5-Day Gorilla-Glorious Wildlife - Lake Bunyonyi
Safari Highlights
This tour will bring you to a face to face encounter with the Mountain Gorilla, a tour of Lake Bunyonyi-one of the most beautiful places on earth with 30 islands connected like dots of a paradise! A boat ride to “Punishment Island” and discover some magical myths of this place as well as sighting the tree climbing lions & local culture!
Day 1: Departure & Wildlife Adventure/ Culture
Depart Kampala at 6.00 AM for the 6 7- hour drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The journey takes you through the cool undulating tea plantations along Fort Portal town also known as Uganda’s tourism town. Lunch in Fort Portal town at Gardens restaurant. You then descend into the rift valley with glimpses of the mighty snow-capped Rwenzori Mountain range in the distance through Kasese town.
Stop over at the basket making/ honey production for a cultural treat
Arrive at Queen Elizabeth National Park located in southwestern Uganda and home to the world famous tree climbing lions.
Evening boat cruise dinner and overnight at Parkview Lodge.
Day 2: Open Savannah Big Game drive/ Water beasts
After an early morning breakfast, your driver will take you to Kasenyi- the open savannah grassland and. Kasenyi is the stereotypical African landscape and is the most popular area to search for big cats in the early morning and late afternoon.
Here, you will see large herds of Ugandan Kob grazing which attracts predators. If you are lucky you will find the big game feeding on them including lions creating a captivating sight of game hunting and survival. Then head off to the Kazinga Channel where there is also a large concentration of hippopotamus, crocodiles as well as herds of elephants, buffalo, and other wildlife that come to drink from the river. The Kazinga also attracts a tremendous variety of bird species including the African Eagle, Open-Billed Stork, and Pied Kingfishers.
After Lunch, depart to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for the ultimate Gorilla experience.
Accommodation and dinner within the confines of the great and beautiful Bwindi.
Day 3: D-Day-Encounter with the Mountain Gorillas
It is D-day!
Preparations begin quite early with a quick breakfast to enable you catch up with the group. The hiking and tracking is both beautiful, tiresome and adventurous.
The terrain can be treacherous and muddy while the tracking can take anywhere from two hours to eight hours. But it is all worth it as you come face to face with these dinosaurs of the wild described as the amazing gentle giants.
The gentle habits of these incredible creatures defy their size. You will be guided on how to behave in their presence as well as how to capture your lifetime memorable photos while in their presence. You are restricted to only one hour with the gorillas because of safety and habituation reasons. But again, it is all worth it.
You may also see other primates as well as monkeys, butterflies birds and the incredible mist covered terrain
After tracking, depart for Lake Bunyonyi.
Day 4: Ride to Punishment Island on Lake Bunyonyi
After tracking the gorillas, head to Lake Bunyonyi, a place that some travelers have with tears described as the most beautiful on earth. The hilly landscape, the about 30 islands connected like dots in the Garden of Eden should leave you breathless!
You can choose to take an optional local boat ride to “Punishment Island” and see where myth has it that non virgins were left to die several decades ago as punishment. Listen to the tale of this place as you savour the scenery, the beauty of the most beautiful place in the afternoon, depart Bunyonyi and spend the night in Kabale town.
Optional tour of Kabale museum for some beautiful Bakiga folklore.
Day 5: Equator/ Igongo cultural extravaganza
Depart for Masaka with a stopover at the Equator at this imaginary line that dives the world into two hemispheres (Time for photo shoot & and a practical compelling experiment of seeing water swirl in two different directions.
Depart Kabale Town and proceed to Mbarara.
After Mbarara, stopover at Igongo cultural museum for lunch and a detour of the museum for a true cultural extravaganza from the great stories, artefacts etc. Across the road from the museum, visit and climb the imposing iconic “Biharwe Eclipse” monument, which was dated by astronomers and historians to have taken place in the year 1520 AD.
This was the only scientifically dated event in the early history of the Great Lakes region, the eclipse, which was acknowledged in the legends of Bunyoro, Buganda and Nkore, became the key benchmark that was used by historians to determine royal genealogies of those kingdoms.
Drop off for airport transfer.