- Day 1: Start the Uganda gorilla and chimpanzee habituation tour from Entebbe Airport or your hotel in Entebbe or Kampala, and drive to Kibale National Park
The safari should normally commence at 8 AM. The local tour guide shall arrange to meet with you at your place of stay on the previous night (or airport if you are arriving on this day). S/he will be briefing you about the tour, the chimpanzee and gorilla habituation experience preparations, and give more information about the entire journey before you set off driving for about 5 hours to Kibale National Park.
We shall be driving on surfaced roads most of our time today. We traverse traditional village farms of millet, corn, banana, and coffee and you are free to even interact with the farmers and take photos with them.
We plan to be at the lodge/ camp in time for lunch. After lunch and a bit of unwinding, we can proceed to visit Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a locally conserved and managed swamp and forest awesomely rich with biodiversity. We arrange with a good local guide here to take us on a walk. Expect to meet lots of blue monkeys, baboons, otters, mongoose, bushbucks, and bush pigs among the wildlife in this place. There is also a traditional cultural village experience along the walk where you engage with the local people in activities like traditional beer making, coffee roasting, traditional medicine processing, food preparation, music, and dance.
We shall then return to our pre-booked accommodation for dinner and overnight.
Accommodation options available (all on a full board basis)
Upper Luxury: Ndali Lodge | Kyaninga Lodge (a little distant though)
Luxury: Crater Safari Lodge| Primate Lodge Kibale | Chimpundu Lodge
Moderate: Isunga Lodge| Kibale Forest Camp
Budget: Kibale Forest Camp | Chimpanzee Forest Guesthouse
- Day 2: Chimpanzee Habituation Experience Plus Other Primates
Chimpanzee habituation in Kibale starts at 6:30 AM from the park headquarters. The tour guide shall ensure that you get all the assistance you need to be at the park offices in good time for the pre-habituation experience briefing and accreditation. You will then be allocated a group of rangers and chimpanzee habituation staff to accompany you to a troupe of chimpanzees specifically set aside for tourists to experience chimpanzee habituation. The chimps you go to have been receiving visitors for some time and therefore might not be so afraid when you approach but also, they are still wild. The intent is for visitors to have a true experience of what scientists go through to make the chimpanzees safely available for standard tourism viewing.
Walking through the Kibale forest is normally not so physically straining and can be rewarding with other primates' sightings. The forest has at least 11 other primates, as well as larger mammals like elephants and buffalo. It can be 1-2 hours before you see the chimpanzees. You shall first hear them hauling and hooting in the forest canopies. The noise is unmistakable and so the guides will follow through to its source.
When you reach the chimpanzees, the guides give further instructions for your safety and then you can proceed to enjoy the experience. The chimpanzee habituation allows you several hours of observing the chimps during their daily activities, so they get comfortable with human presence without changing their natural behaviors. The chimps will be going on with their normal routine of hunting, patrolling, playing, fighting, copulating, breastfeeding their baby chimps, and several other engagements as you take your notes and photographs.
After several hours of watching them, the chimpanzee habituation experience will end by the soft trek back to the park office. Here you will be awarded tracking certificates before your driver transfers you back to the lodge/ camp for overnight and dinner.
Overnight Lodges/ Camps:
Upper Luxury: Ndali Lodge | Kyaninga Lodge (a little distant though)
Luxury: Crater Safari Lodge| Primate Lodge Kibale | Chimpundu Lodge
Moderate: Isunga Lodge| Kibale Forest Camp
Budget: Kibale Forest Camp | Chimpanzee Forest Guesthouse
- Day 3: Drive to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for the Gorilla Habituation Experience
Our drive today is going to be about 6 hours from Kibale to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The best idea is to set off no later than 8 AM from the lodge. This drive is marked by stunning savannah grassland views, green-carpet terraced hills, the famous Virunga ranges, and crater lakes' views. Numerous stops can be accommodated for you to enjoy the scenery and take photographs as well. We hope to be in Bwindi in the late afternoon.
Bwindi overnight accommodation for the gorilla habituation experience
Upper Luxury: Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge
Luxury: Four Gorillas Lodge | Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Moderate: Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge
Low Budget: Rushaga Gorilla Camp
- Day 4: Full Day for Gorilla Habituation Experience in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Gorilla habituation is the process of getting a wild mountain gorilla group to get used to human presence without taking the mountain gorillas out of the natural range. Habituation also gets the gorillas to be safe to visit so that chances of them attacking or charging to humans are eliminated completely. Ultimately, successful gorilla habituation will have the gorillas just going about their normal routine even in the presence of humans and this is normally not less than 2 years of some hard work.
The Bwindi gorilla habituation experience opens a unique window for tourists to have deeper insights into this process. A maximum of only 4 tourists can do the gorilla habituation experience per day and they are allowed up to 4 hours in the presence of the mountain gorillas. As the rangers and researchers go about their usual observation's routine, you too will have the opportunity to be involved in the gorilla habituation. You will be allowed to take all the notes and photographs, ask all the questions you have, and observe every act of the mountain gorillas' daily life.
The gorilla group for the habituation experience (for tourists) has been receiving human visitors since 2015 and is literary fully habituated. The gorillas will therefore not be running away from you or even charging at humans. Uganda Wildlife Authority has allowed the gorilla habituation experience to be done with this gorilla family so that tourists get the maximum benefit.
You will usually be trekking for between 1-3 hours before arriving the presence of the gorillas. Bwindi is an afro-montane forest with thick undergrowth. Trekking along its hills and slopes presents a moderate physical challenge to some but there are numerous stops planned for, so that all can reach the gorillas and back.
Bwindi overnight accommodation for the gorilla habituation experience
Upper Luxury: Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge
Luxury: Four Gorillas Lodge | Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge
Moderate: Ichumbi Gorilla Lodge
Low Budget: Rushaga Gorilla Camp
Day 5: Return to Entebbe (or Kigali on request) to end the Uganda Gorillas, Chimpanzee habituation experience tour
The Uganda Gorillas, Chimpanzee habituation experience tour ends with the transfer back to Entebbe or (if you prefer and request) Kigali. The drive to Entebbe is about 7 hours while driving to Kigali from Bwindi takes about 4 hours (but you will need another visa for this).
You could also choose to fly from Kisoro to Entebbe if you prefer not to drive. There is a flight that leaves Kisoro at 8 AM and arrives at Entebbe at 11:25 am daily and the fare is about $270 per person (but this changes a lot!).
Those driving shall be traversing the grassed and terraced escarpments of southwestern Uganda while taking in the breathtaking sights of the hills of the region dubbed ‘the little Switzerland of Africa’.
A remarkable highlight of this journey is the Equator line and surely you will cross it as we have a brief stop here. We will be in Entebbe in the evening before your flight back home.
