Queen Elizabeth NP Wildlife Safari

Depart Entebbe after breakfast, driving west via the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe (good for an orientation to the animals you'll see on safari). Continue to the Fort Portal region — a stunning highland area known for its crater lakes and tea plantations. Arrive your lodge overlooking a volcanic crater lake in the late afternoon, in time for sundowners on the deck as the sun turns the water gold.

Morning drive south to Queen Elizabeth National Park (2 hours), stopping at the equator crossing for the classic photograph — one foot in each hemisphere. Lunch at your lodge, then afternoon game drive on the Kasenyi Plains — prime territory for the park's tree-climbing lions, plus elephants, buffalo, warthog, and the endemic Uganda kob antelope whose leks (mating grounds) are one of the great African wildlife spectacles.

Morning game drive followed by lunch, then the highlight: a two-hour boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel connecting Lakes Edward and George. This is one of Africa's finest boat safaris — dozens of elephants and buffalo drink at the water's edge, hippos crowd the shallows, and the birdlife (350+ species) includes fish eagles, pied kingfishers by the hundred, African skimmers, and enormous shoebill storks. Optional chimpanzee trek in the Kyambura Gorge — the 'valley of apes' — a ravine so deep and forested it hides an entire chimp community.

Transfer to the remote Ishasha sector — a two-hour drive south with regular game viewing en route. Ishasha is world-famous for its unique tree-climbing lion population, which spend the hot midday hours draped in the branches of fig trees like enormous cats. Afternoon and early morning game drives are dedicated to locating them. Sundowners overlooking the plains as elephant families make their way to water.

Long but scenic drive back to Entebbe (8 hours), broken by a lunch stop at the equator and regular photo breaks along the way. Arrive Entebbe by early evening in time for late international departures. Alternatively, we can arrange a bush flight from Kasese (2 hours) for an early return with day-room in Entebbe.