Uganda & Rwanda: African Primate Safari - Gorilla Tracking and More

Day 1: Arrive in Entebbe, Uganda.

Arrive in Entebbe, Uganda. A Mountain Travel Sobek representative will meet you outside the customs and immigration area at the airport. He or she will answer questions, brief you on the immediate arrangements, and escort you to the elegant Lake Victoria Hotel, where palm-lined gardens overlook the shores of Africa’s largest freshwater lake.

Dinner / Lake Victoria Hotel - Entebbe Uganda

Day 2: Entebbe to Kibale Forest National Park

We board our Land Rovers in the morning and drive into the lush green countryside of Uganda, a country described by Winston Churchill as “the Pearl of Africa.” We pass through landscapes where African farmsteads crammed with bananas and tropical trees mingle with wetlands and patches of forest or bush, and give way to tea plantations as we gain elevation. After a picnic lunch en route, we enterKibale Forest National Park, where we may catch our first glimpse of chimps, baboons, or other primates. While in Kibale, we’ll stay at Primate Lodge, a luxury tented camp consisting of eight deluxe safari tents. They are raised on wooden platforms and feature verandas, comfortable beds, and en-suite bathrooms. We gather for meals in the open-air restaurant and can relax in the cozy bar, lounge, or around the fireplace. (6-7 hours driving.)

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner / Primate Lodge - Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda

Day 3: Kibale Forest National Park

Kibale is home to more than 500 chimpanzees and twelve other primate species, including black-and-white and red colobus, galagos, and L’Hoest’s monkeys. The forest, which averages about 3,300 feet in elevation, is inhabited by three large communities of chimps, each numbering more than 100 individuals. Over time, scientists have cut a grid of walking trails through the forest, which facilitates tracking these well-studied and protected chimps.

After a hearty breakfast, we’ll spend the morning in the forest tracking chimps! Chimp tracking sessions are carefully regulated by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Morning and afternoon tracking sessions take place at Kibale.* Each is limited to a maximum number of 16 visitors, who are divided into groups of four. Each group is accompanied by an experienced ranger-guide and a tracker. Typically, we locate the chimps by listening for their pant-hooting calls, then rush to the area where they are calling. They spend the majority of their day high in the fig trees, eating fruit and socializing, though it is not uncommon for one to swing down from the canopy to watch as you pass by. Getting this near to one of mankind’s closest relatives is an awesome experience that you won’t soon forget!

After a traditional Ugandan lunch, we’ll take a swamp walk (along the edge of the swamp—not through it!), looking for other primates which may include red-tailed monkey, red colobus monkey, black-and-white colobus, gray-cheeked mangabey, olive baboon, and vervet monkey. The forest is also the habitat of a wide array of birds, including the spectacular great blue turaco and the African gray parrot, and is alive with the tantalizing sounds of elusive birds such as the Angola pitta. On our walk, we’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the wetland flora, and how these natural resources are used in daily life and protected by the people of Uganda.

In the evening, we walk in search of nocturnal primates, including pottos and bushbabies. On all walks at Kibale, expert national park guides accompany us. They will use their tracking skills and share their knowledge of primates and birds, as well as reveal some of the botanical secrets of the forest. Twenty percent of your park entrance fees help support the local Batooro and Bakiga tribes.

*Please note—that we may be assigned either morning or afternoon tracking sessions, in which case we will adjust the rest of the day’s activities accordingly.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 4-5: Drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, 2,000 squar...

Today we drive 3-4 hours to Queen Elizabeth National Park, located in the western branch of Africa’s Great Rift Valley, with 2,000 square miles of deep green jungles, volcanoes, crater lakes, and open savannas. This diverse landscape is home to a similarly broad array of wildlife, including nearly 100 mammal species and 606 species of birds spotted (so far). We will delve into the varied landscape and waterways of the park in search of elephants, leopards, waterbucks, topis, and horned kobs, to name a few of the regularly sighted species. In addition to game drives, we’ll take an exciting launch trip on the Kazinga Channel that connects Lake Edward with smaller Lake George to get a different perspective on the wildlife. This is an absolutely spectacular experience: we are certain to see tremendous numbers of hippos and water birds of every type and hue, and elephant and leopard are often encountered along the shore. From the thick tree canopies and chattering chimps of Kyambura Gorge to the world’s largest congregation of hippos (30,000!) in the Kazinga Channel, QENP offers a world-class safari experience.

And, you’ll have incredible wildlife experiences even when you’re not out on a game drive—you can enjoy some of the best birdwatching in East Africa right from your deck at Jacana Lodge! Set on the edge of Uganda’s largest crater lake, the tree house lodge is naturally built of rock, wood, and rope. Seven luxury chalets have en-suite bathrooms with hot water and enclosed verandas with large windows offering panoramic views of the forest and Lake Nyamusingire. Enjoy evening sundowners or morning tea in the lounge area, beautifully accented with a large stone fireplace and handmade Persian carpets.

Twenty percent of your park entrance fees help support the local community surrounding QENP, including funding schools and medical clinics.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Days 6-7: Maramagambo Forest – Ishasha

Explore the remote southern Ishasha region of Queen Elizabeth National Park, known for herds of elephant, buffalo, and many species of antelope. Game drives provide a good chance of seeing buffalo, elephants, kob, topi, and the park’s renowned treeclimbing lions. It’s not known how the lions learned to climb fig and acacia trees here, but they seem to do it to escape the heat.

At night, relax around the fire at Ishasha Wilderness Camp. Each of the ten spacious East African Meru tents is comfortably furnished and has an en-suite bathroom and dressing area with a hot water shower. Because the camp is within the park boundaries, they maintain a low energy profile by using solar power and eco-friendly toilets.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner / Ishasha Wilderness Camp

Day 8: Kisoro – Kinigi

Drive through the region known as “the Switzerland of East Africa”for its awe-inspiring mountains. We travel through the famous Kanaba Gap, one of East Africa’s most scenic areas, before arriving inthe lovely town of Kisoro, which is dominated by volcanoes—Sabinyo (11,923'), Mgahinga (11,397'), and Muhabura (13,540'). We cross over into Rwanda, then continue through volcanic uplands to Kinigi, headquarters of Parc National des Volcans (Volcanoes National Park). We settle into the simple comforts of Gorilla Mountain View Lodge, our base for gorilla trekking in the Parc National des Volcans.(9-10 hours driving with stops for lunch, photography, and border crossing.)

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner / Gorilla Mountain View Lodge - Parc des Volcans, Rwanda

Day 9: Parc National des Volcans

Local trackers lead us through misty rainforest for our first adrenaline-filled encounter with the gorillas. Although park rangers try to keep tabs on the whereabouts of the gorillas, they are free-ranging wild creatures and can be difficult to locate depending on the animals’ movements. Sometimes finding them is very easy, as they may remain close to the area where they had been feeding the previous day. On other occasions, they require lengthy tracking, which can be arduous. Once found, we will stay with the gorillas and observe them closely for up to one hour (the park service requires we maintain a distance from them of 22 feet).

Six to eight people per day are allowed to visit each gorilla group; each day, we will try to assign group members to track the gorilla family most appropriate to their strength and hiking abilities. The difficulties we may encounter include steep muddy slopes, stinging nettles, safari ants, hanging and low-lying vines, and rain. The reward is an extraordinary opportunity to observe the gorillas at close range.

Note—These gorillas are NOT tame, but they have been scientifically habituated to accept the presence of quiet and non-threatening human observers.

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Day 10: Virunga Volcanoes – Kigali

Today we trek up the forested slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes for our second gorilla encounter. As of late 2008, there are 14 family groups of gorillas in the park which are habituated—seven of which are available for tracking by the public, the other seven tracked solely for research. Each family group lives in a very different part of the park. The Sabinyo Group lives on the hills below the jagged peak of Sabinyo Volcano. These hills are mostly covered with forests of giant bamboo. Group 13 and the Amahoro Group live on the forested slopes between Visoke Volcano and Sabinyo. Visoke is a lovely volcano that reaches up to 12,175 feet on its rim, and its interior is filled with a crater lake. Fortunately, the gorillas tend to range in the moss-draped hagenia forests of its lower slopes. Group Susa lives on the middlelevel slopes of the largest volcano, the giant Karisimbi (14,787'). Although the Susa Group tends to inhabit the forest at altitudes of 9,000-10,000 feet, they do range widely and sometimes venture higher up on the mountain, into the zone of bizarre and wonderful Afro-alpine vegetation. Susa is therefore considered the most strenuous group to track. Other family groups we may track include the Kwitonda, Umubano, and Hirwa Groups. The number of gorillas in each family group varies.

After returning from our second memorable visit with the gorillas, we drive through the scenic countryside and quickly understand why Rwanda has been nicknamed “the land of a thousand hills.” These hills are intensively cultivated by rural people who live on tiny farmsteads, so they form a terraced patchwork of banana plantations, sorghum fields, and vegetable gardens. Rwanda is densely populated so we may see many people walking along the roads and working their fields while en route to the nation’s capital, Kigali. Here we stay at the Kigali Serena Hotel, a full-service, western-style hotel with a gym, swimming pool, lounge, terrace, and a taste of the “real” world—Internet access!

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner / Kigali Serena - Kigali

Day 11: Kigali

We’ll tour bustling Kigali, including a tour of the genocide museum, the Kigali Memorial Centre, commemorating the one million Rwandans killed in 1994. Transfer to the airport for departure on homeward-bound flights via Entebbe or Nairobi.

Breakfast, Lunch