4 days Uganda Gorilla Trek and Safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Meet and greet with our local guide in Kampala/Entebbe/Kigali at 07:00 hours before starting the gorilla trek tour on your drive heading to southwestern Uganda to the home of the mountain gorillas, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Our major purpose is that even though you are having only 4 days for this Uganda tour, you should get the maximum out of it. So the tour guide will be pointing out several places of tourist interest as we drive to the gorillas home. Under normal driving, this should only be about 6 hours but because of these sightseeing instances, it shall definitely be longer. We shall even be traversing Lake Mburo National Park along the way. There are also several traditional cultural drum-making communities along the way and you could just get interested in the entire process. The lush green organic farmlands of bananas, coffee, tea, pineapple, and fruit markets just look so beautiful along this journey. We shall also be having a brief stop at the Equator crossing point, just prepare your cameras, please. This line divides the earth into two halves and you have an opportunity to stand on both halves as they take your photograph. There are a couple of interesting experiments to show the earth's movements and their effects and you can ask your guide about these options. We should be arriving Bwindi at about 4 pm. You shall be assisted to check-in at your accommodation, which is located very close to the Bwindi park headquarters. Enjoy your evening in the remote jungles of Africa as you await more unforgettable experiences on the next day.

Waking up amidst African jungle sounds is one unforgettable experience for many visits on the gorilla trek expedition. Yes, with sleeping in the neighborhood of at least 310 species of butterfly, 51 reptiles, 88 moths, and an exceptional 120 types of mammal including 10 primates makes the most memorable African song for any morning. Usually, it is almost a guarantee that the sun will come up at 7 am. Having your breakfast basking in the glory of the morning sunrays, your guide chatting out on the expectations for the day's exceptional experience is the perfect set-up for encountering the mountain gorillas. After your breakfast, the tour guide/ driver shall be transferring you to the Bwindi park office from where all gorilla tracking activity commences. You will have a pre-trek briefing with detailed information about the ecology of the mountain gorillas and their conservation, rules and regulations about gorilla tracking, and other species in Bwindi. After, you will be allocated to a group (not exceeding 8 persons in total). Mountain gorillas live in groups/ or gorilla families. Bwindi now has at least 19 gorilla groups and every day, each gorilla family can be visited by not more than 8 persons, each encounter not exceeding 1 hour. The gorillas keep roaming the jungles of Bwindi but we easily locate them by first trekking to their previous day's location and then tracking signs of their movement to the current location. Your gorilla tracking experience could be as short as 1 hour or as long as 7 hours, depending on where the gorillas are. The lead trackers will allow for numerous breaks along the way for you to not only catch your breath but also get time to observe the rest of the species in Bwindi which can include forest elephants, buffalo, chimpanzees, L'Hoest's monkeys, red-tailed and blue monkey, black and white colobus and baboon. Bwindi is a prime destination for birdwatchers. Bwindi's 350 bird species include seven which are IUCN red data listed and 90% of all Albertine rift endemics, species which are difficult or impossible to see in any other part of East Africa. We trek the gorillas through the rainforest and bamboo covered slopes, accompanied by a guide and gorilla trackers, in search of a mountain gorilla family. The walking can sometimes be tough and long, but when you catch a glimpse of the magnificent silverback, any discomforts will be quickly forgotten. When the gorillas are sighted, visitors will be guided to within 6 meters from the gorillas, sit around them for a whole hour while gazing into their big round eyes.

After your gorilla tracking experience in Bwindi, it is time for another exciting two days of African wildlife safaris. From the set-off from your Bwindi accommodation, we shall be driving through some beautiful and stunning savannah grasslands on our way to Uganda's most popular wildlife protected area, Queen Elizabeth National Park. Our first call shall be the park's southern sector, Ishasha. Ishasha a much more remote and less-traveled part of Queen Elizabeth National Park, but one which has a sense of exclusivity and remoteness. The game densities here are high, and this region has reported some of the largest herds of Elephant anywhere in Uganda, as it is their main migration corridor between Uganda and the DRC. To most visitors, the major highlight is the tree-climbing lions and your guide will outdoor himself to get you closer to them depending on how much time you have to reach the final destination. Lions are not known to climb trees but the ones in Ishasha sector have this habit, more so when the day gets warmer. We continue driving to the north of Queen Elizabeth National Park where we immediately join in on a 2-hours' launch trip along the Kazinga Channel. The 40km Kazina Channel divides Queen Elizabeth National PArk into two. Its 80km shoreline attracts large numbers of birds, reptiles and mammals. A launch trip on Kazinga to view this wildlife spectacle is the park's most famous and enduring activity. You have one opportunity to view wildlife up close: hippo’s huff and spray at a mere foot away from the boat, buffalo linger in the shallows. The shores of the channel are also home to an array of birds including pink backed pelicans, pied and malachite kingfishers, saddle-billed stork, and many others.

We set out early in the morning for a game drive in the northern part of the park in the Kasenyi Plains. A network of game tracks signed by stone cairns explores the plain north of the Kazinga channel. Although this patchwork of grassland and scrubby thickets can make game viewing a challenge, large numbers of animals actually live here. We shall be driving slowly while looking carefully to spot the wildlife. Across the wide plains, you should expect to see more wildlife like lions, elephants, solitary buffaloes. This is the best time for opportunities of viewing the cats in action owing to the vast population of Uganda kobs. We have an excellent chance to view just about every animal here at a very close range. Depart from Queen Elizabeth National Park and safari to Kampala. Return to your lodge for breakfast and afterward head for Kampala (about 5 hours driving) via Mubende. This route travels through breathtaking scenery and delightfully rolling plantations, some of the best in Uganda. Depending on how much time we have on us we can tour around Kampala’s crafts and souvenirs markets before checking in at your hotel or being transferred to the airport.