4 Days Gorillas & Lions Safari (Uganda)

Early departure from Kampala or Entebbe, heading southwest via Masaka and Mbarara (approx. 8–9 hours). Stop at the Equator at Kayabwe for photos and lunch, then continue through the Kigezi highlands as the landscape shifts from savannah to steep terraced hillsides.

Arrive at your sector lodge — Buhoma, Rushaga, Ruhija or Nkuringo depending on permit allocation — by late afternoon. Evening briefing on tomorrow's gorilla trek; porters can be arranged at the lodge.

Pre-dawn breakfast, then transfer to park headquarters for briefing with UWA rangers. Your assigned habituated gorilla family may be anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours' walk into the montane forest — trekking typically takes 2–8 hours round trip depending on sector and family location.

Safari activity | Mountain gorilla trekking

Track a habituated gorilla family through Bwindi's montane forest with UWA rangers — one hour with the group on contact, then your gorilla trekking certificate on return.

On contact, spend one hour with the mountain gorilla family — silverback displays, juveniles tumbling through vegetation, mothers nursing infants. Return for your certificate; afternoon rest at the lodge. L'Hoest's monkey and black-and-white colobus are common in the forest margins.

Bwindi protects roughly half the world's remaining mountain gorillas — approximately 459 individuals across multiple habituated families. Sector allocation is fixed at permit purchase; Buhoma and Rushaga are the most commonly booked gates.

After breakfast, drive north through the Kigezi highlands and into the southern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park — Ishasha (approx. 3–4 hours). Check in at your Ishasha lodge and lunch overlooking the Ntungwe River valley.

Safari activity | Ishasha tree-climbing lion search

Afternoon game drive scanning fig trees and acacias for Ishasha's famous tree-climbing lions — a behaviour seen in only two places in Africa, alongside elephant bulls along the Ntungwe River.

Afternoon game drive on the Ishasha circuit — scan large fig trees and acacias for lions draped across branches, a behaviour unique to Ishasha and Tanzania's Lake Manyara. Elephant bulls, Uganda kob, topi and buffalo are regular along the river channels. African hawk-eagles and hooded vultures patrol the skies.

Pre-dawn game drive on the Ntungwe circuit for a second chance at tree-climbing lions and leopard at first light. Return for breakfast, then check out and begin the return drive north via Mbarara and the Equator (approx. 7–8 hours to Kampala/Entebbe).

Lunch stop en route at Kayabwe or Mbarara. Airport drop-off in Entebbe for evening flights, or overnight in Kampala if preferred after a long transfer day.

The Ishasha–Mbarara road descends from highland forest to Ankole cattle country. Defassa waterbuck and bushbuck are often seen in roadside thickets on the final leg north.