Safari overview
The five-day gorilla and golden monkey monitoring safari takes place in Uganda’s smallest national park, located in the country’s southwestern corner. One pair of mountain gorillas, as well as some of Uganda’s and Rwanda’s 5000 golden monkeys, call the park home. The safari will carry you from Kampala to Kabale and Kisoro, passing through the Ankole Masaka corridor’s scenic and flat landscapes. It will also provide you with the opportunity to meet the Batwa, who used to be fruit gatherers and hunters before the Mgahinga forest was designated as a national park.
Day 1: Arrival and pick-up on day one
Our driver guide will pick you up from Entebbe International Airport and welcome you to Africa’s pearl. He’ll drive you to the cabin, where you’ll have dinner and spend the night.
Day 2: Move to Mgahinga Gorilla National Park through the Equator.
Early in the morning, eat tea, and leave Kampala for Kisoro, which is a 9-10 hour trip. You travel across Buganda territory, stopping for a photo opportunity at the Equator (Kayabwe). Then you’ll head to the Igongo Cultural Center for lunch.
After lunch, you’ll go across Ntungamo’s flat landscapes to Kabale’s peaks, then into Kisoro’s winding paths. When you arrive at your hotel, sign in for dinner and a night’s stay.
Day 3: Gorilla trekking and a cultural visit to the Batwa Trail
Get an early breakfast and bring a packed lunch with you; the driver will take you to the Mgahinga National Park headquarters and ensure that you arrive in time for the briefing. To ensure that you are able to trek mountain gorillas, your passport information will be requested prior to the briefing. You will be given information on gorilla trekking, like dos and don’ts, as well as directions to obey when on the trek, with the gorillas, and afterward. Then you’ll be guided into the jungle to look for mountain gorillas. Just one habituated mountain gorilla family, Nyakagezi, lives in Mgahinga National Park. It used to pass between Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park and Mgahinga National Park, but it is now permanently resident in Uganda. If you’ve located the Family, you’ll have one hour with the gorillas before returning to the Lodge.
You will visit the Batwa groups in the afternoon to talk about their culture and how they used to survive in the jungle.
Day 4: Golden Monkey Monitoring (Experiential) and Lake Mutanda Boat Cruise
Breakfast first thing in the morning, grab a sandwich, then travel to the park headquarters for a briefing. The golden monkey tracking experience will be led into the forest by ranger guides. Unlike the other one-hour experience, this one will provide you with a four-hour meeting with these rare species found only in the Virunga ranges.
Drive to Lake Mutanda in the evening for a boat ride on the Volcanic Crater Lake after which you head back to the Lodge for dinner and an overnight stop.
Day 5: Transfer back to Entebbee
The tour will conclude with a move to Entebbe International Airport or a hotel on this day. Before being dropped off at your destination of Entebbee International Airport, you can make a picture pause at the Equator
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