Uganda and Rwanda Gorillas

You land at Entebbe and are met by your driver guide for the short transfer to a lakeside garden hotel.

The evening covers the route ahead, permit paperwork and a kit check for the forest, including boots, rain shell and gloves.

A long but scenic drive west past the Mpanga forest and the crater lakes of Fort Portal, with stops for lunch and roadside markets.

You arrive at Kibale in the late afternoon, with time for a guided walk in the community swamp where great blue turaco and black and white colobus are common.

You start at the Kanyanchu briefing at dawn and follow rangers into the forest, usually finding a community within two hours, with an hour allowed among them once located.

After lunch you drive south into Queen Elizabeth National Park and take the afternoon launch on the Kazinga Channel, where hippo, buffalo and elephant crowd the banks.

Note: Minimum age for chimpanzee tracking is 12 years.

An early game drive across the Ishasha plains looking for the tree climbing lions that rest in the fig branches, along with topi and elephant.

The road then climbs into the terraced hills of Kigezi and drops into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, arriving mid afternoon for your trek briefing.

Briefing at 7am, then a trek that can last from one to six hours depending on where the family fed overnight. Trackers radio your guide through the morning, and porters carry packs and steady you on the steep sections.

You spend a strictly timed hour with the family, close enough to hear them feed, before returning to the trailhead for your certificate and lunch.

In the afternoon you cross at Cyanika into Rwanda and continue to Kinigi below the Virunga volcanoes, or on to Kigali if you prefer a city night.

Note: Trek difficulty varies daily; tell us your fitness and we request an easier sector.

An optional early trek to the golden monkeys of Volcanoes National Park, a fast moving endemic troop in the bamboo zone, before breakfast and the drive to Kigali.

In the capital you visit the Genocide Memorial at Gisozi and have time in the craft market and coffee houses of Kimihurura.

Transfer to Kigali International Airport for your evening departure, or a handover if you are continuing to a Tanzania safari or Kilimanjaro trek.