Day 1: Entebbe - Bwindi Impenetrable National Park via Kampala city
You will depart from Entebbe. The driving time from Entebbe to Bwindi is 11 hours. You will be picked from either Entebbe International Airport (EBB) or your place of stay and start your journey to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to enjoy a scenic landscape drive through Kigezi Highlands commonly known as the Switzerland of Africa. Alternatively, there is an optional scheduled flight from Entebbe to near Bwindi at an extra cost. The activities include visits to drum makers and Equator line, and having lunch at Ingogo museum in Mbarara. It takes a four-hour drive.
You will make a stopover for taking photos at the Equator, a line that divides the world into two. This safari will also allow you to get some good shots of pictures from your window. You will also visit side markets in Lukaya for roasted meat or plantain known as gonja. There is long-horned cattle that graze along Masaka-Mbarara highway and fruit market in Mbarara. The lunch shall be served in Mbarara town. You will proceed later with the drive directly to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and arrive late in the evening to check into your hotel, then have dinner and stay overnight.
- Accommodations: Mahogany Springs (luxury) / Silverback Lodge (standard) / Buhoma Community Bandas (budget)
- Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner (luxury and standard) / breakfast (budget)
Day 2: Gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Today, you will get four to five hours of gorilla tracking and two hours of village / nature walk. After an early breakfast and packing food for lunch, you will head for a briefing by a ranger guide at the park headquarters. You will then enter the forest depending on where your gorilla group is located today for your gorilla trekking adventure. The beauty of this rainforest is spectacular.
The area offers dramatic steeply forested landscape and is incredibly dense, but crisscrossed by numerous animal trails allowing access to tourists. The time is taken and the terrain varies with the movements of these great primates. The thrill of spending time observing these gentle and endangered giants is awesome, an exciting experience to be long savored. Many find it to be a rare and moving moment to come up close with a mountain gorilla.
Village / cultural walk is a community activity that runs side by side with the gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The activities with a local guide involve visiting the local community set up and interacting with them. This is an activity that will give you an insight into how tourism works hand in hand with the community in the area.
You will visit local craftsmen and women as they display their skills of weaving baskets, experience brewing of the local beer, and the highlight of this walk will be visiting a traditional healer who will explain how different herbs are used to treat different ailments. This village walk in Bwindi can easily be done as an add-on if you finish your gorilla trek early or lazing off the day as you prepare for the trek. You shall return back later for dinner and overnight.
- Accommodations: Mahogany Springs (luxury) / Silverback Lodge (standard) / Buhoma Community Bandas (budget)
- Meal plan: breakfast, lunch, and dinner (luxury and standard) / breakfast (budget)
Day 3: Bwindi - Kampala
It is an 11-hour drive up to the airport and there is an optional scheduled flight from Bwindi to Entebbe for 290 USD per ticket. The flight from Bwindi to Entebbe departs at 09:45 and arrive at 11:25. Early after your breakfast, you will proceed to Kampala. The lunch shall be served en route and just in case you need souvenirs then you will have the opportunity to stop at the Equator to buy some before proceeding to Kampala.
