheeked mangabeys. Around the park lie the tea plantations and crater lakes of Fort Portal, and the community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is the region’s safari heart. Its savannah, crater lakes and the Kazinga Channel are home to elephants, buffalo, Uganda kob, hippos and lions. In the remote Ishasha sector, lions rest in the branches of fig trees.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Africa’s oldest rainforests, more than 25,000 years old. Its misty, steep slopes shelter about half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. Besides the standard one hour gorilla trek, Bwindi is one of the only places that offers the gorilla habituation experience, four hours with a gorilla family in a group of four guests at most.

8 days Uganda Primates

Nights

Price per person

4.999 €

BOARD BASIS

Full board

Location Start

Entebbe (EBB)

Location End

Entebbe (EBB)

The Uganda safari runs through three properties, each chosen for its position rather than its luxury. Turaco Treetops sits inside the Kibale rainforest, wooden bungalows raised into the canopy with the chimps calling around you at dawn. Elephant Hab Lodge is on the ridge above the Kazinga Channel, so you fall asleep to the sound of hippos in the water below. Engagi Lodge sits right on the edge of Bwindi, close enough that you walk out of your room and into the forest for the gorilla trek. All lodges are comfortable, well run, and the kind of places where the staff know your name by day two.

The two headline treks, chimpanzees in Kibale and gorillas in Bwindi, are on foot through primary forest. Kibale is the easier of the two: gentle terrain, up to four hours out, sometimes fast when the chimps are moving through the canopy. Bwindi is harder: steep slopes, dense vegetation, and tracking times that can run from two hours to seven before the gorillas are located. Once the gorillas are found, you have one hour with them, no exceptions.

Uganda has two dry seasons and two wet seasons. June to September is the main dry window, warm days and cool nights, and the best conditions for tracking through a dry forest floor. December to February is the second dry period, hotter and less predictable. The wet months, March to May and October to November, bring heavier rain and slippery trails, but also the greenest landscapes and fewer people on the permits.

Included

Domestic flight (Kihihi → Entebbe on departure day)
Kibale chimpanzee permit
2 gorilla tracking permits (Bwindi)
Accommodation with meals as indicated in the program
Drinking water
Services of an English speaking tour guide
Private transport in a safari vehicle

Not Included

Tips for drivers and other staff
Bank charges
International flight tickets and departure taxes
Travel documentation (visas)
Travel and medical insurance
Optional excursions
Beverages other than mineral water in the vehicle
Meals not indicated in the detailed itinerary

Day-by-day program

No data was found

Arrive at Entebbe International Airport (EBB), where your driver meets you and transfers you to the Papyrus Guesthouse on the shore of Lake Victoria. Check in, settle in, and get some rest after the long flight. Welcome dinner and briefing on the week to come.

Breakfast at 8am, then set off westwards toward Fort Portal. About five hours on the road, part tarmac and part gravel, through rolling green hills and traditional Ugandan villages where people are working the millet and maize fields. Arrive at Fort Portal, a rural town famous for its weaving and basketry, and continue to Kibale Forest, one of the great African rainforest reserves. In the afternoon, walk the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary at the eastern edge of the forest, run by the local community. Blue turacos, blue monkeys, baboons, otters, bushbucks, and if you are lucky bush pigs. Dinner and overnight at Turaco Treetops.

Meet at Kanyankyu River Camp at 8am for the main event: chimpanzee tracking in Kibale, home to three large communities of more than 100 individuals each. The guides locate them by their hooting calls and move quickly toward the sound. Watch them feed in the fruiting trees, groom each other, socialise, and occasionally hunt. Along the way expect black and white colobus, L’Hoest’s monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey, red tailed monkeys, and if luck permits bushbabies and pottos. After tracking, drive south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. Overnight at Elephant Hab Lodge.

Early breakfast, then out for a morning game drive on the Kasenyi Track in the north of the park. Lions, elephants, solitary buffalo, and the vast population of Uganda Kob that draw the predators in. In the afternoon, a launch trip along the Kazinga Channel that connects Lake Edward and Lake George. Hippos huffing feet from the boat, buffalo lingering in the shallows, and the shoreline alive with pink backed pelicans, malachite and pied kingfishers, and saddle billed storks. Overnight at Elephant Hab Lodge.

After breakfast, drive south through savannah grasslands to the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth, the remote southern extension of the park where the famous tree climbing lions rest in the large fig trees during the heat of the day. Nowhere else in Africa gives you a better chance to see this behaviour. Continue to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the afternoon. Bwindi’s forest has been weaving itself into tangles for over 25,000 years and holds 310 butterfly species, 51 reptiles, 200 tree species, 120 mammals including 10 primates, and 350 bird species. Overnight at Engagi Lodge.

Early breakfast, then to the park headquarters for the 8am briefing. Watch a short video on gorilla ecology and conservation, listen to a traditional song and dance, and get assigned to one of the 19 habituated gorilla families. Roughly 20 minutes to the trailhead, then into the forest on foot. Tracking can take anywhere from two hours to seven, up steep slopes through tangled vines and bamboo. Once the gorillas are located, the group has one hour with them. Coming face to face with a silverback is one of those experiences that stays with you. Return to Engagi Lodge for the afternoon.

Second gorilla trek to a different family for a full day out in the forest. Every family has its own dynamic and personality, and the second visit brings out the differences you would never notice on a single trek. Time permitting, join a community walk in the afternoon to meet the families living around the park and see how conservation and community work side by side. Overnight at Engagi Lodge.

After breakfast, transfer to Kihihi Airstrip for the domestic flight back to Entebbe (departing 9am or noon). Onward flight home from Entebbe International Airport.

About us

Behind The Mask Travel

With decades of diving experience, we have built a network in almost every corner of the world. No idea is too crazy, no dive site too remote and no animal too rare – we take you to your next dream dive destination.

We are a full-service tour operator and reseller. Dive shops and travel agencies of all kinds are warmly invited to book with us on excellent terms!

Want to join?

Our booking process is quick, hassle free and clear.