14 DAYS COMBO UGANDA AND RWANDA TOUR

Trip Highlights

• Main destination is Murchison Falls, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Volcanoes National Park
• Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary
• Game drives
• Visit the Top of the Falls
• Boat cruises
• Chimpanzee tracking
• Optional actives in each National Park
• Gorilla tracking both in Uganda and Rwanda
• You will stay in either luxury lodges or mid range lodges with meals included.
• Scheduled flights where necessary
• You will be travelling in a 4×4 safari vehicle.

 

Day by day tour program:

Day 1 –

Upon arrival at Entebbe International Airport, you will be met by Thousand Hills Expeditions’ representative who will assist you with customs and immigration clearance, thereafter you will be transferred to the hotel.

 

Optional activities depending on your arrival time:

• Visit the Botanical Gardens.
• A sunset Boat cruise on Lake Victoria.
• Visit the Craft village.
• Bike Rides.
• Explore the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre.
• Guided walking tours.
• Take a canoe tour in Mabamba Swamp
• Bird-watching around Lake Victoria Shores.
• Fishing trip.
• Ngamba Island
• Visit the Fishing Village.

 

Lunch and dinner under own arrangements.

Overnight at your hotel. ( BB)

 

Day 2 –

After breakfast, your driver/guide will meet you at the lobby at 07:00am and be transferred to Murchison falls national park via Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, drive northwest through the Luwero area to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, established in 1998 for the protection of rhinos. Ziwa is the only place where you can track rhinos on foot; it is really great and exciting as you watch the white rhinoceros. (approx. 2 hours’ drive).

 

After your track and lunch at Ziwa you will continue your drive to Murchison Falls National Park, (approx. 3 hour’s drive).  Check in at the lodge.

 

At the dramatic Murchison Falls, the world's longest river explodes through a narrow, 7m cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool 43M below. In the lush borassus grassland north of the Nile, elephant, buffalo, giraffe and a variety of antelope are regularly enco uttered. In the southeast, Rabongo Forest is home to chimpanzees and other rainforest creatures while the River Nile itself hosts one of Africa's densest hippo and crocodile populations. Add a dazzling variety of water-birds, including the world's most accessible wild population of the rare shoebill stork, and Welcome! to Murchison Falls National Park; an untamed African savannah bisected east to west, for 115 kms, by the mighty river Nile.

 

Situated approx. 300 kms/5 hrs northwest of Kampala, this 3,840 km² park spreading inland from the shores of Lake Albert around the Victoria Nile is Uganda's largest National Park. And the only one where all of the ‘Big Five’ are to be found; buffalo, elephant, lion and occasional leopard seen above the Nile while rhinos are being bred in a sanctuary south of the park - 40 to 50 of them are lined up for release into the wild by around 2040. Together with the adjacent 748 km² Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and the 720 km² Karuma Wildlife Reserve, it is part of the greater, 5,308 km², Murchison Falls Conservation Area.

Special activities include launch trips to the base of the falls, Boat trips to Lake Albert delta, Chimpanzee tracking at Rabongo Forest & Budongo Forest en-route from Masindi plus regular game drives.

wild animals and shooting with bows and arrows.

 

Optional activities: 

• Visit Boomu Women’s group
• Visit the Top of the falls.

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 3-

Wake up at 6:30am for a sumptuous breakfast to get ready for a morning game drive in the wilds of Murchison Falls to catch up with the early risers and predators return from a night's hunt.  You will need to go with your picnic breakfast. You may marvel at the herds of buffaloes, dozens of elephants, Warthogs and towering giraffes along with the bushbucks, reedbucks, oribi, jackals, hyenas, lions, antelope, Uganda kob, baboons, velvet monkeys, and Jackson’s hartebeest, among others.

All our guides are very professional and have extensive knowledge of all indigenous flora and fauna in the park.

 

In the afternoon take a scheduled launch trip upstream from Paraa which presents an astonishing display of wildlife and culminates with the memorable frontal view of the falls at the Devil's Cauldron. This four- to five-hour return voyage also takes in a variety of other wildlife, including school of hippos, crocodiles, elephants and many birds including the elusive and popular shoebill which may be spotted on a lucky day, once at the bottom of the falls you can see the Nile's beauty perfected, compressing from up to 1 km squeeze through a 7 meter canyon dropping 45 meters with a thunderous roar creating a beautiful rainbow, a plume of spray and the best thing that happened to the Nile..."the Murchison Falls ". Enjoy the sunset as you return to the lodge.

 

Optional activity - sport fishing on the Nile.

During port fishing, you get a chance to see the biggest edible fish species the Nile perch. You can also catch other fish like cat fish, tiger fish, electric cat fish, and the most delicious for fisher men tilapia. However, the sport fishing in Murchison Falls National Park is not regular fishing for food, rather it’s based on a catch and release basis.

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 4 –

At 11:000am, check out and be transferred to Pakuba airstrip to take your scheduled flight to Kasese airstrip which departs at 13:15pm arriving at 14:15pm. Upon arrival at the airstrip, you will be met by drivers from the lodge and be transferred to the lodge. Your driver/guide will join you later in the evening.

 

Kibale National Park, 320 kms/5 hrs from Kampala, is Uganda’s primates’ paradise, her 776 km² of moist evergreen rain forest home to the highest concentration of primates in the world - 13 species, including the very ‘local-ized’ Red Colobus as well as L'Hoest's monkey. The elusive forest elephant, smaller, hairier than its bush counterpart, moves seasonally into the park; other terrestrial mammals include buffalo, giant forest hog, leopard and half a dozen antelope species. Birdlife is prolific with 335 species including hornbills, pittas, turacos, the endemic Prirogrine's ground thrush and African Grey Parrots.

 

But the park’s principal attraction remains the opportunity to track her 500 habituated Chimpanzees. These delightful apes, genetically the closest living relatives of man, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees. Tracking usually takes about 4 hrs.

 

Optional activities: 

• Amabeere Ga Nyinamwiru Caves
• Beekeeper’s Cooperative
• Tooro Botanical Gardens

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 5 –

At 6:00am meet your guide at the lobby with your packed lunch boxes and transfer to Kibale National Park, and drive to Kanyanchu Park Headquarters for a briefing of the chimpanzee tracking and later enter the forest to search for the man’s closest friend. These delightful apes, more closely related to humans than to any other living creature, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees. The incredibly diverse forest is home to over 13 species of primates including red Colobus monkey, the rare L’Hoest, blue monkey, grey mangabey, black faced vervet monkeys, baboons and also bush babies swinging through the dense forests, with your informative guide making it even more interesting by pointing out other forest features, flora & fauna.

Upon sighting the chimpanzees, you stay with them for 1 hour as they go about their daily life!

 

Optional activities:

• Cultural and Nature walking
• Visit the Crater Lakes
• Cycling in Kibale
• Tea Plantations

 

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 6 –

Meet your guide at the lobby after breakfast and transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, enjoying the majestic views enroute of the snow-capped 16,000-foot Rwenzori Mountains - the famed "Mountains of the Moon". (approx. 3 hrs drive). Check in at the lodge.

 

Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), located in western Uganda, approx 438 kms/6 hrs southwest of Kampala is Uganda’s most popular savannah park. Her 1,978 sq. km of open savannah, rainforest, dense papyrus swamps and brooding crater lakes extends from Lake George in the northeast to Lake Edward in the southwest and includes Maramagambo Forest and Kazinga Channel connects the 2 lakes.

 

QENP is home to an incredible array of wildlife including almost 100 species of mammals, from hippos, elephants, leopards, lions, the elusive giant forest hog, the handsome Uganda kob to Chimpanzees in her Kyambura Gorge; all these in addition to over 600 bird species.

 

Much of the best game viewing is in the northern, Mweya Peninsula area which boasts a marvellous waterfront setting in the shadow of the Rwenzoris. The southern area of Ishasha exiting towards Bwindi is famous for its tree-climbing lions, whose males sport black manes, a feature unique to lions in this area.

 

It is also famous for its volcanic features; volcanic cones and deep craters, many with crater lakes such as Lake Katwe, from which salt is extracted. Unique activities include regular game drives, Launch cruises on Kazinga channel, Chimps tracking in Kyambura gorge and Guided walks in Maragambo forest.

In the afternoon go for a game drive.

Optional activities:

• Visit Lake Katwe
• Nature walks in Maramagambo Forest
• Cultural experiences
• Game drive

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 7-

Early morning rise with tea/coffee and snacks and have a morning game drive in the wilds of Queen Elizabeth National Park which is globally famous for featuring four of the big 5, its diverse bird species as well as other flora and fauna. The drive will take you to Kasenyi mating ground, expect to encounter Lions, spotted hyenas, Grazing Hippos, Elephants, and Warthogs, Herds of Buffalo, giant forest hog, Uganda kobs, Water bucks, Occasional leopard sightings, and a variety of bird species unique to the Albertine rift valley.

 

Optional activity morning activities: 

• Chimpanzee tracking in Kalinzu Forest
• Chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge
• Lion tracking experience
• Mangoose tracking
• Hippo census (when need to know when it can be done)

 

In the afternoon grace yourself for a unique scheduled boat cruise on the Kazinga channel that joins Lake Edward to Lake George and also famous for the highest concentration of hippos in Africa. You may also encounter crocodiles, countless of birds on the shore and overhead and in the water of the channel. This is a pleasant boat ride where you can get some great pictures of elephants and buffaloes on shore. Hopefully an open-mouthed hippo shot.

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 8-

This morning, you will transfer to the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park which is famous for its tree-climbing lions, a unique behavior not commonly seen in other lion populations. These lions, unlike most, regularly climb into fig and acacia trees, especially during the afternoon hours, to rest, escape insects, and survey the plains for prey. Check into your Camp.

In the afternoon, you will go for a game drive in search for these tree climbing lions and in the evening have a sundowner.

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 9-

Have your morning breakfast served at 7:30am, checkout and have a game drive before transferring to Bwindi National Park (approx2 hrs drive).Check in at the lodge.

 

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park’s 331 sq. kms of montane and lowland forest jungle lies in southwestern Uganda, 540 kms from Kampala. A UNESCO World Heritage Site and accessible only on foot, it is one of the richest ecosystems in Africa providing habitat for over 90 mammals (including 11 primates), 346 species of birds (including 23 highly localized Albertine Rift endemics), 202 species of butterflies, 163 tree species, over 100 species of ferns, 27 species of frogs, chameleons, geckos and other endangered species.

 

Bwindi is however most notable for her 340 Mountain Gorillas, about half the world's population of this critically endangered primate. Gazetted in 1991, the park rose to her peak after Gorilla tracking became a tourist activity in April of 1993, converting it into one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth. The 7 habituated families include Mubare, Habinyanja, Rushegura near Buhoma and the Nkuringo group.

 

Activities include: Gorilla tracking, Forest walks, Cultural visits with the Batwa people and unbelievable bird watching - this is Africa’s richest country birds-wise with over 1,000 species recorded including almost half the continent’s known species and over 10% of those recorded around the world.

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 10-

Wake up and prepare for the unforgettable experience! After an early breakfast transfer to the park HQs for pre-Gorilla tracking briefing and about the gorilla family you will track then 08:00 AM: set off into the forest in the footsteps of the Mountain Gorillas. You will be led by experienced gorilla trackers on the slopes of the volcanoes. You will start from the site where the gorillas were encountered the day before and from here the gorilla tracking begins. It is a humbling experience to stand just meters from man’s distant cousins as they eat rest, play and bond with their young. Follow the mountain gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest, and discover their gorgeous natural habitual and the many species they share it with. You are allowed an hour with the gorillas.

 

The trekking can take from 1 to 5 hours but sometimes it might take long hours, depending on the location of the gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest. -  The terrain is rough and at times muddy. Although the hike is physically demanding the beauty of the forest and surrounding scenery make the trekking worthwhile. Once the gorillas are located all fatigue is forgotten, as the experience is often described as being the most profound natural history experience in the world. Cameras and plenty of fast speed film is recommended. It can rain at a few minutes’ notice; hence waterproof clothing is a good essential including zip lock bags for cameras and film. It is important to take plenty of water.

 

Afterwards trek back to the lodge for lunch and a refreshing shower.

 

Optional activities: 

• Community walks.
• Forest walk
• Bird watching
• Biking community tour
• Ride4 woman
• Visit Community School

 

Dinner and overnight at your lodge. ( FB)

 

Day 11-

After breakfast, check out and be transferred to Cyanika onto Uganda / Rwanda boarder (approx. 6 hours’ drive), with a scenic view the beautiful terrain of the rolling hills with terraced landscape of Kabale, with a lunch stopover in Kisoro. After lunch drive to Cyanika boarder, after clearing with immigration, you will continue your drive to Musanze/ Volcanoes national park.

 

Volcanoes National Park lies in the heart of central Africa, whose name is derived after the dormant volcanoes.  Volcanoes National Park is one of Africa’s must-visit destinations. Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park protects some of the most unique biological, ecological, and cherished landscapes in Africa. Extending from sea level to 4507m high, the park encompasses the summits of five of East Africa’s dormant volcanoes – Mount Karisimbi, Mount Sabinyo, Mount Gahinga, Mount Muhabura and Mount Bisoke.

 

Tracking endangered mountain gorillas through the mysterious intimacy of the rain forest, alive with the calls of 200 species of colorful birds and chattering of the rare golden monkey, is only one of the truly unique experiences in the area.
Activities include: gorilla tracking, golden monkey tracking and bird viewing of over 200 remarkable species of birds.

Dinner and overnight in Kinigi. ( FB)

 

Day 12-

After breakfast, you will head out for Golden monkey tracking in the Virunga national park.  Golden monkey are sub-species of the sykes monkey also referred to as ‘Blue Monkey’. They are scientifically known as Cercopithecus Mitis kandi and live in large troops of about 60 members mostly on the lower slops of mountains with in the Virunga ranges.

 

Golden Monkeys stand out from other monkey species because of the gold/orange spots on their fur coats. They are considered to be one of the most beautiful and cute monkey species in Africa.

As your remarkable Luxury Gorilla Trekking Safari in Rwanda comes to an end, embark on a scenic drive back to Kigali [Approx. 3 hrs.].Along the way, reflect on the incredible experiences and memories you've collected over the past few days.

Return back to the lodge for lunch and refreshment.

Rest of the day at Leisure at the lodge or go for a community walk.

Dinner and overnight in Kinigi. ( FB)

 

Day 13-

Wake up and prepare for the unforgettable experience in virunga national park! After an early breakfast transfer to the park HQs for pre-Gorilla tracking briefing and about the gorilla family you will track then 08:00 AM: set off into the forest in the footsteps of the Mountain Gorillas. You will be led by experienced gorilla trackers on the slopes of the volcanoes. You will start from the site where the gorillas were encountered the day before and from here the gorilla tracking begins. It is a humbling experience to stand just meters from man’s distant cousins as they eat rest, play and bond with their young. Follow the mountain gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest, and discover their gorgeous natural habitual and the many species they share it with. You are allowed an hour with the gorillas.

 

The trekking can take from 1 to 5 hours but sometimes it might take long hours, depending on the location of the gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest. -  The terrain is rough and at times muddy. Although the hike is physically demanding the beauty of the forest and surrounding scenery make the trekking worthwhile. Once the gorillas are located all fatigue is forgotten, as the experience is often described as being the most profound natural history experience in the world. Cameras and plenty of fast speed film is recommended. It can rain at a few minutes’ notice; hence waterproof clothing is a good essential including zip lock bags for cameras and film. It is important to take plenty of water.

Dinner and overnight Kinigi. ( FB)

 

Day 14-

Depending on your international time, you will be transferred to Kigali Airport for your international flight to your next destination.

 

END OF OUR SERVICES

 

 

WHAT IS INCLUDED:

• Airport transfers
• Transport in a 4×4 safari vehicle
• Services of an English-speaking driver guide
• Fuel for the whole trip
• Accommodation and meal plan as per the itinerary
• Drinking water while in the vehicle
• Park entry fees
• Boat Cruises
• Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary visit
• Emergency evacuation cover

 

WHAT IS EXCLUDED:

• International airfares
• Uganda Visa-USD50 or Eat African tourist visa – USD 100 which has to be applied online
• All tracking permits
• Optional activities
• Scheduled flight were applied
• Personal items for example drinks and laundry
• Tips and Gratuity