10 Days Serengeti & Gorilla Safari Tour – Tanzania & Uganda Safari
he ten days Lake Manyara, Serengeti, and Gorillas, Chimps Trekking Safari includes gorilla and chimp trekking in Uganda as well as a BIG 5 Wildlife safari in Lake Manyara and Serengeti-Ngorongoro. Covers gorilla hike permits in Uganda, all lodging with meals, wildlife safari park fees, flights between Uganda and Tanzania, and transfers. In Uganda, you can track chimps in Kibale National Park, which also boasts 11 other primates and many unique bird species. We’ve also included a guided trip around Bigodi Wetland so you can see more primates and learn about Ugandan rural culture. The drives to the national parks in Uganda and Tanzania combined safari will take you through spectacular scenery, with plenty of opportunities to capture photographs and selfies. This is a truly unforgettable safari trip, so we assign you our best English-speaking guides with extensive animal viewing expertise.
DETAILED ITINERARY
Day 1: Arrival and drive to Kibale National Park.
At 8:00 a.m., our guide will pick you up from your accommodation in Kampala or Entebbe (or airport but arriving before 11 am). Before beginning the drive westwards towards Fort Portal to the Kibale Forest National Park, you will be briefed on the holiday experience that awaits you (about 5 hours). Driving on both paved and dirt roads, you will travel through traditional Ugandan villages where people are hard at work tending to their traditional crops of millet, sorghum, beans, and maize. This region’s lovely rolling hills provide excellent photo opportunities.
You enter Uganda’s famous tea plantation region as you approach Fort Portal in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains. A carpet of green extends before you as far as the eye can see, providing an odd contrast to the area you have just gone through.
In the afternoon, we go to a neighboring forest swamp to see primates and other forest animals. The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, located on the eastern fringe of the Kibale forest, is managed by the local community. Birds such as the great Blue turaco, blue monkeys, baboons, otters, mongoose, bushbucks, bush pigs, and others can be found. You arrive at Fort Portal and then proceed to Kibale Forest, one of Africa’s premier rainforest study parks.
Day 2: Tracking Chimpanzees in Kibale National Park
Gather at Kanyankyu River camp at 08:00 hours for the most popular activity in this park, chimp tracking. Chimpanzees are man’s closest cousins and one of the most endangered primate species. This walk features more primates such as black and white colobus monkeys, L’Hoest monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, red-tailed monkeys, bush babies, pottos, and many bird species such as the yellow-spotted nicator, rumped tinkerbird, little greenbul, green breasted pitta, crowned eagle, black bee-eater, and mammals such as elephants.
Kibale National Park, at an elevation of around 3,300 feet, is an extension of Central Africa’s enormous rainforests. It is home to three major chimp colonies, each with more than 100 people. Every community has a unique social structure. The large adult males control the group and protect the communal region from incursions by male outsiders; females typically travel in tiny family groupings.
We usually find the chimps by listening for their pant-hooting noises and then rushing to the location from which they are calling. We get to watch them as they dine in fruiting trees, recline and converse with one another, and even hunt on occasion.
Day 3: Transfer to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Leave early in the morning for your gorilla walk in Bwindi. After breakfast, you will go for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park through the Kabale-Kisoro route or Isasha Sector with a packed lunch. You will enjoy the scenery, vistas of several mountains, and lush plantations along the road.
Today’s meals comprise breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 4: Bwindi Impenetrable National Park Gorilla Trekking
After breakfast, head to the morning briefing before embarking on the trip’s highlight, gorilla trekking, which may last the entire day.
We journey through the rainforest and bamboo-covered slopes in search of a mountain gorilla family, escorted by a guide and trackers. The walking can be difficult and time-consuming at times, but once you see the majestic silverback, any discomforts will be swiftly forgotten. When sighted, visitors will be led to within 6 meters of the gorillas, where they will spend an hour staring into their enormous round eyes. Trekking with gorillas is unpredictable. It’s tough to predict how many hours you’ll spend hiking. The gorilla trek can last anything from 2 to 8 hours. Prepare to trek for a long time in hilly and muddy terrain, maybe with rain overhead, before seeing any gorillas. It is advised that you be in decent physical condition. Time spent with the gorillas is limited to one hour for conservation reasons. A ranger will instruct you on how to interact with the gorillas.
While most modern forests are little more than 12,000 years old, Bwindi’s flora has been weaving itself into tangles for at least 25,000 years, gathering a long list of species in the process. This comprises 310 butterfly species, 51 reptiles, 200 plants, 88 moths, and an impressive 120 animal species, including 10 primates. Chimpanzees, L’Hoest’s monkeys, red-tailed and blue monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, baboons, and Bwindi’s most renowned resident, the mountain gorilla, are among the latter.
Bwindi is a popular spot for birdwatchers. Its 350 species include seven IUCN red data listed species and 90% of all Albertine rift endemics, which are difficult or impossible to view elsewhere in East Africa.
Day 5: Transfer to Entebbe for the flight to Kilimanjaro.
Early breakfast before continuing on our return journey from Bwindi to Entebbe, driving down the grassed and terraced escarpments of southwestern Uganda while taking in the spectacular scenery of the highlands of the region dubbed ‘the tiny Switzerland of Africa’.
This is a rich, hilly region with steep-sided hills covered in perfectly terraced farmed rows from top to bottom. Hard to overlook as we travel Mbarara are the stunning longhorn Ankole cattle. The Equator line is a stunning feature of this voyage, and you will undoubtedly cross it as we make a brief halt here.
We’ll arrive in Entebbe early in the evening before your departure to Tanzania.
Our agent will meet you at Kilimanjaro Airport and transport you to your Arusha accommodation while you await the unfolding of a whole other dimension of your Tanzania safari in Serengeti.
Day 6: Arusha to Lake Manyara National Park
You will depart from your Arusha accommodation and go to Lake Manyara National Park. The Park is well-known for its birds, which gathers around the soda lake. If you’re lucky, you might get a glimpse of the migratory flamingos doing their dance over the lake! Lake Manyara Serena Lodge will be ready for you when you arrive. This will allow you to see the spectacular Lodge, which overlooks the Great Rift Valley, the lovely Soda Lake of Manyara, and the park itself.
The flamingos that live in Lake Manyara National Park are well-known. Thousands of them congregate on the lake’s borders during the wet season, but they are absent during the dry season. The annual migration of wildebeest, zebra, gazees and other creatures into the northern plains is celebrated at Ngorongoro. The Serengeti is also well-known for its annual migration of nearly 1.5 million white-bearded (or brindled) wildebeest and 250,000 zebra, as well as its abundance of Nile crocodiles and honey badgers.
Day 7: Lake Manyara National Park to Serengeti National Park.
Have breakfast at the lodge before heading out on a wildlife drive in Lake Manyara National Park. The park is famous for its tree-climbing lions, but it also has a diversified animal population due to its varied habitat. There are several buffalo and zebra herds, as well as blue monkeys and baboons.
After lunch, you will depart for Serengeti National Park, the heart of untamed Africa, with its boundless grasslands stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see. One of the park’s richest wildlife habitats, includes the Seronera River, which supplies a key water source to this area and so draws wildlife representative of the majority of Serengeti species.
The Serengeti’s seemingly limitless plains are also the setting for the famed wildebeest migration. During the annual migration, 1.5 million wildebeest and other animals, including zebra, Thomson’s gazelle, impala, and topi, migrate in large groups from Kenya’s Masai Mara to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti. The rains and the herds’ never-ending search for water and good grazing drive this huge movement.
Day 8: Serengeti National Park BIG 5 Safari
After breakfast at the lodge, you will go on a game drive in the southern Serengeti National Park, in the Ndutu area. The magnificent acacia woodland that is immediately flanked by the short grass plains is a noticeable feature of this area. Lake Ndutu, one of the Rift Valley’s soda lakes, is located within this woodland area. During the peak of the wildebeest migration, and after heavy rains, long lines of wildebeest can be observed crossing the lake. A vast number of zebra and Thomson gazelles accompany the wildebeest. Dinner and accommodation at the Lodge/Camp
Optional activity: Serengeti Hot Air Balloon Safari (USD570):
Fly above the famous Serengeti National Park in a hot air balloon, taking in the breathtaking surroundings. This could be the most stunning spot on the planet for a balloon ride. There are no electricity lines or fences, and there are just a few roads. After you leave your resort or camp in the morning, your Balloon Safari adventure begins. It’s still dark, and you might observe some nocturnal animals on your route to the launch location. You will meet your pilot and see your balloon being filled and prepped for takeoff when you arrive. Because capacity is restricted, this experience is unique and exclusive. The balloon safari lasts around 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the weather. This excursion will conclude with a champagne bush breakfast in the heart of the park!
Day 9: Serengeti to Ngorongoro Crater Safari
You will go on a game drive after breakfast the next morning. In the afternoon, you drive to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater (optional break at Olduvai).
Because of the existence of internationally vulnerable species, the abundance of wildlife in the area, and the annual migration of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, and other animals onto the northern plains, the property is of global importance for biodiversity conservation. Significant archaeological study has also provided a long series of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, including 3.6 million-year-old hominid footprints. A variety of animal and bird species can be found here. Lions, Elephants, Buffalos, Black Rhinos, Cheetahs, Spotted Hyenas, Impalas, Gazelles, and other wildlife may be seen here.
Day 10: Departure –
After breakfast, gather your bags and lunch boxes and drive to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your flight home.
