8 Days Game Drive Safaris in Uganda

This safari combines the wide savanna plains Queen Elizabeth National Park with the dense tropical rainforests of Bwindi National Park. During this safari retreat, you can experience an excellent wildlife viewing and encounter with the Chimpanzees at Ngamba Island Sanctuary as well as pay a visit to the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre.

Day 1: Arrival to Kampala

Welcome to the Pearl of Africa! You will arrive at Entebbe Airport, where you will be welcomed by a company representative and transferred to your hotel for relaxation. You will stay the night at Protea Entebbe Hotel B. The distance to the hotel will take approximately 10 minutes.Today’s meal plan includes dinner.

Day 2: Ngamba Island Sanctuary and UWEC Behind the scenes

After your breakfast, you will depart to the jetty for the 45 minutes’ boat cruise at 09:00 a.m. to Ngamba Island arriving in time for the chimpanzee feeding session. Upon arrival at the sanctuary, you will be directed to the visitor’s center where you will be given an introduction to the project, its history, the chimpanzee residents and their plight.

You will receive an educational orientation by a chimpanzee caregiver and view a feeding of the chimpanzees from the visitors raised platform area along the edge of the sanctuary fence at 11:00 a.m. before having lunch on the Island.

You will then return to the main land and head to the Uganda Wildlife Education Center for the Behind the Scenes Program. Experience the thrill by going beyond just watching the animals, visit the holding facilities or exhibits, food preparation areas, the pharmacy, quarantine facility, workshops, and taking part in rescues, and more.

Behind the scenes program will give you an inside view of what actually takes place in areas out of reach to the public including the animal holding facility, animal hospital, and rescue center upon advice of the veterinarian and within depth information from an animal keeper, veterinarian and educators. You will stay the night at Protea Entebbe Hotel. The distance to Ngamba Island Sanctuary is 45 kilometers. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 3: Kampala to Queen Elizabeth National Park

After breakfast, you will head to Queen Elizabeth National Park with a stopover at the Uganda Equator for a water flow demonstration of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. You will then proceed to have lunch in Mbarara Town before heading to the park arriving in the evening for relaxation. You will have dinner and stay at Katara Lodge. The distance to Queen Elizabeth National Park is 430 kilometers and will take approximately around seven hours. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 4: Game drive and launch cruise at Kazinga Channel

Arise early and set out for an early morning game drive and head to the mating ground of the Uganda kobs. You will search for lions, elephants, buffaloes, and other wild animals in their natural habitat before returning for the camp. You will have your breakfast packed for you by your lodge and enjoy it in the amazing wilderness.

After lunch, you will take on a scenic boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel, a natural and pre-historic canal that joins Lakes Edward and George. 33 kilometers long and two to three kilometers at its widest points. The Kazinga Channel was formed by tectonic activity millions of years ago, during the formation of the rift valleys.

On a scheduled two hours boat ride over a 12 to 14 kilometers stretch of the channel, guests are almost always guaranteed excellent wildlife sightings including, multitudes of hippopotamus, Nile crocodiles, wallowing buffaloes on the reedy banks, elephants, multitudes of birds including many endemics, as well as hundreds of other plains game that come to it for water all day long. Later head back to the lodge for relaxation. You will then have dinner and stay overnight at Katara Lodge. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 5: Queen Elizabeth Park to Bwindi National Park

After a relaxed breakfast, you will be departing for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, home of the endangered mountain gorillas arriving in time for late lunch and relaxation. The distance to Bwindi National Park is 260 kilometers and will take approximately five hours. You will then have dinner and stay overnight at Mahogany Springs. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 6: Birding excursion with an optional gorilla tracking

After breakfast, head for a three-hour birding session at the Munyaga Waterfall trail. Look out for 40 to 50 bird species including bee-eater, bar-tailed trogon, black, white-headed, tinker birds wood-hoop, barbets, woodpeckers, African broad bill, assorted greenbuls, white-bellied robin-chat, red-throated alethe,brown-capped weaver Chapin's flycatcher, red-faced woodland warbler, black-faced rufous warbler, pink-footed puff back Grauer's warbler, short-tailed warbler, Oberlander’s ground thrush, mountain masked apalis, bocage's bush-shrike, Luhder's bush-shrike, Petit's cuckoo shrike, starlings, black-billed weaver, among other birds.

You will then return for lunch and head to River Ivi trail, a six-hour nature walk trail south through the rainforest, ascending and descending gently through beautiful areas with several viewpoints overlooking lush valleys. This trail is excellent for viewing birds, duikers and monkeys. You will then have dinner and stay overnight at Mahogany Springs. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 7: Bwindi National Park to Entebbe

After breakfast, you will depart the impenetrable forest of Bwindi and head back to Kampala. You will then enjoy lunch at a local restaurant then proceed back to Kampala arriving in the evening. The distance to Entebbe is 590 kilometers and will take around 11 hours. You will then have dinner and stay overnight at Protea Entebbe Hote. Today’s meal plan includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Day 8: Departure

Enriched with an experience of a lifetime and unforgettable memories, you will say goodbye to the Pearl of Africa. Depending on your flight schedule, you can join Travelers Link Africa’s guide on a city tour and thereafter you will be transferred to Entebbe Airport for your international flight.

• Birding excursion trip to the Munyaga Waterfall Trail
• Boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel
• Visit to a chimp sanctuary
• Visit to Uganda equator for a water flow demonstration of the Northern and Southern Hemisphere
• Visit to Uganda Wildlife Education Centre for the Behind the Scenes Program

This safari will take place in Entebbe, Queen Elizabeth National Park, and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Bwindi National Park

Bwindi offers some of the finest montane forest bird watching in Africa, and is an unmissable destination for any birder visiting Uganda. There are an estimated 350 bird species with 23 endemics to the Albertine Rift and 14 recorded nowhere else in Uganda. Globally threatened species such as African Green Broadbill and Shelley’s Crimson wing are also found here.

Other birds include the Handsome Francolin, Black-billed Turaco, African Broadbill; Black, Cinnamon-chested Bee-eaters, Western Green Tinkerbird, Purple-breasted, Blue-headed, Regal Sunbirds, Short-tailed, Black-faced Rufous Warblers, Mountain-masked, Collared Apalis, Mountain, Yellow-streaked Greenbuls, and many-colored Bush-Shrike, among others.

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Classified as an Important Birding Area (IBA) by Birding International, Queen’s great variety of habitats mean it is home to over 600 species. This is the greatest of any East African national park, and a phenomenal number for such a small area. The park’s confluence of savanna and forest, linking to the expansive forests of the DR Congo allow visitors to spot East as well as Central African species.

Present in the park are numerous water birds, woodland and forest dwellers in the Maramagambo Forest, 54 raptors and various migratory species. Key species include the Martial Eagle, Black-rumped Buttonquail, African Skimmer, Chapin’s Flycatcher, Pinkbacked Pelican, African Broadbill, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Black Bee-eater, White-tailed Lark, White-winged Warbler, Papyrus Gonolek, Papyrus Canary, Corncrake, Lesser, Greater Flamingo, Shoebill, and Bar-tailed Godwit.

For the best birding in Queen Elizabeth National Park, do not miss the birding hot spots such as Kazinga Channel, Kasenyi Area, Mweya Peninsula, Maramagambo Forest, Ishasha Sector, Lake Kikorongo, Katunguru Bridge area, and Katwe Area.

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During the safari camp, you will be served with daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Optional activity - gorilla tracking

Arise early today and prepare for the highlight of your safari, an unforgettable encounter with the "gentle giants"! Following breakfast, transfer to the national park offices where you will be allocated a gorilla family in groups of eight as well as a gorilla tracking guide.

After a pre-tracking briefing by your guide touching on the gorillas generally, your assigned gorilla family as well as appropriate safety precautions, you drive to the trail-head for the start of a thrilling adventure. Expect to walk between two to eight hours in steep and slippery conditions at times with rain overhead, which can be quite a challenge so you require to be reasonably fit.

These magnificent animals live in small troops, each within its own defined boundaries and each with several females and their young being led by a single dominant male, the magnificent “silverback.” Please remember to bring your passport for registration, appropriate, water proof hiking boots and a light rain coat. To protect from stinging nettles, it is recommended you wear long pants and long sleeved tops.

A pair of old gardening gloves can help grabbing onto the vegetation while most hotels and lodges provide a walking stick that come in very handy especially when hiking downhill. A small waterproof backpack is an excellent idea to carry a light snack, bottled water as well as protection for your camera. Upon sighting the gorillas, you are allowed to spend one hour with them as they go about their daily life such as feeding, moving around playing, and grooming. It is a totally unique and unforgettable experience! Thereafter, you will head back to the lodge for relaxation.

• 7 nights accommodation
• All park entrance fees
• Birdwatching trip at Munyaga Waterfall trail
• Boat cruise on Kazinga Channel
• Chimpanzee feeding session
• Daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Game drives
• Ground transportation in a safari customized 4WD Toyota Land Cruiser
• Medical emergency evacuation cover
• Mineral water in the vehicle
• Services of an English speaking driver and guide
• Statutory taxes
• Transfer from and to Entebbe International Airport (EBB)

• Additional activities, excursions, and services
• Additional meals and drinks
• Airfare
• Communications charges
• Excess baggage charges
• Fees for international travel vaccinations and inoculations
• Gorilla tracking permit for 600 USD
• Hotels staff
• International airport departure taxes
• Room service
• Shopping charges for Curios and Crafts
• Ugandan entry visa fee for 50 USD per person

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• A reservation requires a deposit of 100% of the total price.
• The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.