Gorilla trekking in Uganda is top on the list of activities to do but the diverse cultural makes your African safari experience exceptional. Uganda is rich in culture and gifted by people with a great sense of human. They are ready to mingle with any stranger and this makes you feel at home.
Summary
6 day Gorilla trekking And Cultural Experience in Uganda
Day 1 Visit Kabaka’s palace
Day 2 Road trip Bwindi Forest for Gorilla Trekking in Uganda
Day 3 Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi Forest
Day 4 Road ride to Kibale National Park home of Chimpanzee trekking
Day 5 Chimpanzee trekking
Day 6 Return trip to Entebbe Airport
6 day Gorilla trekking And Cultural Tour in Uganda
Day 1 Visit The Kabaka’s ( King) Palace before gorilla trekking
Early morning, enjoy breakfast and head start your Uganda safari with a visit to the Mengo Kabaka’s place. This is the cultural administrative palace for Buganda. Take the royal mile from Bulange through the portraits of the clans that make up the Baganda tribe.
Tour the palace and learn about the exceptional history of Buganda a superior kingdom from which Uganda gets its name. Its administrative schemes make it seem like a government with in a government which prompted the British Colonial government to make deals with it during colonial era.
Visit the torture chambers where thousands of people were murdered during the Idi Amin reign. Continue to Kabaka’s manmade Lake which is one of the largest manmade lakes in Africa.
Proceed to the Naggalabi Coronation Site where secrets of Buganda Kingdom are preserved, visit the point where coronation ceremonies for each Buganda succeeding King is conducted. A lot of history lives in this place.
Day 2 Road Trip To Bwindi Forest National Park for Gorilla trekking
Early in the morning, your driver guide picks you from your overnight hotel and take you to Bwindi Forest National park the home of the mountain gorillas. Enroute, you break at Mpambire drum village to see the multiple African drums and how they are made.
Continue till the equator to perform a unique water experiment and enjoy a photoshoot while standing on both side of the earth at the same time.
Carry on till you arrive Bwindi Forest the home of the mountain gorillas. Check in to your lodge for overnight.
Accommodation: Gorilla Forest Camp/ Mahogany Springs Lodge/ Engage Lodge/ Bwindi View Bandas
Wear your mask and pack some sanitizer before heading for gorilla trekking. After breakfast, carry your gorilla trekking gears to the ranger station for briefing. You will be advised on how to behave while in the forest searching for the mountain gorillas.
Walk with the ranger guides and the rest of the trekkers into the forest to start searching for the gorillas. The forest is endowed with lots of primates like the olive baboons, ververt monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey, red tailed monkeys to mention but a few.
Lots of birds linger in the forest and for keen birders you have a chance to grab as some of the Albertine endemics may cross your way. Try to keep voices low so that you do not miss out on any jungle drama.
As you draw closer to the mountain gorilla location, you may hear them murmur at each other as if sending alerts of your arrival. Stand at a distance of about 8 meters apart from them so that you do not create any chances of spreading any infection.
Take photos and enjoy there company throughout the one hour. Watch the silverback as he takes control of all family affairs, mothers groom the toddlers as juveniles hop from one branch to another.
Get back to your lodge to relax or enjoy an optional tour to the Batwa pygmies at a small fee. The Batwa pygmies survived on Bwindi forest for so many years until they were evicted for conservation reasons.
Give back to there local community with this visit. Enjoy their local performances like dances, songs, food preparation demonstration and so much more. Return to the lodge to relax.
Day 4: Road ride to Kibale National Park home of Chimpanzee trekking
Get up for breakfast, check out of your lodge and your drive guide will drive you to Kibale National Park. This drive takes between 5 to 6 hours but very scenic as you go through rolling hills of Kigezi, by pass meandering rivers embedded on the valleys of so many hills.
You may get the view of the Rwenzori Ranges that form a back drop of Queen Elizabeth National Park. This park is home to chimpanzees which share about 98 % human genes.
Arrive ready to relax or take a short walk in the forest in case you are not so tired.
Accommodation: Primates Lodge/ Kibale Forest Lodge/ Chimps Nest Camp
Rise up for breakfast and carry your chimpanzee trekking gears. Do not forget to carry your masks and sanitizers. Head to the ranger station for chimpanzee trekking. Get into the forest to search for the that live freely in the forest with others primates like black and white colobus monkeys, vervet monkeys, red tailed monkeys, grey cheeked mangabey to mention but a few.
Take the trail where the chimpanzees were seen the previous day and keep looking until you find the chimpanzees. They are mobile primates so you need to keep up with the pace of the rest of the group to avoid getting so tired.
Finally when you meet there community, you watch them and enjoy there interaction during food time. Return to the lodge to relax.
Day 6 Return To Entebbe Airport
Having enjoyed your experience with the primates catch up with your flight back home.
Trekking boots will cover your feet and protect them from pricking surfaces in the wild.
Camouflaged wear to protect you from biting nettles and dirt in the forest
Sun screen to cover your skin from sun rays
Large brim hut to protect your hair from getting wet
A camera to protect the memories of your safari in Uganda.
Energy bites to keep you moving during the search.