Day-by-day itinerary

What the operator has planned, day by day, across 4 days.

1. Day 1

   Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

   After an early breakfast you drive to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest with an English-speaking driver-guide in a 4WD vehicle. Lunch is taken in Mbarara town, after which the road carries on through green countryside, bringing you to Bwindi in the late afternoon. You check into your lodge for dinner and the night, with birds and the other forest residents calling outside.

2. Day 2

   Gorilla Tracking and a Batwa Village Walk

   After a quick breakfast you go to the park headquarters for a briefing from the ranger guide, where the group is split according to the permit held before heading into the forest, passing primates, butterflies, birds and a range of plants on the way. Trekking calls for a reasonable level of fitness, since there is a good deal of walking and climbing before you reach the gorillas; it is hard going but worth it, and porters can be hired to carry your bags. You watch the gorillas from five metres as they feed and the juveniles play, and the walk itself can take anywhere from two to eight hours depending on how far the family has moved. Back at the lodge you freshen up and rest. Later in the afternoon there is a village walk to the Batwa community, taking in the community school, the women's craft shop and the traditional healer, with a look at how beer is brewed locally and songs and dances performed by the men, women and children, before you return to the lodge for dinner and the night.

3. Day 3

   Transfer to Kibale Forest

   Following breakfast you drive to Kibale National Park for the chimpanzee tracking. The road passes terraced farmland with people working the slopes, and the weather along the way is mild. You check in at your lodge and dine there, then head out on a forest walk to look for primates including the bush baby, which has a startling night call, and the potto, with other wildlife and birds possible. You return to the lodge for the overnight.

4. Day 4

   Chimpanzee Tracking and Return to Kampala

   After an early breakfast you go into Kibale Forest to track the chimpanzees. On the way you should come across other primates, among them blue monkeys, baboons, black-and-white colobus, l'Hoest's monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys and red colobus, along with other wildlife in the park. When you reach the chimpanzees you watch them play, feed and groom one another. You then return to check out of the lodge and drive back to Kampala, going on to the airport if your flight is that day or to your overnight accommodation if not.