7 Days Chimpanzee and Gorilla Habituation Safari

This 7 days chimpanzee and gorilla habituation safari is now the best safari to Uganda, enabling you to discover Uganda’s greatest attractions. This chimpanzee and gorilla habituation safari takes you to Kibale Forest National Park for chimpanzee habituation experience, and then to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for gorilla habituation.

You will pass through the famous Queen Elizabeth National Park, giving you an opportunity to see the big game in abundance. The park is famous for tree climbing lions, giant African elephants, and kobs. Expect to see some rarer animal species like the giant forest hog and waterbucks.

You will finally visit Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, this time for both gorilla habituation and an extra exciting gorilla trekking safari in Bwindi Forest.

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Itinerary:

Day 1: Kampala – Kibale National Park

You’ll leave Kampala after breakfast for a fascinating drive through papyrus swamps and thick jungle of the Nile delta to Kibale National Park, just below the Rwenzori Mountains. Get on an afternoon guided walk in the crater lakes area for outstanding views.

Meals and overnight stay at Primate Lodge or Forest Cottage (mid range). Meal Plan: B, L & D

Day 2: Chimpanzee Habituation Experience – Kibale

As part of this chimpanzee and gorilla habituation, today is dedicated for chimpanzee habituation experience. Start the day with an early morning breakfast and packed lunch and then you are off to the forest, before dawn breaks.

You will meet your guide for briefing and then set off to where the chimpanzees built their nests the night before. Dawn is just breaking, and the chimpanzee community you are going to be with the rest of the day is rising from their sleep in the nests.

Your day will be full, so your camera may fill up with quality pictures of the chimpanzees as you get to learn to identify them as individuals by their markings, sometimes scars and other unique features that separate each one of them from rest.

Besides everything described, there are the most colorful butterflies, plenty of bird species, plants and trees that will amaze you, because the forest setting is simply awesome.

Meals and overnight stay at Primate Lodge or Forest Cottage (Mid Lodge). Meal plan: (B, L, D)

Day 3: Kibale National Park – Queen Elizabeth Park

After an early morning breakfast, get ready for Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary. You will take on a guided walk around this swamp, which will provide you with the opportunity to see a wide range of flora and fauna, and view a variety of butterflies, bird species and other insects.

Nature walk in Kibale National Park, part of chimpanzee and habituation safari — Nature walk in Kibale National Park

Thereafter, you will drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, viewing the mystical Rwenzori Mountain ranges for much of the journey, at leisure.

After lunch, take on a memorable afternoon launch cruise along Kazinga Channel – one that joins Lakes Edward and George. The cruise is a wonderful way to see hippos, buffaloes, kobs, the occasional Nile crocodile and get a spectacular bird watching experience on the water bank. Many visitors who experience this launch cruise consider it the “highlight” of their entire African safari.

Dinner and overnight stay at Enganzi Safari Lodge. Meal Plan: breakfast, lunch and dinner

Day 4: Queen Elizabeth Park – Bwindi Forest

Dawn game drive in Uganda’s best park, where all the big game can be seen in abundance. The park is famous for tree climbing lions, giant African elephants, and kobs. Expect to see some rarer animal species like the giant forest hog and waterbucks. There are more than 638 recorded bird species in the park!

Thereafter, you will drive through what is probably East Africa’s most spectacular scenery, the highland rain forests, which reach to the volcanoes in which the mountain gorillas live.

Dinner and overnight stay at Chameleon Hill Lodge (Mid range). Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 5: Bwindi Gorilla Habituation Experience

Fingers of an adult mountain gorilla as part of chimpanzee and gorilla habituation experience — Fingers of an adult mountain gorilla

Begin the day with an early morning breakfast, as you get ready for gorilla trekking, which begins at 8:00 am with briefing from the Uganda Wildlife Authority. Ensure to carry along with you rain jacket, drinking water, snacks, jungle boots etc.

Join the researcher and guides who will lead you inside the jungle to see the shy primates for a group you have been booked for. Because it’s a full day experience, do not forget to take your lunch boxes and all the necessary gear to track the rare mountain gorillas. Meet the gorillas for up to 4 hours, perhaps one of the most exciting wildlife experiences on earth.

The habituation experience might take a day but it’s well worth the effort.

Dinner and overnight stay at Chameleon Hill Lodge (mid range). Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 6: Bwindi Gorilla Trekking

Begin the day with breakfast ready for gorilla trekking, which begins at 8:00am with a briefing from the Uganda Wildlife Authority staff. Ensure that you carry along with you a rain jacket, drinking water, snacks and jungle boots among other gears, because of the forest experience ahead.

The guides will lead you inside the jungle to see the shy primates for a group you have been booked for. Do not forget to take your lunch boxes and all the necessary gear to track the rare mountain gorillas, in one of the most exciting wildlife experiences on earth. This tracking may take between 2 to 6 hours but its well worth the effort.

Dinner and overnight stay at Chameleon Hill Lodge (Mid range). Meal Plan: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Day 7: Bwindi – Kampala/Entebbe

Return to Kampala, then Entebbe, with lunch en route at a stopover at Igongo Cultural Centre in Mbarara, to explore the lifestyle of the Ankole and Bahima. Thereafter, proceed to the Equator crossing before your evening departure back home. Meal Plan: B & L.