9 Days Uganda Primates Habituation

Upon arrival in Uganda at Entebbe International Airport, located on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Victoria, Africa’s biggest fresh water lake, you will be welcomed and greeted by your driver/guide. He will be standing at the Arrivals Hall holding a placard with your name so you cannot miss him. You will then be transferred to the hotel/ guest house you have chosen and check-in for dinner and overnight stay. Your driver/ guide will brief you about your safari at some stage (either before dinner or first thing after breakfast the next day).
For those that arrive early in the day – there are optional activities around Entebbe especially if you intend to stay active and not rest after long overseas flights. You can visit the Entebbe Botanical Gardens or head out to trawl Mabamba bay for a chance to see the prehistoric and mythical shoebill. Or, your guide will be on hand to take you to the local markets or one of the malls to shop for some essentials.

You rise with the rising sun and enjoy your breakfast. After, you make the short transfer to the airport to check-in for your domestic flight – departing at 07.00Hrs to Kasese airstrip. At Kasese, you will be received by your driver/guide. From Kasese, you will be transferred to Kibale National Park. On arrival, you will check-in at the lodge you have chosen and enjoy lunch. After lunch, your guide will give you a detailed brief about your whole habituation safari.

Afternoon: After lunch, set out for a guided nature walk through the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary – a community project. The swamp offers visitors a platform to see more primates, swamp and forest birds, all the while supporting local conservation efforts. On your tour, you will likely see several kinds of monkeys including black and white colobus, red colobus etc. Other wetlands mammals include baboons, Sitatunga (an increasingly endangered swamp antelope), bush pigs, civet cats, mongooses, bush bucks and an occasional chimpanzee appearance. The walk is 4.5 kilometres in length and lasts 3 hours and should not be missed by avid birders. Money generated from the activities in Bigodi is used to fund community projects including a school and a clinic. Later, return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

Today you are up at 5.00pm to drive to Kibale Forest National Park for your chimpanzee habituation experience. You will spend the whole day with and in the company of the chimpanzees that are going through a habituation process with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) researchers and rangers. The habituation experience is not for the faint-hearted – it means an early breakfast, a packed lunch and you are off before dawn breaks into the forest. The bonus however is you get much closer to the chimpanzees than you would if you were doing the 1-hour chimpanzee tracking experience. You meet your guide and you are off to where the chimpanzees built nests the night before. Dawn is just breaking and the chimpanzee community you are going to be with the rest of the day is rising from their sleep. The chimpanzee habituation experience entails getting the chimpanzees used to the presence of humans (to remove the fear of humans from the group), a process that takes up to two years – and today you are part of the process by your all-day presence in the forest. Your day will be full, your camera will fill up with quality pictures of the chimpanzees and you will get to learn to identify them as individuals by their markings, sometimes scars and other unique features that make them stand apart from the rest. The day ends at 6.30am or when darkness falls as the chimpanzees climb into their newly built nests for the evening and you head back to Primate Lodge Kibale for dinner and overnight.

You wake up at leisure and enjoy your breakfast. You are not in a hurry and so you will depart Kibale Forest National Park for Queen Elizabeth National Park at leisure. You will transfer through the beautiful crater lakes region where the views and scenery are to die for! After seeing some of the many craters in the region, back on the road, you continue to Queen Elizabeth National Park with the Rwenzori Mountains in the backdrop. On a clear day, you can see the snow-capped Magherita peak of the Rwenzori Mountains. On arrival to your destination, you check-in at lodge you have chosen, enjoy lunch and can relax.

In the late afternoon, head to the Katwe Crater Lake where locals have mined salt through the ages. This lake – situated just north of the impressive Mweya peninsula, is far too salty to support any wildlife. However, since the 16th Century, it has ensured the survival of the Katwe residents, who spend their days under the equatorial sun, harvesting salt from its milky waters. Enjoy the spectacular drive to Katwe as you look out for wildlife including buffaloes and elephants. Once you arrive at the salt mines, marvel at the network of paths and huts that have been built across the lake to support hundreds of workers. The salt is sold to traders from across Uganda, and as far as Congo and Rwanda. This excursion gives visitors a unique insight into the fascinating yet tough process of salt mining and meeting and interacting with the locals. During the tour of the lake you will see community members at work and you get to talk to them. Later, return to your lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

You are up at 6.00am to prepare for today. Your driver/guide will head towards the Kasenyi gate of the park to meet staff from the Uganda Carnivore Project as well as a research team from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). Rangers from UWA will brief you about the experience you are about to undertake – tracking lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Lion Tracking Research at Queen Elizabeth is another way to see the lions and leopards in Queen Elizabeth National Park – often closer than on a regular game drive. The Uganda Carnivore Project does research on lions and other predators in the northern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Prides of lions have been collared, allowing the researchers to gain valuable insights into their behavior and habits specific to this region of the park. You are with them on today’s research outing for 3-hours. Not only will you get up close and personal to get that amazing photo, you will also learn about the work of the researchers including human-carnivore conflict prevention and working with local communities. Part of the fee you pay goes directly towards future carnivore conservation. This activity is limited in terms of the number of participants that can take part and a rare opportunity for those that can! It has to be booked in advance. You get to help in monitoring, tracking, researching the King of the beasts in Queen Elizabeth Park which is certainly an out of the ordinary time for visitors. Normally this is done using locator devices as researchers monitor the weather, the lion’s behavior as well as their surroundings. The findings are added to the databases of the researchers, hence contributing very important data to the general understanding of Africa’s wildlife ecology in particular that in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and assisting to conserve this amazing ecosystem. Queen Elizabeth Park is the only Park in Uganda where Lion Tracking research is offered. At the end of this experience, return to your lodge for a hot lunch. After, you will embark on a boat cruise along the Kazinga channel – a major highlight of the safari to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The channel is a natural waterway, linking lakes Edward and George. It boasts one of Africa’s highest concentrations of hippos (there are 1,500 hippos found along the channel), providing a mesmerizing spectacle of these aquatic giants. Glide along the tranquil waters, accompanied by the symphony of birdcalls and the occasional splash of a crocodile, as you soak in the serene beauty of the surroundings. On the boat cruise, hippos frolic and yawn wide, elephants and buffalo drink their fill at the channel’s banks. The boat trip is a front-row seat to nature’s spectacle. The boat cruise promises to be a highlight of your journey, offering unparalleled opportunities for wildlife viewing and birdwatching. From the boat cruise, if time allows continue on an evening game drive culminating into a return to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

This drive to Bwindi via the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park will also serve as game drive. As you journey through the picturesque landscapes, keep your gaze trained on the horizon as you search for the iconic tree-climbing lions that inhabit this unique region. If you are lucky to find them, marvel at the sight of these majestic predators perched atop ancient sycamore fig trees or acacia trees, surveying their kingdom with regal poise.

There are about 4 Prides of lions in the area numbering more than 40 in total. Look out for the males with their black mane, which is a notable attribute. Also, there are about 1000+ elephants present in the area and you normally see large herds. There are Topi (savannah relatives of the world-famous Wildebeest) and Uganda Kob antelopes in large numbers. The drive is a fantastic opportunity to take lots of pictures. On arrival, you go on a search for the area’s famous residents. If you are lucky to encounter them, see them and marvel at their unique adaptation. Take as many pictures and videos if they are close by. After an exhilarating wildlife encounter, continue your journey to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a realm of mist-shrouded mountains and dense vegetation. Along the way, feast your eyes on the scenic beauty of the landscape, from vast banana, tea plantations to lush valleys and towering forests.

As the day draws to a close, arrive at the lodge you have chosen in Bwindi, where you can unwind amidst the tranquil surroundings and prepare for the extraordinary adventure that awaits tomorrow.

Today you will spend 4-hours (as opposed to 1-hour that the standard trek lasts) in the company of the Mountain Gorillas that are going through the habituation process with Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) researchers and rangers. The habituation experience is not for the faint-hearted – it means an early breakfast, a packed lunch and you are off before dawn breaks into the forest. The bonus however is you get much closer to them than you would if you were doing the 1-hour gorilla tracking experience. You meet your guide and you are off to where the gorillas built nests the night before. Dawn is just breaking and the gorilla community you are going to be with is rising from their sleep. The gorilla habituation experience entails getting the gorillas used to the presence of humans (to remove the fear of humans from the group), a process that takes up to two years – and today you are part of the process by your all-day presence in the forest. Your day will be full, your camera will fill up with quality pictures of the gorillas and you will get to learn to identify them as individuals by their markings, sometimes scars and other unique features that make them stand apart from the rest. After 4 hours in the presence of the gorillas, you head back to the lodge for dinner and overnight stay.

This morning, you are up early for breakfast and are off at 7.30am – arriving at the park HQ in time for the formalities. After the formalities, you embark on the search for the Golden Monkeys – a trek that could last from about an hour to three hours. When you get into their presence, you will know it – the forest comes alive with monkeys everywhere. You are in their presence for 1 hour. Usually, the single hour is over and you come back to the trail-head. The endangered Golden Monkey is endemic to the Albertine rift and Volcanoes National Park offers a rare chance to track them high in the dense bamboo forests. After your encounter with these rare primates, you make the short transfer to the picturesque Lake Bunyonyi.

After breakfast, check-out and commence the 7-hour drive to Entebbe. You will make two stops including one for an early lunch. After lunch, continue with a stop at the Equator point. Here, you can purchase some crafts and souvenirs from your Uganda safari and take fun photos at the Equator monument. You should arrive in Entebbe in the late afternoon/ early evening where you are dropped-off at the airport for you to check-in for your onward flight home. If your flight is much later, you can use the facilities at one of our partner Guest Houses to freshen up ahead of check-in. At the appropriate time, you will be dropped off at the airport in time for you to check-in for your onward flight to bring to an end what we believe will have been an awe-inspiring Uganda safari whose memories will stay with you for a long time.

Note: The option to fly from Kisoro to Entebbe in the viscinity of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is available at the end of this trip if you prefer.