Day-by-day itinerary

What the operator has planned, day by day, across 15 days.

1. Day 1

   Arrival and transfer to Kampala

   A company representative meets you when you land at Entebbe International Airport. From there you are driven into Kampala. The night is spent at your hotel in the city.

2. Day 2

   Jinja, the Nile and on to Mbale

   The road east runs through Jinja, the second largest town in the country, known for its Asian quarter, its breweries and its gardens. You stop where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria, look at the Gandhi memorial and carry on a few kilometres downstream to Bujagali Falls. Anyone who would rather be on the water can swap the sightseeing for a white water rafting run, the activity the town is best known for. Lunch is local food at Bujagali, after which the drive continues to Mbale for dinner and the night.

3. Day 3

   Nature walk at Sipi Falls

   The day is given over to a walk out to the Sipi waterfalls on the flanks of Mount Elgon, starting from the Crow's Nest camp. The path runs past smallholdings of coffee, sugarcane and matooke, and you carry a packed lunch with you. In the afternoon you return west to Jinja to eat and sleep.

4. Day 4

   Rhino tracking at Ziwa

   Leaving Jinja, the route runs back through Kampala and on towards Masindi. The break in the journey is at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, where you go on foot to find the white rhinos kept there. The rest is a long drive through green farmland and scattered homesteads, ending with dinner and a night at your lodge.

5. Day 5

   Into Murchison Falls National Park

   After breakfast you continue into Murchison Falls National Park, the largest protected area in the country and named for the cataract on the Nile inside it. An afternoon game drive north of the river looks for giraffe, elephant, buffalo, lion, hyena, oribi, waterbuck, hartebeest and bushbuck, with leopard the rarer sighting. Dinner and the night are at your lodge.

6. Day 6

   Nile launch and the falls hike

   An early game drive comes before breakfast, and there is time afterwards to rest by the pool. The afternoon boat trip runs up the Victoria Nile to the foot of the falls, within a few metres of the Devil's Cauldron, passing hippo, crocodile, kob, elephant and waterbuck, with shoebill, goliath heron, cormorant, pelican, hornbill, kingfisher, bee eater and Egyptian goose among the birds. The boat drops you near the base and you climb for about an hour to the lip of the gorge, where the river squeezes through a gap of a few metres and falls away well over forty metres below in spray and noise. Your guide is waiting at the top.

7. Day 7

   Long drive to Fort Portal

   Breakfast is very early because the run southwest takes most of the day. The road follows the Albertine Escarpment of the western rift and passes through Hoima, the Bunyoro capital, then on past homesteads and tea estates. Fort Portal, capital of the Tooro kingdom, sits in the shadow of the Rwenzori range. You dine and sleep at your lodge.

8. Day 8

   Sempaya hot springs and crater lakes

   Today takes you into Semuliki National Park for a drive and for the two Sempaya hot springs, the male and the female. Lunch is followed by the Kasenda crater lakes on the way back, a cluster of steep sided pools with wide views over the ridges between them. You return to the same lodge for dinner and the night.

9. Day 9

   Kazinga Channel launch trip

   The drive south to Queen Elizabeth National Park keeps the Rwenzori range in view and brings you in for lunch. A launch trip of two hours on the Kazinga Channel follows, with hippo gathered along the banks in very large numbers and something near five hundred and fifty resident bird species recorded on the water. It is a good stretch for photography and for game viewing from the boat. Afterwards you look around the crater lake country and return to the lodge for dinner.

10. Day 10

    Kasenyi drive and Kyambura chimps

    Coffee comes before a morning drive along the Kasenyi track and the Queen's Mile, where kob, elephant, buffalo, waterbuck, hyena, warthog, mongoose, lion and smaller game are all possible alongside plenty of birds. You take lunch back at the lodge. The afternoon is spent in Kyambura Gorge, a trench some sixteen kilometres long and a hundred metres deep cut into the rift floor, walking with a stick in search of its habituated chimpanzees and other primates.

11. Day 11

    Ishasha lions and on to Bwindi

    With a packed lunch you head for the Ishasha sector of the park to look for the lions that rest in the trees there, a habit not seen elsewhere in the country. The ground is open savannah dotted with fig and acacia. You picnic in the sector and then carry on into the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park area, dining and sleeping at your lodge.

12. Day 12

    Gorilla trekking, then Kabale

    The day starts early with a briefing at the park headquarters before the trek sets off. You carry drinking water, boots, a walking stick, a raincoat and a packed lunch. Finding the family earns you one hour in their company, watching them feed, play and tend their young, with time to take photographs. Afterwards the road takes you to Kabale, sometimes called the Switzerland of Africa, for dinner and the night.

13. Day 13

    Boat day on Lake Bunyonyi

    A boat takes you out onto Lake Bunyonyi to move between its many islands and take in the terraced hills that ring the water. Birdlife along the shore is varied and the pace of the day is slow. You eat and sleep at your lodge on full board.

14. Day 14

    Lake Mburo and back to Kampala

    A morning game drive in Lake Mburo National Park looks for zebra, impala, eland, topi, oribi and buffalo, and most visitors add a boat trip on the lake itself. The park is strong for birds, with something over two hundred and fifty species recorded, among them papyrus gonolek, brown faced lapwing and the cisticola named for Carruthers. After lunch you drive back towards Kampala, pausing at the equator crossing for photographs, and spend the night in the city.

15. Day 15

    Kampala city tour and departure

    What you do depends on the hour of your flight. If there is time you can take a tour of Kampala covering cultural sites, the museum and the craft stalls, or make instead for Mabira Forest. You are then driven to the airport for the flight home.