19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates – Great Apes of Africa Expedition
Great apes also known as Hominidae are tailless primates comprising of gorilla, chimpanzee, orangutan and humans. Opposed to other primates, apes do not have tails. Apes brains are much more developed than those of other primates. Gorillas and chimpanzees are found in Africa and spend most of their time on the ground, while orangutans are found in Asia and spend most of their time in the trees. 3 of the great apes (Gorillas, chimpanzee and orangutans) are listed in as Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Its only humans that are not endangered since they can be found anywhere on the planet with increasing numbers every day.
Gorillas are the largest of all apes with an adult male gorilla standing about six feet tall and weighs more than 350 pounds and there are about 10,000 eastern lowland gorillas in eastern Zaire. In western Africa, there remain approximately 100,000 western lowland gorillas. Some 1,000 miles to the east in Zaire, Uganda and Rwanda lives the last surviving mountain gorillas. Only 1,000 mountain gorillas remain in the wild of the Virunga massive and Bwindi impenetrable forest.
Chimpanzees are even more closely related to humans, with roughly 99% of their DNA in common with ours. Chimpanzees are highly social and have a fission fusion social structure, which means they form very large groups that can divide into smaller bands for traveling and foraging, especially when food availability is low.
Bonobos were previously known as the pygmy chimpanzee. Bonobos and humans share about 99% of their DNA. Common chimpanzees and bonobos look very similar, but bonobos are a distinct species and can be identified by their slender build and light-colored lips. They are found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, south of the Congo river, and have zero subspecies.
Humans as known as Homo sapiens, a name translating to “wise man”, is currently the only surviving human species. There are 0 subspecies of humans. We diverged from Homo erectus, the most closely related human species, about 500,000 years ago, and from the other great apes between 5 and 7 million years ago. Although humans originated on the continent of Africa, we have done some major dispersing and can now be found worldwide.
19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates – Great apes destinations
- Rwanda
- Uganda
Great apes to discover
- Chimpanzees
- Gorillas
- Humans
Journey to the Great Apes
Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport
Day 2: Shoebill tracking and transfer to Ngamba Island
Day 3: Ngamba Island sanctuary
Day 4: Transfer back to Entebbe
Day 5: Transfer to Kibale national park
Day 6: Chimpanzee habituation
Day 7: Chimpanzee trekking
Day 8: Drive to Queen Elizabeth national park afternoon boat ride
Day 9: Morning safari –Optional evening safari
Day 10: Transfer to Ishasha sector- afternoon tree climbing lions search
Day 11: Morning safari – Lake Bunyonyi
Day 12: Relax on lake Bunyonyi
Day 13: Transfer to Southern Bwindi (Rushaga sector)
Day 14: Gorilla habituation
Day 15: Transfer to Volcanoes national park (Rwanda)
Day 16: Golden monkey trekking
Day 17: Gorilla trekking
Day 18: Transfer to Kigali city
Day 19: Kigali city tour – Departure via Kigali international airport
Detailed 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates Tour
Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport
On arrival at Entebbe international airport in Uganda for your 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
your guide will welcome you and transfer you to your hotel for relaxation.
Check in, dinner and general briefing of the tour will be conducted by your guide.
Accommodation: Protea hotel Entebbe
Day 2: Shoebill tracking and transfer to Ngamba Island
Check out after your morning breakfast and drive to Nakiwogo landing site to catch a boat to Mabamba swamp.
A motorized boat will take you through the marshes of Mabamba swamp in search for the rare shoe bill. Sighting this elusive bird is one of the highlights in Uganda and now in the whole of Africa for bird watchers.
Later you will sail back to the main land for lunch and later pick up another boat to Ngamba island sanctuary on Lake Victoria.
On arrival you will check in for dinner and overnight stay on the chimpanzee island.
Accommodation: Ngamba island
Day 3: Great apes 1. Chimpanzee at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee sanctuary
Ngamba Island is currently home to 52 orphaned and confiscated chimps, rescued from the illegal pet and bushmeat trade. Despite their initial trauma, chimps living at Ngamba have a safe and semi-natural environment in which to recover and eventually thrive over their long lives of up to 60 years.
Founded in 1998, the island offers 95 acres of natural forest where the chimps roam and forage daily. Their diet is supplemented multiple times per day much to the delight of visiting tourists who are able to observe the feeding from a viewing platform. The chimps also have the freedom to stay in the forest at night or return to nighttime enclosures where they can build nests and receive an evening meal.
A day on one of the leading primate sanctuaries in Africa, will let you will receive personal attention from an internationally trained staff and observe the 49 chimpanzee residents up close & personal from a raised viewing platform that provides a full view of their behavior and interactions.
Sunset dinner at the sanctuary and have an overnight stay
Accommodation: Ngamba Island
Day 4: Transfer back to Entebbe
After your morning breakfast, your 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates continues as you will sail back to the mainland
Check your hotel and relax
Options: Stay in Entebbe and Visit the botanical gardens
Or Stay in Kampala and have a look at Kampala city
Accommodation: Entebbe-Entebbe Entebbe forest resort
Kampala – Protea hotel Kampala Skyz
Day 5: Transfer to Kibale national park
Check out after your breakfast and set off for Kibale national park in western Uganda.
Lunch on the way, as you cruise through the amazing scenery of endless tea estates around Fort Portal
Check in for dinner and an overnight stay.
Accommodation: Turaco treetops
Day 6: Chimpanzee habituation in Kibale national park
Wake up very for your breakfast and leave the hotel with your packed lunch for Chimpanzee habituation.
Chimpanzee habituation is unique and exclusive way to track chimpanzee in the wild. Unlike on the normal trekking, chimpanzee habituation offers you 4 hours while you interact with our closest cousins deep down in the thick jungle of Kibale.
Leaving early in the morning will help you witness how chimps start their day from their nests down to the ground to kick off their day in search for food. On rare cases, you may be lucky to watch them hunt colobus monkeys, an amazing show to watch how smart they do it high in the braches.
Chimpanzee habituation is restricted to a maximum of 8 people a day. This makes less clouded compared to the normal trekking giving you space to enjoy company of the chimps.
Later you will return to the lodge for a relaxation, dinner and an overnight stay.
Day 7: Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale national park
After your morning breakfast, you will set off to the park offices for general briefing about the chimpanzee trekking.
Quite different from Chimpanzee habituation, here you will be taken to a fully habituated chimpanzee family in a group of 8 people but you are more likely to join up with other groups since chimpanzees mix up and feed communally.
On chimpanzee tracking, you will be permitted only one hour to watch them as they feed, groom, and take care of their little one.
What you will enjoy more on the tracking than the habituation is the number of chimpanzees and how close they get close to you because they are fully habituated and they are not sacred of your presence at any point.
Later return to the lodge for a relaxed evening
Optional activity: Bigodi community or swamp walk
Accommodation: Turaco treetops
Day 8: Drive to Queen Elizabeth national park – Kazinga channel boat ride
Check out after your breakfast and drive to Queen Elizabeth national park.
The drive offers breathtaking views of numerous crater lakes and the Rwenzori mountains as you drive through Kasese.
On arrival, you will check in your hotel for lunch and later drive to the jetty for a boat ride on the Kazinga channel. The Channel is a 32-kilometre (20 mi) long natural channel that links Lake Edward and Lake George, it is a dominant feature of Queen Elizabeth National Park. The channel attracts a varied range of animals and birds, boasting one of the world’s largest concentrations of hippos and numerous Nile crocodiles.
After your 2 hour boat ride, you will return to the hotel for your dinner and overnight stay.
Accommodation: Elephant plains lodge
Day 9: Morning safari –Optional evening safari
Morning safaris start as early as 6am in the Kasenyi plains. This is aimed at having more chances to spot as many animals as possible.
In the early morning, there are chances to find cats predators like lions, leopards and hyenas on their last patrols after a busy night of searching for their prey. This is also the best time to find most of the grazers and browsers; Uganda kobs, waterbucks, bushbucks, warthogs, buffaloes, elephants and some hippos still lying in the muddy pools.
Bird watching is also amazing at this time. With over 600 bird species, Queen Elizabeth is a perfect birding spot to catch a glimpse of the colorful and amazing birds like the flamingos, African fish eagle, long crested eagle, spur winged lapwing, African wattled lapwing, southern red bishop, yellow billed ox-pecker, black bellied bustard and many more.
After your safari, you will drive back to the hotel lunch and relax.
Optional evening safari
Accommodation: Elephant plains lodge
Day 10 of 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
Transfer to Ishasha sector- afternoon tree climbing lions search
Checkout and drive to Queen Elizabeth national park’s Ishasha sector.
The drive is on bumpy highway that goes through the park offering a brief safari as you access the south of the park. Big herds of elephants, antelopes and sometime leopards can be sighted.
On arrival, you will check and have lunch at the hotel.
Later you will start your search for tree climbing lions. Ishasha sector is very famous for having lions fond of climbing fig trees in the whole of Africa.
Accommodation: Enjojo lodge
Day 11: Morning safari – Lake Bunyonyi
After your morning breakfast, you will check out and start you morning safari in Ishasha sector.
Enjoy the morning scenery of the savannah plains with hundreds of buffaloes, topis, uganda kobs, waterbucks and much more.
Later you will have lunch and drive off to Lake Bunyonyi in south western Uganda driving through villages and local trading centers.
What make Lake Bunyonyi jaw dropping is as you approach it, you see it snaking along the Ugandan landscape. It is dotted by 29 islands of various shapes and sizes, surrounded by a ring of terraced farms, their greenery accenting this mystical lake like a lovely frame and is no wonder that Lonely Planet called it “A scene from Lord of the Rings.”
Accommodation: Arcadia lodge
Day 12: Relax on Lake Bunyonyi
Get up to a beautiful morning at the Lake Bunyonyi with the chapping sound of birds chirping and ushering you into another beautiful day.
Have breakfast with the most breathtaking view in Uganda and later slope down to the lake for an evening boat ride on the Lake Bunyonyi
The lake was formed about 18,000 years ago by a volcanic eruption blocking a valley in the Ruchiga mountains near the present day village of Muko on the north-west tip of the lake. The lake’s current outlet is a small stream also by Muko which flows into the Ruvuma swamp (this in turn flows into the Ruhezaminda river that ends at Lake Mutanda). The lake is about 22 km long and 6 km at its widest and at a height of about 1973 m. It is surrounded by mountains that reach heights of 600 m above the lake.
Lake Bunyonyi – is one of the best places in Uganda to relax and chill out after a safari, gorilla tracking, volcano climbing, hiking, and other activities that call for relaxation chilling out on an island or along the shores of Lake Bunyonyi.
Later you will head back to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.
Accommodation: Arcadia lodge
Day 13: Transfer to Southern Bwindi (Rushaga sector)
After your morning breakfast, you will check out and drive off to Bwindi impenetrable national park
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park known as the home to the mountain gorillas lies in southwestern Uganda on the edge of the Rift Valley. Its mist-covered hillsides are blanketed by one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, which dates back over 25,000 years and contains almost 400 species of plants. More famously, this “impenetrable forest” also protects an estimated 400 mountain gorillas – roughly half of the world’s population, including several habituated groups, which can be tracked.
Check in for dinner Lunch
Later after your relaxation, you will have a Batwa community visit.
Batwa were forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers based in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, and are widely accepted as the original inhabitants of the region.
As their traditional forest lands and territories fell under the control of agro-industries and conservation agencies, the Batwa became squatters living on the edges of society. The establishment of the Bwindi and Mgahinga National Parks for Mountain Gorillas in 1991 enabled the authorities to evict the Batwa definitely from the forest.
The Batwa in Uganda (today) experience systematic and pervasive discrimination from the government and other sectors of society, and their rights as indigenous peoples are neither recognized nor respected.
The Batwa will entertain you with their traditional dance and take you through the survival skills they had in the forest like making fire, hunting and local herbs they used to treat themselves in the forest.
Later you will head back to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.
Accommodation: Four Gorilla lodge
Day 14 of 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
Gorilla habituation in Bwindi impenetrable national park
Wake up very early in the morning for you breakfast.
Pack your lunch and leave the hotel to park offices for your gorilla habituation briefing.
Gorilla habituation in Uganda’s Bwindi impenetrable forest is the only unique and authentic way to experience the life of the gentle giants in all the gorilla trekking destinations and specifically in this sector.
Watching gorillas in the wild can be a captivating experience that can take your breath away and leave you feeling in awe of nature. As majestic primates, gorillas have a certain grace that can be mesmerizing to watch.
The standard or normal gorilla treks give you the chance to spend up to one hour in the company of the gorillas in their natural habitat. This has been made possible by gently introducing the gorillas to human presence, a process that takes between 2 and 4 years. This is essential for the continued research, care and conservation of the gorillas.
Gorillas aren’t always so placid in the presence of people: it takes time and effort to achieve this relaxed, almost nonchalant attitude in a process known as habituation.
This Bwindi’s exciting new gorilla experience allows you to be part of this process by tracking a group that is only semi-habituated. During habituation, trackers visit wild gorilla groups every day for around three years, gradually getting closer and spending longer in their company.
At the semi-habituated stage, the primates are familiar with trackers but not strangers, so this new experience can now help them get used to seeing different people.
Bwindi goes beyond gorilla, the species diversity is a feature of the park. It provides habitat for 120 species of mammals, 350 species of birds, 310 species of butterflies, 27 species of frogs, chameleons, geckos, and many endangered species.
Floristically, the park is among the most diverse forests in East Africa, with more than 1,000 flowering plant species, including 200 species of trees and 104 species of ferns.
The northern (low elevation) sector has many species of Guineo-Congolian flora, including two endangered species, the brown mahogany and Brazzeia longipedicellata. In particular, the area shares in the high levels of endemism of the Albertine rift.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is important for the conservation of the afromontane fauna, especially species endemic to the Western Rift Valley’s mountains. It is thought to have one of the richest faunal communities in East Africa, including more than 350 bird species and more than 200 butterfly species.
There are an estimated 120 mammal species in the park, of which 10 are primates, and more than 45 are small mammals. Along with mountain gorilla, species in the park include common chimpanzee, L’Hoest’s monkey, African elephant, African green broadbill, and cream-banded swallowtail black and white colobus, red-tailed monkeys, vervets the giant forest hog, and small antelope species. The fish species in the park’s rivers and streams are not well known.
There are also many carnivores, including the side-striped jackal, African golden cat, and African civet
Later after your habituation, you will return to the lodge to for a relaxation, dinner and an overnight stay.
Accommodation: Four Gorilla lodge
Day 15: Transfer to Volcanoes national park (Rwanda)
After you morning breakfast, you will checkout and start your drive to Uganda’s neighbor Rwanda.
Crossing at the Cyanika border, please note to prepare your travel document immigration purposes.
As you drive through the land of a thousand hills, you will realize this amazing country and what a hided treasure this country holds.
On arrival you will check in the lodge and relax
Accommodation: Le bamboo lodge
Day 16: Golden monkey trekking in Volcanoes national park
After your breakfast, you will drive to the park head office for a general briefing about your golden monkey trekking and later your ranger will take you deep in the forest to search for these rare amazing primates.
Golden monkeys are old World monkey only found in the Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa, including four national parks: Mgahinga, in south-west Uganda; Volcanoes, in north-west Rwanda; and Virunga and Kahuzi-Biéga, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It is restricted to highland forest, especially near bamboo.
This species is similar to the blue monkey overall, but the golden monkey has a golden-orange patch on the upper flanks and back.
On your return from the trekking, you will drive back to the hotel to freshen up.
Optional activity: Visit the gorilla village or Ellen De Genres campus of Dian Fossey.
Dinner and an overnight stay at the hotel.
Accommodation: Le bamboo lodge
Day 17 of 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
Gorilla trekking in Volcanoes national park
You will have breakfast early in the morning and proceed to the park headquarters with your packed lunch and bottled drinking water. You will be registered and allocated the gorilla group to visit and receive briefing by the park ranger guide. After briefing, you will begin your gorilla trekking dream in the company of a knowledgeable ranger guide; this takes 2 to 8 hours depending on the movement of the gorillas.
However, the guides will try to find them from where they were last seen the previous day!
A minimal level of fitness is required, such that you will be in full gear to hike at great energy. In a short while of hiking, you will definitely find the gorillas, and you will have an ample moment of interaction, one on one, eye to eye.
An hour will be allocated for you, such that you’re able to stay calm in their presence, take as many photos of your choices, and video clips as well. Later you will descend, and return to your lodge for lunch and dinner.
Accommodation: Le bamboo lodge
Day 18: Transfer to Kigali city
Breakfast at leisure
Checkout and drive to Rwanda’s capital city Kigali
On arrival in the evening, you will check in for dinner and an overnight stay in the city.
Accommodation: Serena hotel – Kigali
Day 19: Kigali city tour – Departure via Kigali international airport
After your breakfast, your 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates tour goes on with the Kigali city tour to the Genocide Memorial site.
A place of remembrance and learning! This Genocide Memorial site is located in Kigali city the capital of Rwanda in Gisozi just ten minutes’ drive from the center of the town, Kigali Genocide Memorial Grounds commemorates and acts as the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi.
The museum features exhibitions with archives of video testimonies from Genocide survivors and rescuers, perpetrator testimonies from court proceedings, footage from annual remembrance ceremonies (Kwibuka), archival photographs for the fallen victims hanged on walls, colonial documents, identification records, maps, foreign serials and propaganda publications and you can visit the Museum for educative, personal and research purposes to know detailed information about this horrific incident through events and historical implications of the Genocide.
You will also visit craft centers, markets, art galleries, local markets and streets of Kigali since it’s the cleanest and safest city in Africa.
Depending on your flight arrangements, you will be dropped off at the airport to catch your flight back home.
End of 19 Days Uganda & Rwanda Primates
