Uganda 10 days expedition: White water rafting, Great apes and big five safari
10 Days & 09 Nights
Tour Overview
Experience an exhilarating 10-day Uganda adventure combining adrenaline, primate encounters, and classic African wildlife safaris. Your journey begins at the source of the Nile in Jinja, where you take on one of the world’s most exciting white-water rafting experiences, navigating powerful rapids and scenic stretches of the river surrounded by lush tropical landscapes. From here, continue to Kibale National Park for an unforgettable chimpanzee trekking experience in the rainforest, where you’ll observe playful chimpanzees and other primates in their natural habitat. The adventure then leads to Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda’s most diverse safari destination, where game drives across open savannahs offer sightings of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards, and antelopes, while a boat cruise along the Kazinga Channel brings you close to hippos, crocodiles, and abundant birdlife. Continue to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for the highlight of the journey—an incredible gorilla trekking experience through dense rainforest to spend time with the mountain gorilla family. The safari concludes with a visit to Lake Mburo National Park, where walking safaris, game drives, and boat rides offer close encounters with zebras, giraffes, impalas, and other wildlife before returning to Entebbe. This 10-day itinerary blends adventure, primates, and classic safari experiences, showcasing the very best of Uganda’s natural wonders.
Day to Day itinerary Details
Upon arrival at Entebbe International Airport and passing through immigration and customs, you will be warmly welcomed by our professional safari driver/guide who will brief you on your upcoming adventure. You will then be transferred to your hotel in Entebbe or Kampala. Freshen up, settle in, and enjoy a welcome dinner at your hotel. This is a relaxed day to recover from your flight and prepare for the exciting journey ahead.
| Meals: | Dinner |
Morning: Pick up from your hotel in Kampala. Drive to Jinja, the adventure capital of East Africa. Afternoon: Visit the iconic Source of the Nile, where the world’s longest river begins its journey. Enjoy a boat ride to the exact point where the river flows from Lake Victoria. Evening: Settle into your lodge and enjoy a relaxing dinner.
| Meals: | Breakfast, lunch, and Dinner |
After an early morning breakfast, embark on a thrilling white-water rafting adventure on the Nile. The guides will conduct a comprehensive safety briefing covering paddle commands, swimming in rapids, and what to do if you flip. You will be fitted with a life jacket, helmet, and paddle before heading to the put-in point on the Nile. The rafting experience lasts approximately 4–5 hours on the water, navigating a thrilling series of Nile rapids, including iconic sections such as The Nile Special. Between rapids, you will drift through calm stretches of the river with stunning scenery and opportunities to spot kingfishers, African fish eagles, monitor lizards, and hippos on the banks. After the final rapid, you will pull out of the river and enjoy your lunch at the rafting camp, relax, share stories with fellow rafters, and dry off before the drive back to the lodge.
| Meals: | Breakfast, lunch, and Dinner |
After an early breakfast, check out of the lodge and start your journey to Kibale forest national park. passing via the Kampala-Fort Portal highway. You will have lunch en route, and later continue to the park. Check in at the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.
| Meals: | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner |
After an early breakfast, head to the park briefing point for your chimpanzee tracking experience. Kibale National Park is home to over 1,500 chimpanzees and is considered the best place in the world for chimpanzee tracking. Accompanied by armed rangers and expert guides, you will trek through the dense tropical forest in search of habituated chimpanzee communities. The experience includes not only chimpanzees but also red-tailed monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, L’Hoest’s monkeys, and an incredible variety of birds and butterflies.
Go back to the lodge for lunch, and later transfer to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
| Meals: | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner |
The day starts with a morning game drive in the Northern sector of Kasenyi Queen Elizabeth National Park. The game drive starts at 6:30 am and lasts between 3 and 4 hours. You will drive via several channel tracks in search of several wild game, including elephants, Lions, Leopards, Cape buffaloes, warthogs, mongoose, waterbucks, Uganda kobs, and a lot of other small animals and birds. You will then proceed to Kasenyi Salt Lake for relaxing views and photographs after that long game drive. You can also be able to have a cup of coffee here, a Rolex, and buy some souvenirs. You will return to the lodge for Lunch and then proceed to Mweya- Kazinga Channel for the boat cruise. This will be so exciting and breathtaking as you view schools of hippos, Elephants, buffalo, crocodiles, and many animals on the banks of the channel, plus water birds. The Kazinga channel links the two big lakes of Lake Edward and George. The trip takes 2 hours of exploration as you marvel and take photos of numerous game that come to bathe and drink water after a dehydrating hot day. Expect to see numerous water birds which grace the sand banks, such as pelicans, cormorants, eagles, King Fisher, and Egyptian birds. Some visitors consider this to be the highlight of their trip! After this, you will drive via the Mweya truck and proceed to the lodge for Dinner and overnight.
| Meals: | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner |
You will wake up at 6:00 am for breakfast, and then you will proceed to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park via the Ishasha sector, and you may have a chance to see the tree-climbing lions. Drive up to Bwindi, check in at the lodge, have lunch, and enjoy the rest of the day at leisure. Dinner and overnight stay at the lodge.
| Meals: | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner |
Today is the highlight of the safari – gorilla tracking! After an early breakfast, you will gather at the park briefing point where your ranger guide will give a comprehensive pre-trek briefing. You will then set off into the forest in search of one of the habituated mountain gorilla families. The trek can take anywhere from 1 to 5 hours, depending on the gorilla group’s location. Upon finding the gorillas, you will spend one magical hour observing and photographing them in their natural habitat – a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In the afternoon, after lunch at the lodge, you will embark on the Batwa Cultural Trail. The Batwa are the original forest-dwellers of Bwindi, and this unique experience allows you to walk with them, learn their forest survival skills, witness traditional dances, hear their stories, and gain insight into their rich heritage and way of life that pre-dates recorded history. Go back to the lodge for dinner and an overnight stay.
| Meals: | Breakfast, lunch, and dinner |
After breakfast, check out and drive east towards Lake Mburo National Park. Uganda’s smallest savannah park and the closest national park to Kampala. The drive takes you through the rolling hills of Ankole, the land of the famous long-horned Ankole cattle. The landscape gradually transitions from lush highlands to open savannah. Arrive at Lake Mburo in the afternoon, check in to your lodge, and enjoy the rest of the day at leisure. The park is one of the few places in Uganda where you can see zebras, impalas, and elands, and it offers a more intimate safari experience without the large crowds found in bigger parks.
| Meals: | Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner |
Enjoy an early breakfast before heading out for an exciting guided walking safari – one of the unique highlights of Lake Mburo National Park. Armed rangers accompany you on foot through the park, allowing for an intimate and exhilarating close encounter with wildlife, including zebras, impalas, topi, warthogs, buffaloes, and the elusive leopard. Walking through the bush on foot connects you to the environment in a way that a vehicle never can. Return to the lodge for lunch, and later transfer back to Kampala or Entebbe International Airport.
| Meals: | Breakfast and lunch |