8-Day Rwanda & Uganda Great Apes and Wildlife Safari

After breakfast, you will embark on a city tour visiting the Genocide Memorial Site which gives a brief history of the country you are visiting. After doing the activities in Kigali, you will be driven to Akagera National Park. You will check in for lunch. After lunch, you will go on a boat safari, this is one of the best activities in this park. Later in the evening, you will go for an evening game drive. Akagera National Park hosts several big mammals with the most sought-after being lions, buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, elephants, and hippos, which will provide for great photographic moments. The park has in the recent past made great strides in conservation by engaging the community through community tours. With the re-introduction of lions, have numbers of the Big Five are increasing by the day. You will take a boat trip on Lake Ihema to watch hippos and crocodiles in the water or by the shores.

After an early morning breakfast, you will go for a morning game drive experience, getting up close to wildlife in Akagera National Park. You will exit the park at Nothern Nyungwe gate and proceed to Volcanoes National Park through Byumba. During the game drive to the north of the park, you will go through different topography but the most interesting part of it is the Crocodile Swimming Pool and the Kilala Valley with a large concentration of wildlife as you get nearly to the Nyugwe exit gate. You will have lunch en route, arriving in the late evening for relaxation. You may choose to take a short walk around your lodge, visit the community, or choose to stay at your lodge.

You'll wake up for an early breakfast and transfer to the park head offices in Kinigi by 7:00 am. You'll join other golden monkeys trekkers and meet the ranger guide for a few minutes to talk about the activity and the park. At 8:00 am, you'll transfer to the trailhead just outside the park. You'll enjoy great views of the mountain scenery as you start your trek into the park to find the golden monkeys. The golden monkeys live near the edge of the park in the bamboo forests where the ground is relatively flat and easy to trek. You will find the monkeys and follow them as they feed, noticing how they skillfully pick the young bamboo leaves from the tip of the bamboo tree. They may also move out of the park into the potato fields. How they love the potatoes! After an amazing one hour with the golden monkeys, you will return to the trailhead and drive back to the lodge for lunch. Thereafter, you will head to the border where after clearing you will proceed to Bwindi.

After an early breakfast, you will drive to the briefing point in the forest of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park to get enlightened about your adventure with the mountain gorillas. You are advised to carry enough drinking water and a lunch box. For 15 US dollars, you can get a potter to carry your bag and give you a hand in slippery or steep parts of the forest. After the briefing, you are distributed into groups of eight and led by a park ranger into the forest where you will spend one hour with the gentle giants. Rain gear is important considering that Bwindi is a tropical rainforest. After gorilla tracking, you will relax at the lodge or take a community visit.

After breakfast, you will be transferred to Queen Elizabeth National Park. On your way, you will take a drive through Ishasha the southern sector of Queen Elizabeth famous for its tree-climbing lions. After the drive, you will immediately proceed to the Northern Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park and you will have lunch along the way.

You will wake up to an early breakfast, then head out for a morning game drive/safari in the Kasenyi plains and be on the look for buffalos, elephant herds, pride of lions, and leopards (though hard to spot) among others. You will return to the accommodation for some rest time and lunch. After lunch, you will go for a 2-hour boat trip on the Kazinga Channel that connects Lakes George and Edward. During the trip, the sight of wildlife including giant hippos, elephants, and crocodiles among others will fascinate you. You will also see many varieties of birds on the water shores. #Optional (no cost): If interested, you may go for a brief late afternoon-to-evening game viewing. Then, you will return to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

After an early morning breakfast, you will transfer to Kyambura Gorge to track chimpanzees in the dramatic Kyambura Gorge on the eastern side of the park, 35km from the lodge. It is home to a variety of wildlife, including the only primates in the Queen Elizabeth National Park. The area is an important water source for many animals and is surrounded by savannah, but is generally noted for its high concentration of primate life located in the gorge. You can also find red-tailed monkeys, black-and-white Colobus, baboons, and vervet monkeys. The gorge is also known for its variety of bird species including various falcons, the blue-headed bee-eater, and the African finfoot. This will be followed by a transfer to Lake Mburo National Park. Your overnight stay will be at Hyena Hill Lodge.

We will begin with horse safaris which are an awesome way to see the wildlife while in Lake Mburo. Without the noise of motor engines, you can hear so much more and you feel part of nature. Riding a horse means you often get the chance to see the more timid animals. If you are very lucky, you may see elands and buffalos. If you're lucky enough, you may see the leopards on a horse ride! However, this was a very rare sighting. You will nearly always see a mixture of warthogs, topi, impalas, duiker, bushbucks, waterbucks, and zebras. Of course, the time of year and the weather do affect the number and variety of animals that you see, as the animals graze where the grass is the most delicious. Watching animals from a horse is so peaceful and a different experience from being on a game drive; zebras come towards you to check out the strange relative without stripes. Afterward, you will return to the lodge for breakfast. This will be followed by a transfer to Entebbe Airport.