GORILLA, CHIMPS & SAVANNAH CONSERVATION SAFARI – Uganda

GORILLA, CHIMPS & SAVANNAH CONSERVATION SAFARI – Uganda Only

Walk With Giants · Protect Their Future · Honor Their Cultures

There is no equivalent wildlife encounter on earth. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park  a UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to roughly half the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, protected by a network of rangers, researchers, and buffer-zone communities whose livelihoods depend on their survival.

This 9-day journey is built on two pillars: cultural immersion and conservation action. You will live alongside Batwa forest people, share meals with Bakiga farming families, learn traditional salt harvesting from local communities, and walk with anti-poaching rangers on active patrol. You will track gorillas and chimpanzees not as a spectator, but as a participant in their protection. And throughout, the birds of Uganda  from the Grey Crowned Crane to the Great Blue Turaco  will accompany you as living indicators of forest and wetland health.

You don’t just observe conservation. You become part of it. Every day includes a Conservation Circle with a ranger, researcher, elder, or community member who shares the real story of protecting these ecosystems from the inside.

Package Highlights

Included

Excluded

Signature Safari Experiences

Why Choose This Uganda Safari?

Tour Dates & Pricing

IMPORTANT NOTE: Gorilla permits sell out months in advance. Book early to guarantee your place.

Itinerary

Get day to day insight of the tour.

DAY 1 · KAMPALA — ARRIVAL

Welcome · Orientation · Introduction to Uganda’s Primate Conservation

Arrive in Kampala and meet your Vegan Trails team. Gather at 4:00 pm for orientation — meeting fellow travellers and your lead guide, a former Uganda Wildlife Authority ranger with 15 years of primate conservation experience.

The evening opens with a vegan Ugandan feast: matoke, groundnut stew, rolex (a Ugandan street-food classic, veganised), fresh passion fruit juice — and the first Conservation Circle, where your guide shares what it means to protect a gorilla family.

Highlights of the Day:

• Arrival in Kampala and orientation meeting
• First Conservation Circle — your guide’s personal story of 15 years protecting mountain gorillas
• First vegan Ugandan feast — matoke, groundnut stew, rolex

Vegan Meals Included: Snacks, Dinner & Drinks

DAY 2 · KAMPALA TO KIBALE

Travel Day · Women’s Cooperative · Night Walk

Depart Kampala heading southwest to Kibale National Park home to the world’s highest density of primates. En route, stop at a roadside women’s cooperative for lunch  a chance to taste and purchase locally made snacks, jams, and crafts, with proceeds directly supporting rural women.

Arrive at Kibale in the late afternoon. Your chimp researcher gives the pre-habituation briefing  what to expect, how to behave, and why the habituation process matters.

As darkness falls, join a guided night walk along the forest edge. With red-filtered torches, you will search for bush babies (galagos), pottos, and listen for tree hyrax a glimpse into the forest’s nocturnal world that most visitors never see.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Kampala to Kibale drive through tea estates
•  Women’s cooperative lunch stop — direct community support
•  Pre-habituation briefing with a Kibale chimp researcher
•  Night walk — bush babies, pottos, tree hyrax
•  Conservation Circle: researcher on the habituation process

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 3 · KIBALE NATIONAL PARK

Chimpanzee Habituation · Full Day in the Forest

The chimpanzee habituation experience is unlike a standard chimp trek. You spend 4–6 hours with one chimpanzee community — following them as they feed, groom, travel, and interact. Your guide narrates continuously — individual names, family dynamics, territorial calls. This is fieldwork, not tourism.

Along the way, you will also encounter Kibale’s rich birdlife — including the stunning Great Blue Turaco — but the focus remains on the chimps and the forest ecosystem they depend on.

Return to the lodge for lunch and rest before the Conservation Circle: a Kibale ranger speaks on chimpanzee population trends.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Full-day chimpanzee habituation — 4–6 hours with one community
•  Individual chimp identification — names, family roles, behaviour notes
•  Citizen science: record behaviour observations contributed to UWA research
•  Conservation Circle: Kibale ranger on chimp population trends

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 4 · KIBALE TO QUEEN ELIZABETH

Buffer Zone Farm · Salt Mining Community · Savannah Arrival

After breakfast, visit a community farm in Kibale’s buffer zone — the agricultural land between the park boundary and human settlement. This is where human-wildlife conflict is most acute. Your guide facilitates a frank dialogue with farming families about crop raiding, coexistence strategies, and what tourism revenue means for their children’s education.

Then drive south. En route, visit Lake Katwe — one of Uganda’s oldest salt mining sites. For centuries, the Katwe community has harvested salt using traditional methods passed down through generations. You will meet salt miners, walk the pans, and learn how this unique livelihood has sustained families for over 500 years.

Arrive at your lodge overlooking Queen Elizabeth National Park for your first savannah sunset.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Kibale buffer-zone farm visit — human-wildlife coexistence dialogue
•  Lake Katwe salt mining community — traditional harvesting demonstration
•  Drive to Queen Elizabeth NP — savannah, craters, lakes
•  First savannah sunset at your lodge
•  Conservation Circle: buffer-zone community leader on what tourism funds locally

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 5 · QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK

Game Drive · Kazinga Channel · Tree-Climbing Lions

A full day in Queen Elizabeth — Uganda’s most visited park, and one of Africa’s most ecologically layered.

Morning: Game drive on the Kasenyi plains — elephants, buffalo, Uganda kob, and if luck holds, a leopard. The park’s birdlife includes the Grey Crowned Crane (Uganda’s national bird) and the African Fish Eagle.

Afternoon: The Kazinga Channel boat safari — a 2-hour cruise on the natural channel connecting Lake George and Lake Edward, home to the highest concentration of hippos in Uganda and hundreds of bird species including pelicans, storks, and kingfishers.

Late afternoon: Drive to Ishasha sector — the only place in Uganda where lions habitually climb fig trees. These tree-climbing lions are an iconic Uganda wildlife moment.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Morning game drive — elephants, buffalo, possible leopard
•  Kazinga Channel boat safari — hippos, crocodiles, abundant birds
•  Ishasha sector: tree-climbing lions of the fig forest
•  Conservation Circle: QENP researcher on elephant corridor protection

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 6 · QUEEN ELIZABETH — ANTI-POACHING RANGER SHADOW

Patrol · Field Station · Ranger Dialogue

This is the day that changes how you see every safari you’ve ever been on.

Join an active anti-poaching ranger team for a 2-hour patrol on foot inside the park boundary — covering the same ground they cover every day to protect the animals you’ve been watching.

At the field station, rangers show you snares collected, maps of incursion routes, and case studies of prosecutions.

No other operator in Uganda offers this access.

Evening: the Conservation Circle is led by a ranger who has spent 20 years on patrol. This is the most powerful evening of the entire trip.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Anti-poaching ranger patrol — 2 hours on foot, the real work of park protection
•  Field station visit — snares collected, incursion maps, prosecutions
•  Citizen science: record snare removal and patrol route data
•  Conservation Circle: 20-year ranger veteran shares his story

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 7 · QUEEN ELIZABETH TO BWINDI

Travel · Bwindi Arrival · Gorilla Briefing · Batwa Cultural Experience

Drive to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park — home to roughly half the world’s remaining mountain gorillas. The drive takes you through the Kigezi Highlands, where every hillside is terraced and farmed by hand.

Arrive at your forest eco-lodge on the edge of Bwindi.

Late afternoon: Your lead guide gives a detailed briefing on the gorilla families, the permit system, and what tomorrow’s trek will require.

Then, the heart of today: the Batwa cultural experience. The Batwa lived in Bwindi Forest for thousands of years before it became a national park. Today, they share their heritage through:

•  Traditional hunting and gathering demonstrations
•  Fire-making using forest materials
•  Medicinal plant knowledge
•  Music, dance, and storytelling

This experience directly supports Batwa community initiatives and cultural preservation.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Drive from QENP to Bwindi through the Kigezi Highlands
•  Pre-trek gorilla briefing — family assignment, trekking protocols
•  Batwa cultural experience — forest people heritage, music, storytelling
•  Conservation Circle: guide on the history of gorilla protection in Bwindi

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 8 · BWINDI — GORILLA TREKKING

The Encounter · Conservation Debrief

This is it. The day that brought you here.

Rise at 5:30 am for briefing at park headquarters. Your group is assigned a gorilla family and a ranger team.

The trek begins — through bamboo forest, along ridgelines, into dense vegetation. It can take 30 minutes or 4 hours. Along the way, you will move through a living forest, home to birds and wildlife that thrive only because these gorillas are protected.

And then, through the undergrowth, the family appears. A silverback watching you with the same curiosity you feel. A mother nursing her infant. Juveniles playing in the canopy.

One hour. A thousand words will never describe it.

Post-trek: a debrief with your ranger, who explains this family’s history and current threats. Citizen science: record each individual you identified.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Gorilla trekking — 5:30 am start, up to 4 hours of forest walking
•  Mountain gorilla encounter — one hour with a habituated family
•  One of only 8 people on earth to see this family today
•  Post-trek debrief with your ranger — family history, threats, protection strategies
•  Citizen science: individual gorilla ID and behaviour recording

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

DAY 9 · BWINDI TO LAKE BUNYONYI — DEPARTURE

Lake of Little Birds · Dugout Canoeing · Cultural Exchange · Return

After breakfast, drive to Lake Bunyonyi — “place of many little birds.” This is one of Africa’s most beautiful lakes, dotted with 29 islands and surrounded by terraced hills.

Morning activities:

•  Dugout canoeing — paddle a traditional hand-carved canoe with a local fisherman as your guide
•  Island hopping — visit Punishment Island (historical site) and Bwama Island
•  Bakiga community visit — meet local farming families, learn traditional agriculture, enjoy a dance performance

Birding is present but gentle — the lake’s name tells you everything. As you paddle, the Grey Crowned Crane, Malachite Kingfisher, and Great Blue Turaco are never far away, but the focus is on the water, the islands, and the people who call this lake home.

Optional activities (time permitting): zip-lining over the lake, swimming in crocodile-free freshwater.

Lunch: Vegan meal at a lodge overlooking the lake.

After lunch, drive to Entebbe International Airport (approx. 7-8 hours). Your guide facilitates a final group debrief.  Closing Conservation Circle (on the road): Each traveler shares one commitment they will make at home for conservation — inspired by the gorillas, the chimps, the rangers, the Batwa, the salt miners, and the communities who welcomed you.

Thank you for walking with the giants — and for protecting their future.

Highlights of the Day:

•  Lake Bunyonyi — “place of many little birds” (291 species, woven gently into the day)
•  Dugout canoeing — traditional paddling experience
•  Island hopping — history, culture, viewpoints
•  Bakiga community visit — cultural exchange with farming families
•  Optional: zip-lining, swimming
•  Closing Conservation Circle — each traveller’s conservation commitment
•  Airport transfer to Entebbe International Airport

Vegan Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

Quick Daily Summary

“No photograph prepares you for a silverback’s gaze. And no safari prepares you for walking with rangers who risk everything to protect them. This is the real Uganda.”