Uganda Wildlife Explorer

Your adventure starts in Entebbe, a town in central Uganda situated on a beautiful peninsula in Lake Victoria. You’ll make your way through the outskirts of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, before visiting a traditional drum market and stopping at the equator. You will camp for the night in Lake Mburo National Park. Although the smallest of Uganda’s savannah parks, Lake Mburo is a refuge for plains game like zebra, impala, eland and buffalo, and is known for its huge hippo pods.

After an early morning game drive or guided walk, you’ll leave Lake Mburo and journey through Uganda’s meandering landscape of rolling hills and lush banana plantations – known as one of the most scenic roads in the country. Passing mystical villages often veiled in mist, exchanging waves with friendly locals and admiring the impressive Ankole cattle (their horns are unusually large), you’ll begin to understand just why Uganda is such a hidden gem of a destination. Your camp for the evening is set up on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. 

After breakfast, you will split up into smaller groups with local guides and start your hike into one of the most biologically diverse areas on Earth: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. A sanctuary for half the world's population of mountain gorillas, an astonishing number of bird species and healthy populations of colobus monkeys, Bwindi delivers the most incredible jungle adventure. Spending time with a family of gorillas, observing their social interactions and sharing a gaze with a big silverback are moments that you’ll cherish for as long you as live. It makes trekking through the dense forest and uneven terrain incredibly rewarding. 

Because gorillas are endangered and fragile creatures, trekking permits are limited. Two days will be allocated for trekking to ensure that everyone gets to spend time with the gorillas. When you’re not gorilla trekking, you can visit Lake Bunyoni, go on a guided walk through a local village or tick off some of the 350+ species on a birdwatching excursion in the forest. 

Leave the pristine montane rainforests behind and head down to the extensive grasslands of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda’s premier conservation area. The park’s beautiful lakes, rolling savannah, emerald forests and fertile swamps make it a haven for big game like elephant, hippo, lion and buffalo, as well as ten primate species including chimpanzee. The region is also home to a whopping 600 bird species. 

You’ll spend the next few days camping in the Ishasha sector, a remote location within Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is famous for its population of tree-climbing lions. You’ll go on game drives trying to spot these cats lazing in the park’s tall fig trees. It is believed that lions climb into trees as a way of protecting themselves from biting insects like tsetse flies, or simply to get away from the heat on the ground – the breeze is much cooler up in the branches! 

After breakfast, you’ll pack up camp and leave Queen Elizabeth National Park’s savannah for the tropical forests that cover the slopes of the alluring Rwenzori Mountains. Often described as the ‘Mountains of the Moon’, the Rwenzoris were formed about 3 million years ago and are one source of the Nile. Rising about 5 000 metres (16 400 feet) above sea level, its highest peaks are permanently snow-capped – a peculiar sight so close to the equator. You will stop for lunch at a very scenic spot from which you can soak in the majestic Rwenzori vistas, before continuing to your overnight campsite in Fort Portal.

This is a full day of travelling through the lush tea plantations surrounding Fort Portal all the way to Murchison Falls National Park where you’ll spend the night.

An early morning guided walk will take you to a group of habituated chimpanzees deep in the forests of Murchison Falls National Park, and you will hopefully get to spend about an hour with them. Then it’s off to the park’s main attraction: a narrow gorge through which the Nile cascades 40 metres (130 feet) down into the Rift Valley. The views are magnificent and you may even spot animals like buffalo, crocodiles and hippos around the shores of the Falls. You’ll then travel downstream and cross the Nile to spend two nights camping in a section of the park that opens into wide savannah and rolling hills. 

After breakfast, it’s time for a leisurely boat cruise down the Nile, spotting the river’s large populations of crocodile and hippo, as well as other animals like Rothchild’s giraffe, buffalo and elephant slaking their thirsts in Africa’s longest river. You may even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the rare and prehistoric-looking shoebill stork or ‘whalehead’. Then say farewell to Murchison Falls National Park as your vehicle takes you to the Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch where you will camp for the night. 

The Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch is a conservation project by Rhino Fund Uganda and the Uganda Wildlife Authority to reintroduce rhinos into their original habitats and protected areas. If you wish, you can join professional rangers on a walking safari and approach rhinos on foot this morning – this is an optional activity. After packing up camp, you will journey to Jinja on the shore of Lake Victoria and your accommodation at Adrift. 

After breakfast, there will be a road transfer back to Entebbe. Alternatively, you can choose to stay and enjoy the adventure activities on offer at Adrift. This is one of Uganda’s most respected adventure operators, offering many levels of white-water rafting excursions as well as a popular ‘Source of the Nile’ boat cruise.