7 Days Wildlife & Gorilla Safari Tour

Day 1 Arrival and pick up

You arrive at Entebbe International Airport and a representative from Milele Safaris Uganda will meet you. He will brief you about what to expect and about Uganda before transferring you to your lodge for an overnight.

Meal Plan (D)                                              

Accommodation:  Serena Lake Victoria (Luxury)

                              Cassia Lodge (Mid-range)

                               Forest Cottages (Budget)

Day 2 Transfer to Queen Elizabeth (Optional evening game drive)

Wake up early, enjoy a morning breakfast from the hotel after which you will be picked from there by your guide at 7:30 am who will brief you and you embark on the 6 hours journey to Queen Elizabeth. Along the way you will have few stopovers at the Equator, here you will take photographs and also the equator experience where you will witness the southern hemisphere from the northern hemisphere. We shall stop in Mbarara town for your lunch. Thereafter proceed to the Queen Elizabeth national Park as you drive through the spectacular landscape characterized with open grasslands, Ankole log horned cattle, tea plantations, the Rift valley Escarpment and various woodlands. Reach the park in late afternoon and have a game drive as you drive to your lodge. Have dinner and there spend an Overnight.

Meal plan (B,L, D)                                              

Accommodation. Mweya safari lodge (luxury)

                              Ihamba Safari Lodge (Mid-range)

                              Simba Safari Camp (Budget)

Day 3 Crater drive and afternoon boat cruise

After breakfast, do a game drive to the Crater Lakes and the Baboon cliff to explore these features and proceed to Lakes Katwe and Munyanyange. For centuries, locals have been mining salt from Lake Katwe. Culturally, to be called a man, you must own at least one salt plot in the lake.  The lake is divided into plots that can look beautiful when photographed from a high elevation.  A visit to the lake gives you the experience of meeting the local people as they go about their centuries old trade- salt mining.  Because the area around Lake Katwe is hot, locals usually do their business in the morning up to mid-day.

Return to the hotel for lunch and go for a  Boat Cruise along Kazinga Chanel in the afternoon.

The channel joins Lake George to Lake Edward.  Kazinga channel is an oasis for many of the fascinating species that inhabit the park. A boat cruise gives you a chance to watch schools of hippos, buffalo’s elephants and a lot of birds along the shoreline.

Meal plan (B,L, D)

Accommodation. Mweya safari lodge (luxury)

                              Ihamba Safari Lodge (Mid-range)

                              Simba Safari Camp (Budget)

Day 4 Morning game drive and Transfer to Ishasha

Early wakeup, call have a quick cup of coffee/tea and at 6.00 am go for a game drive with packed breakfast. The main focus of the game drive will be looking for lions around Kasenyi and photographing the park’s landscapes. Queen’s main attractions are: craters carved into rolling green hills, panoramic views of the Kazinga Channel with its banks lined with hippos, buffalo and elephants and the Ishasha plains home to tree climbing lions.

From the game drive, drive back to the Lodge for lunch and proceed to Ishasha and check in at Wilderness Camp (Luxury). Ishasha Wilderness Camp has large twin bedded tents, in a wooded area facing the Ntungwe River where you might see elephants coming to quench their thirst.

Meal plan (B,L, D)                

Accommodation. Ishasha Wilderness Camp (luxury)

                              Enjojo Lodge (Mid-range)

                              @the River Lodge (Budget)

Day 5 Ishasha Morning game drive and transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable national park

After breakfast do a game drive searching for the tree climbing lions and also visit River Ishasha, which marks the boundary between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to look for sunbathing hippos.  There after you drive back to the hotel for lunch and proceed to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

Meal plan (B,L, D)                

Accommodation. Buhoma Lodge(luxury)

                               The Haven Lodge (Mid-range)

                                Buhoma Campsite (Budget)

Day 6 Gorilla tracking

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a UNESCO recognized World Heritage Site and a habitat for the endangered mountain gorillas. It hosts 50% of the world’s Mountain Gorilla Population.

Wake up early have breakfast and assemble for a briefing before 8:00am. At 8.30 you enter the forest to track the Mountain Gorillas.  Tracking can take from 2 hours to half a day depending on how far the gorillas are and which gorilla family you track.

In the evening after tracking, you can do a community tour and get close to the locals by visiting handicraft shops. The neighboring Batwa community in Buhoma performs songs and dances about their former life in the forest. During the tour, you learn how to make juice, beer, and gin from bananas and taste it too. Or, you go for a nature walk to the Munyaga waterfalls.

During a nature walk to the Munyaga Waterfalls, you can observe birds, primates, and a plethora of tree ferns, epithetic ferns, orchids and Bwindi’s colorful array of butterflies. The trail leads to three delightful crystal clear waterfalls.

Meal plan (B,L, D)                

Accommodation. Buhoma Lodge(luxury)

                               The Haven Lodge (Mid-range)

                                Buhoma Campsite (Budget)

Day 7 Transfer back to Kampala and departure

Wake up early and have breakfast and you check out of the hotel and drive to Kampala. You will have lunch en route at Igongo Cultural Centre. After continuing the journey and have a stopover at the Equator at Kayabwe to take photographs and have a late lunch. On arrival, you will check-in at a hotel for an overnight stay or at the airport for your departure.

Meal Plan (B, L)

Inclusions

• Ground transport per private 4WD safari vehicle
• English speaking driver/guide
• Airport transfer
• Equator stopover
• Gorilla permit
• Accommodation as mentioned in the itinerary
• Meals as described in the itinerary
• Bottled mineral water in the safari vehicle
• Entrance fees and ranger fees for national parks
• Activities and excursions mentioned in the program
• VAT for hotels and lodges outside Kampala

Exclusions

• Expenses of personal nature such as drinks, tips, telephone calls, laundry etc
• Personal insurance
• Souvenirs
• Tip/gratitude
• Visas and international air tickets
• Any other items which are not included in the itinerary