Day-by-day itinerary

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

1. Day 1

   Arrival At Entebbe Airport

   Your guide and driver meet you at Entebbe airport and take you by private vehicle to your hotel in Entebbe city. The hotel sits close to Lake Victoria with the Botanical Gardens around it.

2. Day 2

   Mabamba Swamp Shoebill Birding

   The day starts with the drive out to Mabamba wetland, where you take a dug-out canoe along the channels cut through the grassy swamp to look for the shoebill stork. Papyrus gonolek, lapwings, purple heron, rufous bellied heron, African purple hen, hamerkop and blue breasted bee-eaters are among the other birds on the water, after which you return to the lodge for lunch. The afternoon offers an optional walk in the Botanical Gardens, where some scenes of the Tarzan film were shot, with black-headed weavers, waxbills, cuckoos and red-billed fire finch about the trees. Dinner and overnight are taken while you get ready for the drive to Murchison Falls National Park.

3. Day 3

   Transfer To Murchison Falls National Park

   After breakfast you leave Entebbe for Murchison Falls, stopping for lunch on the way and for white rhino tracking at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. You then head on to the park and, before anything else, hike to the top of Murchison Falls, which calls for reasonable fitness. From the top you cross the bridge into the northern sector, arriving for dinner and overnight.

4. Day 4

   Morning Game Drive And Afternoon Nile Boat Cruise

   A ranger-guided game drive starts at 06:30 am, working the northern tracks for lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, Rothschild's giraffe and antelopes including topi, oribi, eland, bushbuck, waterbuck and Uganda kob. You return for a late breakfast. After lunch a three-hour boat cruise takes you up the Nile to the foot of Murchison Falls and the Devil's Cauldron, passing Nile crocodiles, hippos, water birds, elephants, buffaloes and waterbucks.

5. Day 5

   Mubako Community Walk And Transfer To Kibale Forest

   After breakfast you visit the rural communities of Mubako nearby, which support wildlife conservation through weaving, craft making, cultural dances and farming. You can learn about rural life or join in harvesting and preparing food. You return around mid-morning and take the six to seven hour road to Kibale, with lunch en route in Hoima town, arriving for dinner and overnight.

6. Day 6

   Kibale Chimpanzee Tracking And The Bigodi Wetland Walk

   Breakfast is followed by a 07:00 am briefing at the park visitor centre, after which guides lead the search for chimpanzees and you spend one hour with them once found, watching them swing between branches and play with one another. Kibale holds twelve other primate species, among them red colobus, black and white colobus, blue monkey, grey cheeked mangabey and Ugandan mangabey, most of which turn up on the same walk. The afternoon is given to Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, where a local guide takes you on a swamp walk good for primates, birds, butterflies and plants, and where the community runs the site and earns from craft making. You return to the lodge in the later evening for dinner and an overnight stay.

7. Day 7

   Kibale To Semuliki Valley National Park

   After breakfast you leave Kibale by way of Fort Portal for Semuliki Valley National Park, an arm of the Congo basin forest that protects 55 mammals and 441 birds including central African species. You arrive at your accommodation and take lunch. The afternoon is a cultural walk to meet Batwa elders at Nyondo, covering their storytelling, folklore and life in the forest. A night game drive rounds off the day, with leopards, galago, bush babies and genet among the nocturnal species to look for.

8. Day 8

   Semuliki Hot Springs And Transfer To Queen Elizabeth National Park

   After breakfast a nature walk of thirty minutes to an hour takes you to the hot springs and up a tree house for views over the Semuliki Valley, with red-tailed monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey and many birds along the way. You are back out of the forest around midday for lunch and the transfer to Fort Portal town, where you hike to the Ndali crater lakes and look out over 52 craters and hollows. From there you carry on to Queen Elizabeth National Park, a scenic drive past the Rwenzori range in the evening light.

9. Day 9

   Game Drive And Kazinga Channel Cruise In Queen Elizabeth

   The morning game drive starts at 06:30 am with a ranger and works the plains for herds of elephant, prides of lion, hyenas, buffaloes, giraffes, Uganda kob, topi, eland and savannah birds. You return for a late breakfast and rest over lunch. The afternoon is spent on a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, looking for crocodiles, hippos, water birds, buffaloes and elephants at the water's edge. Sunset closes the day, followed by dinner and overnight at the lodge.

10. Day 10

    To Bwindi Through Ishasha For The Tree-Climbing Lions

    After breakfast you take the rough road south towards Buhoma, the headquarters of Bwindi, stopping in the Ishasha wilderness to look for the tree-climbing lions. They are sometimes resting in fig trees near the road, and sometimes need a short drive off into the bush. You carry on through Butogota trading centre to the lodge at Buhoma for dinner and overnight. If you get in by early afternoon, the park offices can point you to a self-guided nature walk along the Munyaga River for primates and birds, which also gives you a first look at the forest you will trek the next day.

11. Day 11

    Bwindi Gorilla Trekking And A Community Walk

    Breakfast is followed by the drive to the briefing centre, where a ranger takes you through the gorilla rules before you set off from the starting point into the forest. The walk to reach the gorillas runs about one to five hours, and once you find them you have one hour to take photographs and video and watch how the group behaves together. You are then led back out to your driver guide and returned to the lodge for lunch. In the evening a community walk takes in local herbal centres, markets, schools and meeting places, in recognition of the people who live alongside the gorillas, before dinner and an overnight stay.

12. Day 12

    Bwindi Nature Walk And Transfer To Lake Bunyonyi

    After breakfast you take a nature walk to the waterfalls in the middle of the Bwindi rainforest, with butterflies, plants, birds and primates along the trail. Lunch is followed by the transfer to Lake Bunyonyi, the second deepest lake in Africa and known for its islands. On arrival you check in and take a boat cruise to some of the islands, Punishment Island and its history among them. Dinner and overnight are at the lodge.

13. Day 13

    Transfer To Lake Mburo National Park

    After breakfast you leave Lake Bunyonyi for a drive of about seven to eight hours to Lake Mburo National Park. There is a stop at the Great Lakes Museum just past Kabale town, and a second stop in Mbarara town for lunch. From there you carry on to your lodge inside the park.

14. Day 14

    Lake Mburo Game Drive And Boat Cruise

    After breakfast a ranger takes you on a game drive across the savannah plains, where impala, zebra, topi, warthog and eland are the usual sightings. You return to the lodge for lunch in the early afternoon. Later you go down to the lakeside for a boat trip, with hippos, crocodiles and a range of birds on the water. The evening brings you back to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

15. Day 15

    Return To Kampala For Departure

    After a full breakfast you take the road to Kampala, passing through Masaka and stopping at the equator monument. On reaching Kampala your guide takes you on to Entebbe for your departure, or to wherever you are staying.