Uganda Primates Grand Circuit

Welcome at Entebbe International Airport by your Vines representative. Transfer 15 minutes to a lakeside boutique hotel for a briefing dinner. Meet your safari coordinator, review the days ahead, and get final answers to any last-minute questions. Early sleep — tomorrow the journey begins.

Morning drive north to Ziwa Rhino & Wildlife Sanctuary — Uganda's only place to see rhino in the wild. On-foot rhino tracking with a ranger before lunch: get within 15m of these magnificent creatures. Continue north to Murchison Falls, arriving your riverside lodge by late afternoon as elephants swim across the Nile below.

Morning game drive on the northern bank looking for lion, elephant, Rothschild's giraffe, and Uganda kob. After lunch, board a launch for the three-hour cruise upstream to the base of Murchison Falls — feel the thunderous spray as the Nile explodes through a 7m gap. Sundowners on the deck above the river as hippos snort in the shallows below.

Long transfer south to Kibale Forest region (8 hours), with a lunch stop en route and regular photo breaks. Arrive Kibale by late afternoon, with time for a short forest walk and orientation before dinner. Early sleep — tomorrow you meet the chimps.

Pre-dawn departure for chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest — one magical hour with a habituated chimp community, watching them hoot, groom, and forage just metres away. Afternoon Bigodi wetland walk with rich primate and birdlife. Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park in the late afternoon.

Morning game drive on the Kasenyi Plains — the park's prime lion territory. Afternoon boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel — dozens of elephants, buffalo, and hippo at the water's edge, plus superb birdlife including African skimmers and shoebill storks. Transfer to the Bwindi region in the late afternoon along a scenic road winding through terraced hills.

After a hearty breakfast, join the Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger briefing for gorilla trek group allocation. Follow your expert tracker into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to spend a magical hour with a habituated mountain gorilla family — an experience many describe as the pinnacle of a lifetime of travel. Afternoon Batwa cultural experience — meet the forest's original inhabitants.

Morning bush flight from Kihihi airstrip back to Entebbe (75 minutes) for international departure. Day-room available if you have a late flight.