Ugandan Culture and Wildlife

Day 1: Arrival

At the Airport, you will be picked by our well-trained cultural guides who will drop you at your hotel of accommodation.

Day 2: City Tour Visit Kasubi Tombs, Buganda Palace and the Uganda Museum

Kasubi Tombs is the burial place of the departed kings of the Buganda Kingdom known as the “Kabaka”. Kasubi Tombs is a place where the important rituals and ceremonies of the Kingdom are celebrated and it forms an important part of the Baganda culture. A walk within the tombs will allow you to experience the norms, culture and ways of living of the Baganda, one of the biggest and most powerful extant kingdoms in Uganda.

The Uganda Museum is a collection of archeological artefacts, traditional music instruments, ethnological and historical exhibitions of Uganda’s cultural heritage. At the Uganda Museum you will be mesmerized by an experience of Uganda’s cultures all in one place. Some of the highlights here include; playing the traditional music instruments displayed in the museum, appreciating the architectural designs and visiting the traditional houses/huts of the different tribes in Uganda.

Day 3-4: Travel to Lake Mburo National Park, Game Drive and Boat cruise on Lake Mburo.

Lake Mburo National Park is 260 sq.km and has a remarkably distinct fauna from the other reserves. It is the only national park that contains an entire lake. Situated in rolling hills and open grassy valleys, the park also consists of four other smaller lakes. The park is covered in an extensive open and wooded acacia savannah. It is the best place to see the gigantic Eland antelope as well as Zebra, Topi, Impala, Buffalo, Giraffe, Hippopotamus, Nile Crocodile, Monitor Lizards and many others.

It is the only park where domestic livestock co-exist with the wild game and we may have opportunities of encountering the Ankole Long-horned Cattle as they feed in and at the boundaries of the park. The communities around this park are predominantly cattle keepers and take a lot of pride in their cattle that are given as gifts during ceremonies such as; traditional weddings.

Day 5: Morning visit to the Igongo Cultural Museum and travel to Bwindi.

The Igongo Cultural Museum also known as “Eriijukiro Museum” is a representation of art facts, customs and norms of the peoples of South-western Uganda and the neighboring kingdoms. This museum is a representation of the Ankole Kingdom.

Day 6: Gorilla Tracking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park

Bwindi Impenetrable Conservation Area lies in the rugged Kigezi highlands of South Western Uganda, protecting a continuum of forest that ranges from montane to low land areas. It is this altitudinal variation, combined with its location within the Albertine Rift that results in Bwindi impenetrable being the richest forest in East Africa in terms of its trees, butterflies, birds and other wildlife. Bwindi is home to over 400 Gorrilas more half than of the world’s population of the endangered Mountain Gorillas. Due to the efforts of the government in protecting this great ape, it has been down listed from Critically endangered to Endangered Status which is very good news for both the country and species.

Gorilla tracking is a captivating pursuit that involves walking in the wilderness in search of the great apes, our closest relatives. Each encounter is an exciting one, different and has its own rewards but more exciting is an opportunity to enjoy the close view of adults feeding, grooming and resting as the youngsters frolic and swing from vines in a delightfully playful display, a one-time experience that one cannot afford to miss. At the end of tracking, everybody is a winner as a certificate is presented to everyone that has participated in the activity.

Day 7: Community/Village Walk and Ride for a woman

The community walk brings you some of the activities carried out by women at the country side in Uganda so as to earn a living for their families. These activities include; gardening, tea and coffee picking, crafts making and preparing of the traditional meals. Along the walk, you will be entertained by a group of cheerful dancers performing their cultural dance that will help you relax.

During the walk, you will encounter the “Batwa” pygmies that lived in the forest and will be exposed to their ways of life.

The Ride for a Woman project was set up to empower women that have undergone domestic violence with skills in sewing, baskets weaving, cooking lessons, biking, farming and many other activities so as to allow them to earn livelihoods from such activities. A day spent with these group of women is quite inspirational and an opportunity to learn how to make some of the crafts.

Don’t miss to learn how to weave a basket in a day!!!

Day 8-9: Transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Game Drive and Boat Cruise on the Kazinga Channel

Queen Elizabeth National Park is named after the Queen of England who visited it in 1954 and is the second largest National Park in Uganda.

It is a hoist of a multiple of ecosystems with; forests, savanna and aquatic habitats all hosting different species of birds and animals. A game drive in the park will bless you with species of mammals such as; the African Lion, Buffaloes, Uganda Kob, Topi, Hippos, Elephants, Savanna and Banded Mongoose and many others. You will also have experience at one of the salt mining areas where you will see the different processes of salt mining in Uganda.

An exciting boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel, a narrow neck of water that connects Lakes George and Edward, will give you excellent photographic opportunities for flocks of water birds and abundant Hippopotamus, African Elephant, Spotted Hyena, Leopard, Lion, Ugandan Kobs, Side-striped Jackal, Bush and Water Bucks, Warthogs, Giant Forest Hogs as they cool off at the channel with Nile Monitors and Crocodiles basking in the sun on the sandy shores of the channel.

Day 10. Transfer to Fort Portal, visit Palace and afternoon transfer to Kibale Forest National Park

Fort Portal also known as the cleanest city, is home to one of the Kingdoms, Toro Kingdom with the youngest King in Uganda. Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru enthroned as King at the age of 3 years in 1995 after the death of his father has ruled over this kingdom for many years. Toro is also known as “the land of Milk and Honey”. A visit to the Toro kingdom’s Palace will give you a chance to experience and learn about some of the “Batooro” cultures and traditions.

Day 11: Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale Forest National Park and afternoon Board Walk at Bigodi Wetland.

Kibale Forest National Park also known as the “Primate Capital” is home to a diverse array of primates, from the nocturnal Demidoff’s Galago to our closest living relative, the Chimpanzee. With about 1450 individuals of Chimpanzee, Kibale holds the largest population of this ape in Uganda as well as the largest population of the Red Colobus monkey in East African. Other primates include; Black and White Colobus, Red tailed Monkey and the Sykes blue Monkey, Red &Guereza Colobuses, Olive Baboon, Grey-cheeked Mangabey, L’Hoest’s, Blue and Vervet Monkeys, Bushbuck, Blue, Harvey’s and Peter’s Duikers are the other shy inhabitants of the forest interior.

Chimpanzee trekking is one of the adventurous “one in a life experience” you cannot miss out on this trip. Watching these great primates as they go about their routine; feeding, defending territories, grooming and playing about, swinging from tree to tree is a wonderful encounter.

Day 12, 13 and 14: Transfer to MFNP, Game Drive and Boat Cruise to the Bottom of the Falls

Murchison Falls National Park is the largest National Park in Uganda deriving its name from the incredible Murchison Falls, where the Nile is forced through a 6-meter gap, forming the most powerful water surge on the planet. Exploring the park’s broad-leaved woodland, dry grasslands, and forests will give you a chance to encounter the following mammals; herds of Elephants, Buffaloes, Giraffes, Uganda Kobs, Oribis, Lions, Hyenas and many others.

A boat cruise on the calmer stretches of the Nile will give us a spectacular view of the falls as well as a chance to watch and photograph wildlife which throng the banks such as; the Nile Crocodile, Nile Monitor, Hippos, Elephants, Bush Bucks and many others.

Day 15: Travel to Entebbe for departure