The best of 11 days amazing Murchison Falls and Uganda safari gives visitors the most rewarding experience in Uganda. The safari provides the rarest and unique encounter of the greatest of Uganda safari moments. This is from savannah game drive, to guided nature walks, boat safari along the famous water bodies in Uganda, and chimpanzee trekking. It also features the most amazing gorilla tours for your lifetime, and memorable experience in Africa.
Travel to Uganda this season for the best and most awesome wildlife safari tours, gorilla adventure, and chimpanzee trekking trips to Kibale. You will also follow the most amazing wildlife encounter in Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Parks.
11 Days Murchison Falls & Uganda Safari Itinerary:
Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe Airport-Kampala
You’ll be personally met by our company representative upon arrival at Entebbe airport, and then be transferred to Serena Kampala Hotel (high-end), Cassia Lodge (mid-range) or Forest Cottages Kampala (budget-end), for an overnight stay and dinner. Meal plan: dinner.
Day 2: Kampala – Murchison Falls National Park
Begin the panoramic drive from Kampala heading north-west through the famous Luwero Triangle, traveling to Masindi via Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary project. A visit to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for rhino trekking is a must. After lunch, you will drive to Murchison Falls.
Overnight stay and dinner at Parra Safari Lodge (luxury facility) or Murchison River Lodge (mid-range facility) or Red Chili Campsite (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 3: Murchison Falls National Park
After your early morning cup of coffee, you will cross the Nile by ferry to the northern bank of the Park. Your guide will help you spot giant African elephants, lions, Cape buffaloes, Rothschild’s giraffes, hartebeests, waterbucks, oribi, Bushbucks, Bohor reedbuck, hyena and if you are lucky, the elusive leopard. You will then return to the lodge for your breakfast and lunch.
After lunch, go for a boat safari upstream the calm Victoria Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, stopping just tens of meters from the “Devil’s Cauldron”. En-route, you will marvel at the toothsome hippos, and crocodiles, and over this 17 km stretch you may see also elephants, waterbucks, and Uganda kobs.
This is also a zone for many bird species such as the Goliath heron, Egyptian goose, pelican bee-eater, kingfisher, hornbill, cormorants, and the rare shoebill stork.
While there you will leave the boat and start your – quite heavy – hike to the top of the falls (approx. 1 hour). You will see where the world’s longest river explodes violently through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool at 43m below. Your driver/guide will be waiting for you to bring you back to the lodge.
Overnight stay and dinner at Paraa Safari Lodge (luxury facility) or Murchison River Lodge (mid-range facility) or Red Chili Campsite (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 4: Murchison Falls – Kibale – Part of Murchison Falls & Uganda Safari
Get on a full day drive southwards via Hoima to Fort Portal, through verdant countryside, traditional homesteads, and farms along the Albertine Rift escarpments. Fort Portal rests in the shadow of the fabled “Mountains of the Moon” – the Rwenzori mountains.
Meals and overnight stay at Kyaninga Lodge (luxury facility), Primate Lodge/Forest Cottages (mid-range lodge) or Chimpanzee Guest House (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 5: Kibale Chimpanzee Trekking & Bigodi Walk
After early breakfast, you will report to Kanyanchu Tourist Centre where tourist activities begin, and set out to chimpanzee tracking tour in the Kibale forest. The chances of viewing the chimps are over 90%.
Kibale National Park has one of the most beautiful and stunning forests in Uganda. It is home to our closest living relatives – the endangered chimpanzees, the threatened Red colobus monkeys, and the rare L’Hoest’s monkeys.
The forest also boasts of having one of the highest diversity and density of primates in Africa totaling to up to13 species. These include the black and white colobus, blue, red-tailed monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, bush babies, and Pottos among others.
After lunch, you will visit the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary for a guided nature walk around the swamp. This will provide you with an opportunity to see a wide range of flora and fauna. You will also view a variety of butterflies, birds, and other insects. Then get a tour of the crater region around Ndali Lodge.
You may also have a stopover at any surrounding tea plantations along the road if you wish, and then get on an evening tour of the crater region. You will visit the ‘top of the world’, the natural bridge, and on a clear day, you will be able to view of the snow capped Rwenzori mountains, clearly.
Meals and overnight stay at Kyaninga Lodge (luxury facility), Primate Lodge/Forest Cottages (mid-range lodge) or Chimpanzee Guest House (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 6: Kibale – Queen Elizabeth NP
After breakfast, you will drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park while viewing the mystical Rwenzori mountain ranges on much of your journey. Check-in at your accommodation facility as you wait for your lunch.
After lunch, you will take on an afternoon Launch cruise along Kazinga Channel – one that joins Lakes Edward and George. The cruise is a wonderful way to see hippos, buffaloes, kobs, the occasional Nile crocodile, and a spectacular bird watching experience on the water banks. Many of visitors who experience this launch cruise consider it the ‘highlight of their entire African safari’.
Dinner and overnight stay at Mweya Safari Lodge (luxury facility) or Enganzi Lodge (mid-range lodge) or Ihamba Safari Lodge Bandas (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 7: Queen Elizabeth game drive – Part of Murchison Falls & Uganda Safari
Rise very early with your packed lunch and take on a morning game drive to catch up with the early risers and predators returning to their hideouts. You will most likely meet grazing hippos, elephants, and lions, spotted hyenas, bushbucks, waterbucks, stripped jackals, comical warthogs, and the elusive leopard.
You will then proceed for a guided chimpanzee/primate walk along Kyambura Gorge to look out for habituated chimps in the gorge.
Dinner and overnight stay at Mweya Safari Lodge (luxury facility) or Enganzi Lodge (mid-range lodge) or Ihamba Safari Lodge Bandas (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 8: Queen Elizabeth NP – Bwindi
With previous day’s memories, visit Maramagambo forest, where many surprises await for you. Carefully encounter pythons – which are often observed in the crevices of the bat cave floor using the bats as a source of food. The cave is near a picturesque former Blue lake and Hunters’ cave.
You will also see forest birds such as bat hawks, brown eared woodpeckers, and other primates. After the walk, then proceed to the southern Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Drive along the deep and wide dry craters that are occupied by savanna grasses and acacia. This takes you through the unique western rift valley escarpment and the Ishasha sector where you will take on yet another game drive searching for tree-climbing lions, before proceeding to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
The journey takes about 4 hours but drives through interesting features, before arriving at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the evening. This Park is home to the rare mountain gorillas.
Apart from mountain gorillas, there are a wide variety of primates to see, including the blue and red-tailed monkeys. The forest itself is lush and green and there are streams running through it.
Dinner and overnight stay at either Buhoma Lodge/Mahogany Springs/Gorilla Safari Lodge (high-end lodge) or Sliver back Lodge/Chameleon Hill Lodge (mid-range) or Buhoma Community Bandas/Wagtail Eco Camp (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Please Note: You will only go through Ishasha if your gorilla tracking permits are allocated for the north or western sections of Bwindi. In case you are allocated permits trekking south of Bwindi going through Ishasha will be impossible due to accessibility reasons. This means that your accommodation may have to change.
Day 9: Bwindi Gorilla Tracking – Part of Murchison Falls & Uganda Safari
After breakfast set off early with guides for gorilla tracking. The thrill of your encounter will erase the difficulties of the potentially strenuous trek. Bring your jungle boots and rain jackets because the Park is often wet.
You will spend time in awe watching the gorillas go about their daily activities. Each gorilla safari encounter is different and has its own rewards, but you are likely to enjoy the close view of adults feeding, grooming, and resting as the youngster’s frolic and swing from vines in a delightfully playful display.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a magnificent green swathe of dense rainforest, so ancient that survived the last ice age. It is a recently proclaimed UNESCO World Heritage site, because of the most biologically diverse areas on earth and its unique, precious flora that sustains roughly half of the world’s total population of mountain gorillas.
There’s also a substantial chimpanzee population and research shows that Bwindi is the only forest in Africa in which these two apes live together.
With time permitting, you will spend the afternoon on a community foot safari to explore the lifestyle of the people living and surrounding the Park. You will then return to the lodge exhilarated to relieve the encounter with friends over a drink.
Dinner and overnight stay at either Buhoma Lodge/Mahogany Springs/Gorilla Safari Lodge (high-end lodge) or Sliver back Lodge/Chameleon Hill Lodge (mid-range) or Buhoma Community Bandas/Wagtail Eco Camp (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 10: Second Gorilla trekking
After breakfast, you will go for the second gorilla tracking experience but with another gorilla group or family, returning in the afternoon for relaxation and sightseeing around the lodge.
Dinner and overnight stay at either Buhoma Lodge/Mahogany Springs/Gorilla Safari Lodge (high-end lodge) or Sliver back Lodge/Chameleon Hill Lodge (mid-range) or Buhoma Community Bandas/Wagtail Eco Camp (budget facility). Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 11: Bwindi – Entebbe Out
After early breakfast, you will drive back to Kampala with a visit to Igongo Cultural Village, to explore and learn about the Bahima and Ankole culture. This is the place where the future meets the past. After that,, you will continue your drive to the Equator crossing line with your lunch en-route before driving back to Kampala/Entebbe to catch up on your evening flight back home. Meal plan: breakfast and lunch.
Murchison Falls & Uganda Safari Inclusions:
- Airport transfers
- Transportation by a 4wd vehicle
- Accommodation and meals as per the itinerary
- Igongo cultural village visit
- Boat trips
- One Gorilla permit per person to be secured and paid for in advance
- Park fees
- Kibale Chimpanzee Permits
- Bigodi Walk
- Community visits
- Ziwa sanctuary Rhino Tour
- Services of English-speaking driver/guide.
- Enroute lunches
- Bat cave visit
- Hike to the top of the falls
- Ferry crossings fees
- Game drives
Excludes:
- expenses of personal nature like visa fees, drinks, laundry, tips to local guides, telephone, porter fee while trekking, personal insurance, and tobacco.