Entebbe to Murchison Falls
The drive north passes Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, home to Uganda’s only wild rhino population, where a short walking safari brings close views of white rhino on foot before continuing on to Murchison Falls National Park.
Ten days covering the parks most closely associated with a Uganda safari: Murchison Falls in the north, Kibale’s chimpanzees, Queen Elizabeth’s channel and savannah, and gorilla trekking in Bwindi to close the route.
It is a longer drive than the shorter western circuits, but it links the country’s two main safari regions into one continuous journey rather than two separate trips.
The drive north passes Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, home to Uganda’s only wild rhino population, where a short walking safari brings close views of white rhino on foot before continuing on to Murchison Falls National Park.
A launch trip to the base of the Falls, where the Nile forces itself through a gap barely seven metres wide, is paired with an optional dawn hot air balloon flight and a morning chimpanzee trek in the nearby Budongo Forest Reserve.
A long drive south crosses the Albertine escarpment via Hoima and Fort Portal, exchanging Murchison’s savannah for the dense, high-canopy forest around Kibale.
A guided trek through Kibale’s forest interior follows one of its habituated chimpanzee communities, with sightings typically including feeding, grooming and territorial calling among the upper branches.
The road south passes crater lakes and tea estates before reaching Queen Elizabeth National Park, where an afternoon game drive covers open plains grazed by kob, buffalo and elephant.
A morning boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel precedes the drive south through Ishasha, known for lions that rest in the branches of fig trees, continuing on into the forested hills of Bwindi.
A guided trek into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest leads to a habituated gorilla family, with an hour spent observing them once located, the walk itself varying in length and difficulty according to where the group is that day.
A short cultural walk with Batwa guides through the forest fringe precedes the drive to Lake Bunyonyi, where the afternoon is free for a canoe trip across its terraced shoreline.
A flight from Kihihi or a drive north returns you towards Entebbe, bringing the full north-to-south-west route to a close.
Tell us roughly when you would like to travel and what draws you here, and we will take it from there.
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