21 DAYS BEST OF UGANDA, RWANDA & DR CONGO

Meet and greet at Entebbe International Airport where your Uganda Adventure Safari starts by our representative who will warmly welcome you and facilitate seamless arrival formalities. Your will then be transferred to your hotel where you will be briefed about your adventure safari.

Depending on the time of arrival you are advised to have money Changed on this day ,If time allowing you may go for a city tour. All activities today are at your own cost. You may visit the botanical gardens at a supplement of $10 per person or visit the Uganda Wildlife Educational centre at supplement of $15 per pesrson or go for a cheese and wine sundowner on Lake Victoria at a supplement of $85 per person.

After your early morning breakfast drive northwest to Murchison Falls National Park, you may stopover at the Rhino Sanctuary where you will have an opportunity to trek Rhinos.

There are 15 Rhinos which were reintroduced after their extinction in the 1970s through poaching. A local ranger guide will lead you on foot to an up-close encounter with the rhinos and it may take about 1 and half hours. Proceed to Masindi Town for lunch and later continue to Murchison Falls National Park arriving at your lodge late afternoon.

Time allowing, you may visit the Top of the Falls on the way to your lodge.

Arise very early in the morning for your game drive on the northern bank of the River Nile in your open-roof vehicle which will give you an excellent opportunity to view and photograph the diverse wildlife. Your guide will help you spot elephant, lion, cape buffalo, Roth child’s giraffe, hartebeest, waterbuck, oribi, bushbuck, bohor reed buck, hyena and if you are lucky, the leopard.

Alternatively, you may choose to do the hot balloon safari at a supplement of $380 per person

After lunch, go for a boat cruise upstream the calm Victoria Nile to the base of the falls stopping just few of meters from the ‘Devil’s Cauldron’, marvel at the schools of hippos, crocodiles and over the 17km stretch you may see elephant, waterbuck and Uganda Kob. This is also the zone of many birds, species like goliath heron, Egyptian goose, pelican bee-eater, kingfisher, hornbill, cormorant and the rare shoebill stork.

After taking shorts of the photogenic Murchison Falls, you may choose to continue to the top of the falls, where you will have the amazing view of the falls! See where the Nile -world's longest river explodes violently through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool 43m below. Later, return to your lodge and relax in the evening.

Alternatively, you may choose to pay a supplement of $500 per group below 10 PAX to join a boat cruise to the bottom of the falls where you will mix with the high concentration of mammals as well you will get a chance of coming close to the endemic Albertine rift Shoe bill stork in the wilderness

After your morning breakfast, begin your journey to Kibale Forest National Park. Drive south via Hoima to Fort Portal through verdant countryside passing through traditional homesteads, farms and Tea Estates. You will have a stopover for lunch en-route. You will arrive at you lodge in the late afternoon. Check in at your lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.

Alternatively, you may opt to fly to Kibale Forest Natinal park via Kasese Airstrip at a supplement of $470 per person

After breakfast you will choose whether to go cycling to the nearby crater lakes or tea estate plantations or go for a nature walk/hike of the crater lakes and the surrounding communities. Alternatively, you can go canoeing on the crater lake and look out for the might hippos! If it is very hot, you may enjoy swimming in the crater lakes or at the lodge’s swimming pool.

Alternatively, you opt to visit Semuliki national park for the day at the supplement of $80 per person.

Depart early after breakfast, go for the hot springs tour. Enjoy a full day pursuing the Semliki Valley Wildlife Reserve, The Park is dominated by the easternmost extension of the great Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin. This is one of Africa’s most ancient and bio-diverse forests; one of the few that survived the last ice age, 12-18,000 years ago. Your guide will point out and explain the park’s diversity of wildlife and flora and fauna. The Sempaya hot springs are Semliki’s most famous attraction. There’s a “male” spring, known as Bintente, measuring 12m in diameter and is set in a lush swampy clearing. The “female” spring Nyasimbi, meaning "the female ancestors”, is a boiling geyser (103°C) which spurts bubbling water and steam up to two meters high - the steam cloud can be seen from as far as 2km away. Local residents used to cook their food in these boiling pools.

Crown the day with a visit to the local Batwa community located in Ntandi. The community dancers put on traditional performances for visitors. The visit to the villages has proven to be an interesting cultural experience. The guide will have lunch arranged for you to be served as a picnic while you experience the "Real Africa". Return to your accommodation for dinner and an overnight stay.

After breakfast at your lodge, transfer to the starting point of your Chimpanzee tracking experience in Kibale Forest National Park which is reputed to have the greatest variety and highest concentration of primates in East Africa. The most famous of its 13 species is the Chimpanzee, man’s closest relative. Kibale’s 1450 Chimpanzee represent Uganda’s largest population of this endangered primate. Kibale is also a home to the rare I’Hoest’s monkey. Other primates include the black and white Colobus, Blue monkey, Grey cheeked mangabey, Red tailed monkey, Olive baboon to mention but a few. So you will enjoy a guided nature walk in the tropical rainforest in search of the wild chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys and many others. Although chimp sightings are not guaranteed, visitors stand a good chance of hearing and seeing our distant cousins as they gloom and bond with one another.

After chimpanzee tracking, you will return to the lodge and you can choose from the optional activities at the lodge.

After lunch, head to Bigodi for an afternoon swamp walk . Bigodi was established by a local development organization to protect the 4sq-km Magombe Swamp that's home to around 200 species of birds (highlights include papyrus gonolek, White-winged warbler and great blue turaco). The highlight of this tour is catching a glimpse of the great blue turaco. The swamp is also good for spotting butterflies and primates, with eight different species here, including grey-cheeked mangabey. Experienced local guides who interact with the guests and make the trip both enjoyable and exciting lead the 2-3 hour guided walk

After breakfast at your lodge before you proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park following the mystical Rwenzori Mountain Range. Your expert driver guide will take you through the game park where you might spot some animals.

Upon arriving at your lodge, you will enjoy a hot lunch and later in the afternoon take a unique 2-hour boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel into Lake Edward. This trip passes through possibly the highest concentration of hippos and this launch/cruise offers an excellent platform for photography, bird watching and game viewing. The prolific bird life is colorful and stupendous, with well over 550 resident species.

Queen Elizabeth National Park’s diverse eco-system of grassy plains, tropical forest, rivers, swamps, lakes and volcanic craters is home to an incredible abundance of wildlife. Have an early morning game drive where you have an opportunity to view the massive Rwenzori as backdrop, which provides excellent opportunities to spot lion, leopard, giant forest hog, Cape buffalo, elephant, defassa waterbuck, Uganda Kob, topi and bushbuck. The game drives and the boat trip (taken prior) are memorable methods of discovering a vast array of Ugandan wildlife. Be sure to have your camera ready for these amazing sightings!

Later, have a game drive as you transfer to Ishasha Plains – sector in Queen Elizabeth National Park for tree climbing lion search .

Alternatively Afternoon visit to the bat and hunters cave where we take a close look at the bats, rock python and forest cobras at a supplement of $30 per person. The same walk will provide a chance of seeing birds, primates, tree species etc.

After an early breakfast depart to the starting point for briefing about your gorilla trekking adventure after which you will be led by experienced gorilla trackers on the slopes of the volcanoes. You will start from the site where the gorillas were encountered the day before and from here the gorilla tracking begins. Although the hike can be physically demanding, the anticipation of the exciting experience ahead is amazing, and the beauty of the gorilla forest and its inhabitants are fascinating. One of Africa’s major highlights is when you encounter these gentle apes. It is a humbling experience to stand just meters from man’s distant cousins as they eat rest, play and bond with their young ones.

Follow the mountain gorillas as they range freely in the impenetrable forest, and discover their gorgeous natural habitual and the many species they share it with. You are allowed an hour with the gorillas before finally sloping down back to your lodge. If your trek was relatively short, you may have a guided nature walk around the lodge and the surrounding communities in the evening at a supplement of $25 per person. Return to the lodge where you will enjoy dinner with your fellow travelers before getting a good night’s rest for tomorrow's safari adventure.

You may opt for Gorilla Habituation on supplement of $900 per person – here you will be sure of meeting and spending enough time with the Gorillas.

Don’t forget to carry your rain gear, packed lunch, plenty of water, gloves, hat, and water proof bag for protection of your camera in case of rain

After an early breakfast, you will be transferred to Mgahinga Forest to trek the golden monkeys. There are up to 4000 Golden Monkeys living in the shadows of the Virunga Volcanoes – no accurate census has been taken but it is known that they are not reproducing at a rate that will mean an increase in the population of Golden Monkeys.

The live in the Bamboo Forest zones of the Virunga Volcanoes and you do have to be in reasonable shape to hike up to their habitat which is a most rewarding experience. one of the families that has been habituated which means that they are now used to human beings without scurrying off into the forest when humans approach.

You will spend four hours in the morning where you will be guided to the bamboo forest by a guide, one thing of note is that the size of your Golden Monkey Habituation group will only be six in number.

After lunch, you will be transferred to Kigali for the night

After an early breakfast, you will meet you park ranger at the Gisakura RDB park offices and set off to discover the primates and scenic splendor of Nyungwe. Nyungwe is an ideal destination for lovers of primates, with 13 different species living here, and most visitors will go for at least one tracking experience, the most popular of which is chimpanzee trekking. Starting very early in the morning, chimps are tracked in groups of eight, you will have just one hour in their company once they’ve been located. Sightings aren’t as reliable or as clear as gorillas however, since they often remain in dense forest, but their engaging playfulness and human-like characteristics make the long day worthwhile.

Among the primates you are to track in Nyungwe forest include; chimpanzees, L’Hoest’s monkey, golden monkeys, large troops of the Angola Colobus, vervet monkeys, Silver Monkey, Hamlyn’s Monkey, Red-tailed Monkey, Dent’s Mona Monkey, Olive Baboon, Grey-cheeked Mangabeys among other primates.

Return to the lodge for lunch, after lunch you will go for the Canopy walk and after the walk you will be transferred to your lodge for dinner and for the night.

VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK-10-15 minutes

Have breakfast and head straight to the park offices for briefing about the gorillas and allocation of gorilla groups and guides. Thereafter get into the tropical rain forest and search for the mountain gorillas starting from where they were the previous day until you find them. You will find them doing their daily chores of feeding their young ones, climbing trees and others just relaxing. Take your best photographs having switched off your flash. This whole exercise takes a maximum of 1 hour and then return to the park offices for your gorilla tracking certificate. Return to the hotel for lunch and some relaxation. In the evening you may visit the Banyarwanda village or go for nature walks then return to the hotel.