8-Day Uganda Gorilla Safari from Kigali with Chimps and Lake Bunyonyi

• You will be picked up from Kigali International Airport or any hotel in Kigali to start your journey to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, with a visit to the Genocide Museum and a Kigali city tour if time allows.
• The journey is very scenic and will take you through the country of a thousand hills to the Pearl of Africa.
• You will cross over to Uganda at the Katuna or Chanika border for a stop at Kabale town (Katuna) or Kisoro (Chanika) before proceeding to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for your overnight stay.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

• You will wake up early in the morning and head to the park headquarters to join other clients for a briefing about the dos and don'ts while with mountain gorillas during your habituation experience.
• After the briefing, you will start your trek into the forest, guided by researchers and guides.
• During your trek, you may encounter several birds, other animals, and primates in the forest. Once you have found the gorillas, you will spend four hours with them before returning to the lodge for the night.
• You will have an opportunity to listen to and observe researchers doing their work of habituating gorillas and, if possible, you may be called upon to participate by collecting samples, naming group members, making calls, and much more.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

• After breakfast, you will depart for Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, arriving in time for lunch at Elephant Hab Lodge.
• This will be followed by a short relaxation and an evening game drive in the savannah plains of Kasenyi, where wild animals like buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, and big cats such as lions and leopards can be spotted, depending on your luck.
• Return to your lodge for an overnight stay.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Katara Lodge or Mazike Valley Lodge

• This morning, you will head back to the plains of Kasenyi for a morning game drive to try to find what you may have missed the previous day.
• Lunch will be served at the lodge, and afterward you will head to the jetty along the Kazinga Channel for an afternoon private boat cruise.
• This cruise offers you chances to view animals like hippos, water birds, elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, and many other wildlife that flock to the channel for drinking water.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Katara Lodge or Mazike Valley Lodge

• After an early breakfast, drive to the northern bank of Queen Elizabeth National Park in the Kasenyi area in search of wild animals, including elephants, buffaloes, wild cats, savannah birds, and different species of antelopes such as waterbuck and Uganda kobs, among others.
• After lunch, you will drive to Kibale Forest National Park, arriving at your lodge in the evening.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Papaya Lake Lodge

• After breakfast, you will be transferred to Kibale National Park headquarters at Kanyakyu to join other trekkers for a briefing and eventual chimpanzee trekking.
• You will be led by a well-trained ranger-guide who will take you on a guided primate walk inside Kibale Forest National Park.
• This forest provides an opportunity to visit one of the habituated chimpanzee communities and spend an hour with them observing and taking photographs.
• Kibale National Park is home to 11 other primate species, coupled with forest birds.
• After your chimpanzee trek, you will drive to Bigodi Village for a wetland walk that was designed to benefit the local community living around Kibale Forest National Park.
• Return to the lodge for your overnight stay.

Accommodation and overnight stay at Papaya Lake Lodge

• From Kibale Forest National Park, you will drive to Lake Bunyonyi to break the long journey to Kigali and relax after the lodge tour.
• Lake Bunyonyi is one of the three lava-dammed lakes that was formed when lava flowing from one of the volcanoes blocked a river channel and water was forced to flow back, filling the space to create Lake Bunyonyi.
• Bunyonyi locally means small birds due to the abundance of small birds in this area.
• Lake Bunyonyi is said to be the deepest lake in Uganda and the second deepest in East Africa. People visit Lake Bunyonyi for its beauty, and it is one of the best places to relax after a long safari.

Lodging: Bird Nest Main Lodge

• After breakfast, you are free to admire the beauty of the lake and its surrounding hills.
• You will have a choice of either taking a canoe ride on the lake to explore different islands with exciting history.
• You may, for example, visit Punishment Island, where girls who would produce babies outside legitimate traditional marriage would be dumped and left to die. This is a whole-day activity, and you will surely enjoy it.
• Alternatively, you can hike one of the hills around Lake Bunyonyi.
• After any of the optional activities, drive to Katuna Border and head for Kigali for either a late flight or a post-tour hotel on your own arrangement.