5-Day Chimpanzee Tracking Safari in Uganda with Kazinga Channel Cruise

Early in the morning after breakfast, your driver-guide will set off through the city's streets towards Kibale National Park. While still in the city, get to see and understand local city life. You will then continue on a 310-kilometre drive to Kibale National Park in southern Uganda via the Kampala-Mubende-Fort Portal highway. Along the way, enjoy views of nature's offerings, the pointed adjacent hills with coffee plantations, grazing local herds of cattle, and different town suburbs where locals sell their merchandise, among others.

Later, you will check in at your preferred lodge in Kibale and have lunch. After lunch, prepare for a nature walk in one of the last remaining forest expanses, comprising both lowland and montane forests in eastern Africa, and engage with Mother Nature. You will also encounter the two tribes living around the park - the Batoro and Bakiga communities - before returning to the lodge to relax.

Location: Kibale Forest National Park

Accommodation Option:

Luxury: Papaya Lake Lodge

Comfort: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge

Standard: Kibale Forest Lodge

Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Drinking Water and Fruits throughout

Early in the morning after breakfast, you will be briefly introduced to chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest. Accompanied by an armed game ranger, you will head into the forest and follow the park trails in search of the chimps, guided especially by their evocative pant-hoot calls. While here, you will discover that Kibale Forest National Park is an ideal centre for eco-tourism and a popular safari destination, known for its habituated chimpanzees and twelve other species of primates.

Along the way, encounter unique forest dwellers such as the red colobus monkey, the rare L'Hoest's monkey, the black-and-white colobus, and the blue monkey. You may also enjoy birdwatching among more than 325 recorded bird species. The park is also home to other wildlife, including elephants, duikers, bushbucks, sitatungas, bushpigs, giant forest hogs, and common warthogs. After the chimpanzee tracking experience, return to your lodge for lunch.

After lunch in the afternoon, enjoy a nature walk in Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a fascinating area located in Magombe Swamp. This area is recognised for its extensive biodiversity, including several primate species such as the red colobus monkey, baboon, black-and-white colobus monkey, blue monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, vervet monkey, red-tailed monkey, and L'Hoest's monkey. After the visit, return to your lodge to relax and have dinner.

Location: Kibale Forest National Park

Accommodation Option:

Luxury: Papaya Lake Lodge

Comfort: Chimpanzee Forest Lodge

Standard: Kibale Forest Lodge

Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Drinking Water and Fruits throughout

Wake up to the golden morning sunlight, have breakfast, check out from the lodge, and transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda's most visited savannah park in the western region of the country. The park is associated with prominent tourist hubs such as Maramagambo Forest, the Kigezi Game Reserve, the Kyambura Game Reserve, and Kibale National Park.

You will drive through open rocky escarpments on a 2-3 hour road journey to Queen Elizabeth National Park. This region is one of Uganda's leading tourist hubs and is set against the backdrop of the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains National Park. On arrival, check in at your lodge, have lunch, and prepare for an evening game drive.

The evening game drive opens the door to a classic big game safari experience in the savannah. Look out for African buffaloes, Ugandan kobs, hippopotamuses, Nile crocodiles, African bush elephants, African leopards, lions, and other grazing wildlife species. The park is home to 95 mammal species and over 500 bird species.

Location: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Accommodation Option:

Luxury: Elephant Plains Game Lodge

Comfort: Twin Lake Safari Lodge

Standard: Pumba Safari Cottages

Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Drinking Water and Fruits throughout

First, wake up to the whispering jungle sounds mixed with calls from the wilderness. After breakfast, drive through the park to spot the early risers, including nocturnal animals returning from the night. This offers an authentic way to experience the savannah, with chances to see hyenas coming out of their dens, buffaloes crossing into the short grazing savannah, and unique bird species moving across the open skies. You will also visit the Ishasha Sector, famous for the great kings of the jungle - the tree-climbing lions.

After the game drive, enjoy a short time to relax and take in the ground-level nature sightings in this magnificent and picturesque area, ideal for memorable photo captions, before lunch. After lunch, transfer to the Kazinga Channel for a launch trip. This channel connects Lake Edward and Lake George and introduces you to a varied range of animals and birds, including one of the world's largest concentrations of hippos and numerous Nile crocodiles seen throughout the year. After the experience, drive back to the lodge for relaxation.

Location: Queen Elizabeth National Park

Accommodation Option:

Luxury: Elephant Plains Game Lodge

Comfort: Twin Lake Safari Lodge

Standard: Pumba Safari Cottages

Meals Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Drinking Water and Fruits throughout

After breakfast, check out of the lodge and visit the Kasenyi fishing villages. In this sector, see the local methods used to catch fish and identify the different fish caught on the channel. Continue to the Lake Katwe crater deposits, where you will see and learn how locals, especially women, enter the lake to extract salt deposits using their hands and other local tools - a method that is risky and dangerous to human life, yet part of daily survival.

Later, embark on your journey through Mbarara-Masaka-Kampala. Stop briefly in Mbarara for lunch, then continue past Lake Mburo National Park with its unending sightings, including Ankole long-horned cattle grazing near the park's acacia trees. On arrival in Kampala, you will be dropped off at your preferred location or at the airport. This marks the end of the trip.

Thank you for choosing Paradise Adventure Vacations, and we hope to see you again in Uganda.