A Ugandan safari is the most memorable and life-changing experience. The incredible landscapes, wildlife and mountains in Uganda make the safari worth and unforgettable. The first time you go on a game drive, see an elephant, touch a rhino, giraffes, and watch lions climb trees, the moment will stay with you forever. You will put into consideration the use of 4×4 safari vehicle.
The most experiential of all Uganda safaris is the close encounter with the higher apes. That little moment you’ll spend close to a mountain gorilla or band of chimpanzees will automatically change your relationship with nature. Your first Uganda safari will unwrap vast horizons, open skies, emerald landscapes, and rich tropical forests.
Take more days on your first-time safari for a great memorable experience. A slow safari will allow you to immerse yourself in the raw wilderness, to get up close and personal with primates, meeting people of different cultures and ways of life, and contributing to the conservation of the very places and animals you’ve come to see.
There is a difference when you come upon a band of chimpanzees, a herd of elephants, or a pride of lions in their natural habitat with no fences between you and no commercial breaks to interrupt the action with that in the zoo.
Uganda safari allows you a chance to experience indigenous cultures. Whether through traditional foods that might appear on the menu or perhaps interacting with local tribes people by witnessing different ways of living in the remote villages you walk through.
This safari will take you to seven different national parks
Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is one of the two gorilla habitats and hosts more at least half of the last mountain gorillas worldwide. The other half live on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains and is shared between Uganda’s Mgahinga, Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga, and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Parks.
Several families have become habituated to humans, allowing small groups of people to track them and spend an hour in their company. The gorillas remain wild and the interaction takes place under the careful eyes of highly trained trackers. As gorillas are susceptible to human disease, the health restrictions for visitors are stringent. Due to the rugged terrain, only those older than 15 years are allowed to track. A day of gorilla trekking begins early, departing from your lodge with the headquarter.
Depending on where the gorillas were last seen, the trek can take anywhere between 40 minutes to six hours spent making your way through the tranquil green undergrowth that covers the mountain slopes, with several quiet encounters with the other denizens of the park en route. Once located, you will spend an hour with them.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
With this park, you will enjoy the scenery while driving to the park. Enjoy the savannah grass land as well as the wildlife in this park. Game drives are the most popular activity allowing you to see 95 percent of the mammals you would see in the Serengeti but with better scenery and landscape that includes forests, savanna grasslands, swamp lands, acacia woods, crater lakes, gorges and the nearby Rwenzori Mountains. The 3–4-hour game drives start in the early morning to any of the three sectors – the Kasenyi plains (near Kazinga Channel), Ishasha sector (tree climbing lions) or the Katwe crater fields. The crater lakes region has beautiful landscape with large craters and salt lakes that were formed thousands of years ago. You will also go for a boat cruise at the Kazinga channel.
Kibale Forest National Park
Kibale contains a variety of wildlife species, including 70 mammal species, 13 primate’s species, and 325 bird species in and under its canopy. Chimpanzee trekking is generally fruitful; guides and visitors have been following habituated chimpanzee bands through Kibale’s medium-altitude moist forest since 1994. The chimps are tolerant of human presence. The opportunity to track chimpanzees in their natural habitat starts from the Kanyanchu visitor centre.
There is also an opportunity to see other exciting wildlife includes forest elephant, duiker, bush buck, sitatunga, bush pigs, giant forest hogs, common warthogs, and African buffalo. The Kibale predator list includes leopard, serval, African golden cat, mongooses, otter, and occasionally visiting lion. This will be an added advantage while on your trek.
Murchison Falls National Park
The first activity most visitors do is to visit the top of the falls. The Murchison Falls form when the river Nile squeezes through a narrow gorge as it makes its way to Egypt. One does not need a guide to go to the top of the falls though it is important to move with a team or someone knowledgeable about the area.
Take a Boat Cruise at the bottom of the falls. The cruise lasts about 3 hours starting and ending at the bottom of the falls. The top of the falls offers a breathtaking view of the waterfall and the loud roars coming from the water rushing down to the river.
A game drive is the most enjoyable activity in the park. Game drives can be done alone although the presence of a ranger from the park turns it into a more educative activity because they can help identify the types of birds and mammals or take you to the best places to find them. While on a 3-hour game rive to Murchison Falls, expect to spot animals like buffaloes, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, Hippopotamus, Leopards, lions, Monitor lizards, Side Striped Jackals, Spotted Hyenas and warthogs.
Lake Mburo National Park
Game drives in Lake Mburo National Park allow you to spot most of the parks animal and birds that call the park home. The game drives are led by an armed ranger from the Uganda Wildlife Authority who helps identify the different species of animal and birds. The “leopard rock” is a popular place to spot leopards during the night safari or early in the morning. Hyenas exist in the park but are not as many as in some of the other major game parks in Uganda.
A boat cruise along the Lake Mburo will help unlock all that is beautiful about the park. This is more so during the dry season when most of the animals come for a drink. During the boat cruise visitors can spot zebras, antelopes, crocodiles, hippos, otters and buffaloes. As well as birds.
Kidepo Valley National Park
Most tourist go for a safari to Kidepo with the purpose of spotting the animals and carrying out the other popular activities in the park. Game drives in Kidepo are the best anywhere in Uganda. You need a need a sturdy four-wheel drive safari vehicle to pass through the most roads. To ensure safety of everyone during the game drives, visitors are always accompanied by an armed ranger from Uganda Wildlife Authority.
You have the opportunity to Visit the Karamojong: The Karamojong are nomadic pastoralists who live in North Eastern Uganda including some areas around Kidepo National Park. The Karamojong are related to the Maasai of Kenya and their lives are centred around their animals. The Karamojong believe that all cattle on earth belong to them. Any cattle that are not kept by them are believed to have been stolen from them at some point in the past.
Semliki National Park
Visiting the Sempaya Hot Springs is one of the activities: The two hot springs have made the park very famous. Tourists are more fascinated by the local stories about their formation than the scientific explanation. There is a female and male hot spring. The Male hot spring is about 12 meters in diameter and is called Bintente while the female in Nyasimbi. Boiling geyser gushes out steam and bubbling water several meters high and can be seen more than 1 kilometre away.
Game drives in Semliki National Park offer opportunities to spot over 52 mammals already mentioned. The park has three major tracks used for game drives that pass through the savannah plains of the park. Both day and night game drives are arranged by staff in the park. Visitors need to come with a good four-wheel drive vehicle to pass through the more difficult sections of the park particularly during the rainy season.