10 Days Uganda Rwanda Primate Discovery
10-Day Uganda Rwanda Primate Discovery
Chimpanzees in Kibale, mountain gorillas in Bwindi and again in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park, with lions and a boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth in between. One route from Entebbe to Kigali, permits included.
Tour Overview
This ten-day safari starts in Kampala and heads west to Kibale Forest for chimpanzee tracking. From there you go south through Queen Elizabeth National Park for game drives and the Kazinga Channel boat cruise, then on to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for your first gorilla trek. You cross into Rwanda, spend a day in Kigali, and finish with a second gorilla trek in Volcanoes National Park. Sankofa Africa Safaris arranges everything, from your Entebbe pick-up to your drop-off at Kigali airport. All three primate permits are included in the price.
Trip Highlights
Gorillas in two countries
One trek in Bwindi, Uganda and one in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Each gives you an hour with a habituated family, and you get a certificate from each park.
Chimpanzee tracking
Follow rangers into Kibale Forest to find a habituated chimpanzee community. Groups are capped at 8 visitors, and you can spend up to an hour with them.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
Game drives on the Kasenyi plains, a two-hour cruise on the Kazinga Channel, and a search for the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha.
People and places
Visit a Bakiga village near Bwindi, walk the Bigodi Wetland, and spend a full day in Kigali. The optional Batwa Cultural Trail is also on offer.
Plan Your Primate Safari
Tell us your dates and group size. We'll confirm availability and send you a quote.
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Arrival in Kampala
Your driver-guide meets you at Entebbe International Airport and takes you to your Kampala hotel. The drive runs along the northern shore of Lake Victoria.
In the afternoon you get a relaxed look at the city: the Gaddafi National Mosque on Old Kampala Hill, the views from Kololo Hill, and the craft cooperative at Uganda Crafts 2000. If time allows, you also visit the Kasubi Tombs, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the burial ground of the Buganda kings. Over dinner your guide goes through the ten days with you: permits, packing, the border crossing and what to expect at each stop. Have an early night, as tomorrow is a long drive west.
- Airport pick-up at Entebbe
- Kampala city orientation
- Dinner and trip briefing
Kampala to Kibale Forest National Park
You leave Kampala by 7:00 AM on the Fort Portal highway. Banana plantations and tea estates line the road as it climbs onto the western plateau. A stop at the Uganda Equator monument near Kayabwe lets you stand on the line between the northern and southern hemispheres and watch the water demonstration.
After lunch on the way, the air cools as you climb past 1,500 metres towards Fort Portal. The Rwenzori Mountains, the "Mountains of the Moon", begin to appear on the western horizon. You reach your lodge near Kibale Forest in the early afternoon and take a short guided walk along the forest edge. Red-tailed monkeys and black-and-white colobus are often seen near the lodge boundary. At dinner your guide explains how tomorrow's chimpanzee tracking works.
- Equator monument stop at Kayabwe
- Forest-edge walk near the lodge
- Chimpanzee tracking briefing at dinner
Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale Forest
After an early breakfast you go to the Kanyanchu Visitor Centre for the 7:30 AM ranger briefing. Groups are limited to 8 visitors per habituated community. Rangers have already located where the chimpanzees slept, so you simply follow their lead into the lowland rainforest.
Finding the chimpanzees can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Once you do, you spend up to one hour with them. Expect to see them moving through the canopy, grooming each other, arguing over fruit and sometimes drumming on tree buttresses. After a packed lunch at the forest edge, the afternoon is a 2-hour guided walk through the community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary. The papyrus swamp is good for birdwatching, and grey-cheeked mangabeys and L'Hoest's monkeys are easy to find. All entry fees go to the surrounding community.
- Chimpanzee tracking with Kibale rangers
- Packed lunch at the forest edge
- Guided walk in Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary
Kibale to Queen Elizabeth National Park
After breakfast you drive south through the Fort Portal crater lakes, dozens of round volcanic lakes set among tea estates. You stop at the Nyinambuga and Kyaninga viewpoints for photographs before the road drops into the flat plains of the Albertine Rift Valley.
After lunch near the park entrance you check in at your lodge on the Mweya Peninsula, a headland where Lake Edward meets the Kazinga Channel. You can watch hippos below and Uganda kob on the plains. In the afternoon you go on a game drive across the Kasenyi plains, the best part of the park for lions and elephants. Cape buffalo graze in large herds, and your guide checks the acacia trees for leopard as the light turns gold.
- Crater lakes drive with viewpoint stops
- Check-in on the Mweya Peninsula
- Afternoon game drive on the Kasenyi plains
Kazinga Channel Cruise and Ishasha Tree-Climbing Lions
You start before sunrise with a game drive across the Kasenyi plains, when lions are most active. Then you return to the lodge for a full breakfast on the veranda, with hippos splashing below.
The main event of the morning is the 2-hour Kazinga Channel boat cruise. This 40 km waterway holds one of the world's highest concentrations of hippos, plus Nile crocodiles, and you see them at close range from the water. Elephants, buffalo and waterbuck come down to the banks, and pelicans, cormorants, herons and open-billed storks feed in the shallows. After a packed lunch you drive south to the remote Ishasha sector and spend at least 2 hours searching the fig trees for the park's tree-climbing lions. This behaviour is known in only two places in the world. You overnight in the Ishasha area, ready for an early start to Bwindi.
- Dawn game drive on the Kasenyi plains
- 2-hour Kazinga Channel boat cruise
- Tree-climbing lion search in Ishasha
Ishasha to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
An optional early game drive gives you a last look at the Ishasha fig trees before breakfast and check-out. Then you drive into the Kigezi highlands. The land climbs from the rift valley floor into terraced ridges farmed by the Bakiga, until the fields stop at the edge of Bwindi's forest.
You reach your forest-edge lodge in the early afternoon. Bwindi covers 350 square kilometres, survived the last Ice Age 25,000 years ago, and shelters roughly half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. After lunch your guide briefs you on gorilla etiquette, the 7-metre distance rule, what to wear and carry, and how demanding the terrain is. Dinner is early and so is bedtime.
- Optional dawn game drive in Ishasha
- Drive through the Kigezi highlands
- Gorilla trekking briefing at the lodge
Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi
You rise before dawn for a hearty breakfast and drive to the Uganda Wildlife Authority headquarters. Rangers brief you and assign each visitor to a habituated gorilla family. They also offer porters, which are strongly recommended on Bwindi's steep ground and give local people an income.
The trek goes through dense montane forest, over streams on mossy log bridges and up slopes of fern and wild ginger. Your lead ranger keeps in radio contact with trackers who have followed the family since before dawn, so the trek can last anywhere from 45 minutes to 6 hours. Then you spend one hour with the gorillas: mothers with infants, juveniles wrestling on muddy slopes and the silverback moving through his territory. Each trekker receives an official Uganda Wildlife Authority Gorilla Trekking Certificate. In the late afternoon you can join the optional Batwa Cultural Trail with members of the community who first lived in Bwindi forest. They share fire-making, medicinal plant knowledge and the story of their relationship with the forest.
- Ranger briefing and gorilla family assignment
- One hour with a habituated gorilla family
- Optional Batwa Cultural Trail (fee not included)
Bakiga Village Visit, Border Crossing and Kigali
After a relaxed breakfast you visit a Bakiga community village near Bwindi. Women show how they weave baskets from papyrus reeds, you see banana beer (omuramba) being brewed, and you watch the Ekizino dance in traditional dress. You can buy baskets and beadwork directly from the makers, and all the income stays in the community.
After check-out you drive to the Uganda–Rwanda border. Your guide handles the paperwork. On the Rwandan side the hills are terraced and neatly kept. You continue east to Kigali, arriving in the late afternoon for check-in and dinner. Your guide then briefs you on tomorrow's cultural day.
- Bakiga village visit with crafts and dance
- Border crossing with guide assistance
- Drive to Kigali
Kigali Cultural Day
The day starts at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the burial site of more than 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. It is one of Africa's most carefully curated memorial sites. Allow at least 90 minutes, and visit quietly.
Your guide then leads a walking tour of Nyamirambo, Kigali's oldest neighbourhood, with its mosques, tailoring workshops and street food vendors. The Nyamirambo Women's Centre runs one of East Africa's best community walking tours here. After a Rwandan lunch of brochettes, isombe and fresh tropical juice, you visit the Inema Arts Centre, which shows large paintings and sculpture by Rwandan artists. The last stop is Kimironko Market, Kigali's largest open-air market. It is the best place in Rwanda to buy crafts, including imigongo cow-dung art panels and agaseke peace baskets. Set an early alarm: tomorrow's Volcanoes National Park briefing is at 7:00 AM, so you leave Kigali at 5:00 AM.
- Kigali Genocide Memorial
- Nyamirambo walking tour and lunch
- Inema Arts Centre and Kimironko Market
Gorilla Trekking in Volcanoes National Park
You leave Kigali at 5:00 AM and drive northwest to Musanze. At the Rwanda Development Board headquarters in Kinigi, the 7:00 AM briefing confirms your permit, assigns your gorilla family and gives you a trekking pole. You then climb through farmland and bamboo forest into the misty hagenia-hypericum forest on the Virunga slopes. It feels very different from Bwindi: more open in the bamboo, with giant lobelias and old lava flows.
You spend one hour with your second gorilla family, on the slopes of the volcanoes. Each trekker receives a Rwanda Development Board gorilla trekking certificate. After a celebration lunch near Musanze, you make the 2-hour drive back to Kigali International Airport, where your guide drops you for your onward flight.
- RDB briefing at Kinigi
- One hour with a habituated gorilla family
- Lunch in Musanze, then transfer to Kigali airport
What's Included
Included
- Gorilla trekking permits for Uganda ($800 pp) and Rwanda ($1,500 pp)
- Kibale chimpanzee tracking permit ($250 pp)
- 4×4 safari vehicle with an English-speaking driver-guide throughout
- 9 nights in lodges and hotels
- All meals as per the itinerary
- Porters for the Bwindi gorilla trek
- Kazinga Channel boat cruise
- Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary walk
- Bakiga community village visit
- Kigali cultural day tour
- All park and reserve entry fees
- Bottled drinking water throughout
- Help with the Uganda–Rwanda border crossing
Excluded
- International flights (Entebbe in, Kigali out)
- Uganda visa ($50 pp)
- Rwanda visa (free for most nationalities)
- East Africa Tourist Visa ($100, recommended)
- Travel and medical insurance
- Tips for the guide and staff
- Alcohol and premium drinks
- Souvenirs and personal shopping
- Optional Batwa Cultural Trail fee
- Inema Arts Centre entry and artwork purchases
Permits and Price
| Experience | Permit | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Chimpanzee tracking | $250 | Kibale Forest, Uganda |
| Gorilla trek, Uganda | $800 | Bwindi Impenetrable Forest |
| Gorilla trek, Rwanda | $1,500 | Volcanoes National Park |
Before You Book
Good to Know
- Early starts: You leave Kampala by 7:00 AM on Day 2 and rise before dawn for the Bwindi trek on Day 7. On Day 10 you leave Kigali at 5:00 AM for the 7:00 AM briefing at Kinigi.
- The gorilla treks: The Bwindi trek can last from 45 minutes to 6 hours, depending on where the family has moved overnight. The ground is steep, and your guide explains what to wear and carry at the briefing. You spend one hour with the gorillas in each park.
- Visas: Uganda's visa is $50. Rwanda's is free for most nationalities. The East Africa Tourist Visa costs $100 and is the one we recommend. None of these are in the tour price.
- Kigali Genocide Memorial: Allow at least 90 minutes. It is a place for quiet reflection.
- Community visits: Bigodi Wetland fees go to the surrounding community, and so does the income from crafts bought in the Bakiga village. The Batwa Cultural Trail is optional and paid separately.
Ready for the Primate Safari?
Send us your dates and group size. We'll confirm availability and send a quote.