The western Uganda circuit will take you to the western parts of the country within its magnificent national parks such as kibale national park, Queen Elizabeth national park, Bwindi national park, lake Mburo national park as well as its Mgahinga national park the only place in Uganda where to see golden monkeys.
This safari will also give you the opportunity to visit Mt Rwenzori for those with the ability to hike. You have two options to soak up this remarkable circuit. Either book a customized tour or rent a 4×4 car for self drive Uganda.
In kibale national park, you will be able to trek chimpanzees and visit Bigodi wetland sanctuary.
The trek is done in sessions either in the morning or afternoon where by you report at the park headquarter for briefing and once it is done, you start searching for chimps. This takes 2-3hours and you move in the forest you may have the chance to see other primates like the black & white colobus, red tailed monkey or the grey cheeked mangabey. Your guides will be able to show you pittas & different bird species and will give details of the plant species within the forest. This walk is for 6 people in a group. You will take one hour with them learning their behaviours as well as taking photos of your choice. Take lunch and go for Bigodi visit.
Bigodi tour is a fantastic example of community tourism. Money from the sanctuary flows back into the local area to build schools, support women’s groups, and improve water and waste management access. The three hours’ walk through the Bigodi swamp allows you to spot over 310 bird species. As you walk through the palm trees and different plants expect to see at least 5 species of primates.
A trip to Mt Rwenzori national park will provide great opportunities to seeing nature at its finest. Its plant life diverges from dense tropical rain-forest, bamboo woodlands, montane cloud forests to high-altitude vegetation and the decor is correctly outstanding at the pick.
Climbing to the highest summit Margherita offers opportunities to marvel at the snow-capped peaks and alpine vegetation. Descending the mountain rewards you with more sustained views of the vast farmlands around the mountain.
Transfer to Queen Elizabeth national park for an interesting game drive and boat cruise. The game drive will allow you to tour around the park comfortably while taking photos of the diverse wildlife in their natural habitats. Once you have finished the game drive, you will head for a boat cruise at kazinga channel connecting lake George to lake Edward. This will give you the chance to see hippos, buffaloes in herds, elephants at the banks of the channel and the endless glamour of the Ishasha plains.
You cross to the ishasha sector where you will have the chance to see climbing lions up in the fig trees either resting or targeting for the next meal. You will be able to see more animals on this game drive then later transfer to Bwindi national park.
In Bwindi, the main target is to see gorillas though there are a number of other activities to be done. Gorilla trekking starts very early at 6am with briefing at the park headquarter and once its done, you will be allocated a family of gorillas in groups of eight people. You must be physically fit for you to trek gorillas since it involves hiking.
You will be escorted by armed game rangers who have clear knowledge of where the gorillas slept the previous night. The first group of rangers will go before you start the search and they will be able to communicate with the rangers you are moving with making it easy to locate the gorillas.
The search takes 30mins to 6hours and once in contact with them, you will take one hour learning their behaviour as well as taking photos of your choice.
You can also take on gorilla habituation in Bwindi, the only place in Africa where you can do gorilla habituation. This activity will give the opportunity to stay with the gorillas for four hours done in the Rushaga sector.
For nature walkers, you can take one of the six main nature trails to explore the impenetrable forest. These include Muyanga waterfall walk, Rushura Hill walk, Zubairy Loop, the Ivi River Walk, Buhoma-Nkuringo trail and the Habinyanja trail. These trails vary and offer different nature walk experiences with most of them starting from the Buhoma sector.
Encounter the cultural and traditional experience of the Batwa. They lived in this forest apparently gazetted as Bwindi Impenetrable Forest national park for several years. These people will entertain and teach you the local medicines they used while still in the forest.
You can also take another encounter with gorillas in Mgahinga national park where you will get the chance to see golden monkeys only found here and Rwanda’s volcanoes national park. This park hosts one group of gorillas called the Nyakagyezi family and here you will find no congestion since few people choose to go there. The golden chance you have here is trekking for the golden monkeys which you can not see any where else. These creatures are the most beautiful and cute monkey species in Africa, very active, curious and playful. You will find them always jumping from tree to tree as they look for food or escape from their chief predator, the golden eagle.
Lake Mburo national park is yet another rewarding place not to be missed while on the western circuit in Uganda. Take a game drive in park which will introduce to you to Antelopes, Common Duiker, Defassa Waterbuck, Bofor, Impalas, Buffalos, Bush pigs, Giraffes, Eland, and Zebras as well as many bird species. You can also take on a nocturnal drive, there is a chance to see porcupines, bush babies and even leopards! In all this, it is advised that you are guided by an armed Uganda Wildlife Authority game ranger to protect you from any wildlife inconvenience.
You can also choose to take a boat cruise here which will help you see as many animals as possible including crocodiles crawling into the water, hippos dunking themselves in the lake to escape the heat at high noon, zebras, antelopes, and buffaloes coming for refreshment during the dry season are sights that await you while on a boat ride. While on the boat, you can not miss out the different bird species there fore a binocular would be recommended to be packed.
