9-Day Uganda Chimp And Gorilla Trekking Photography Safari

A Detailed 9-Day Uganda Chimp And Gorilla Trekking Photography Safari

Day 1 – Meeting up in Uganda

The Protea Hotel, where we will be staying during our stay in Entebbe, is where the group will gather. A VIP meet-and-greet service will be waiting for you at Entebbe International Airport. They will then transport you to the hotel, where you will meet your photo host and the other guests.
From Entebbe Airport, the Protea is a mere 10-minute drive away. For several reasons, including its proximity to the Mabamba Swamps—where we will be photographing African Shoebills the following day—and its relative ease of access, we have decided to stay in Entebbe instead of the neighbouring capital Kampala.

Everyone will get the chance to meet one another over supper at the hotel on the first night. Before your chimpanzee and gorilla trekking trip, your picture host will be on hand to answer any queries you may have.

Day 2: Photographing Shoebills in the Mabamba swamp

The group will go for the Mabamba swamps in the hopes of seeing the unique Shoebill Stork after breakfast. The marshes are home to over 260 different bird species in Uganda. Approximately 2500 hectares in size, the Mabamba Swamps are bordered by canals that we will traverse by boat and adorned with papyrus, gerns, water lilies, and other grasses. The shoebills are at their most active and hunting in the morning, so that’s when you should see them.

We will go on a 30-to 40-minute speedboat ride into the swamp from Banga Beach. Upon reaching a certain point, we will switch to smaller dug-out canoes so we can reach the shoebills’ habitat and hunting grounds in the narrower channels.

After a late lunch at The Protea Hotel, we’ll have some rest and then go out in search of additional Shoebills, just in case we weren’t lucky before. The light and photo opportunities will be different in the morning and afternoon, so it’s best to do both.

Your picture host will meet with you at the hotel in the morning or afternoon to go over your images and give you the rundown on what to expect on your trekking safari with the chimpanzees and gorillas in Uganda.

Day 3: Heading to Kibale for a Chimpanzee encounter

The next morning, we will leave the hotel and make our way to Entebbe Airport, where we will take a flight to Kasese, which is the closest airport to Kibale Forest National Park. Primate Lodge will serve as our home for the following three nights as we explore the forest’s periphery. We will then spend the next two days exploring the area in search of chimpanzees on foot.

We’ve made arrangements for everyone to have extra baggage allowance, which includes your camera gear. You’ll get 15 kg of regular luggage and an additional 10 kg for your camera gear. We will take a guided tour of the Crater Lake Reserve on the first afternoon if there is enough time.

Primate sightings, including Mangabeys, Blue Monkeys, Red Colobus, and Black-and-White Colobus, are also common in this region. Sitatunga and Bushbuck are two other potential encounters. The estimated duration of the trek is two to three hours.

At the lodge, we’ll have supper and a session to analyse images before calling it a night and getting ready for the activities that await us in the morning.

Day 4: Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale Forest National Park

We will be leaving for the jungle at first light in search of the chimpanzees, so a speedy breakfast is in order. Depending on where the apes “nested” the previous night, this preliminary search may take anywhere from an hour to two. Their awakening will likely be audible before their appearance. Finding the chimps during the day has a success probability of over 90%, but nothing is sure when it comes to interactions with wildlife.

Rather than a lengthier “habituation” trek—during which the chimps are wilder and more difficult to photograph—we have decided to split the meetings into two 1-hour sessions because the troop members are usually the friendliest and easiest to capture. As soon as the chimps are found, the clock starts, and you will have a whole hour to spend with these incredible creatures. Along with them, you’ll be able to keep up with their speed as they make their way to the food source. You can capture the most beautiful images of their interactions when they stop to rest, though. The number of people in the group could range from a few to more than twenty.

Because of our shared evolutionary history with chimpanzees, you’ll quickly learn to identify particular members of the group, and your guides will fill you in on the intricate family tree. As you stare carefully into their eyes, you might start to wonder who is “visiting” whom—chimpanzees are extremely inquisitive and gregarious creatures (you should expect a lot of fighting, mating, and grooming). I am absolutely thrilled by it!

Spend the afternoon at the resort going over your photos with your photo host before supper.

Day 5: Second Chimpanzee Encounter

We will spend the afternoon and evening reviewing our photos and selecting which chimpanzee encounters to pursue the following morning, after having spent the previous day preparing for our first encounter. We believe that undertaking two excursions on consecutive days is the best approach because, as previously mentioned, taking photographs in the jungle may be quite tough.

Rest assured, there will be an abundance of time at the lodge to review your photographs afterwards.

Day 6: Mountain Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi National Park

The shortest flight to Kihihi, the airport nearest to Bwindi, departs from Kasese, so we’ll be returning there this morning.

Proceeding to the meat of the matter, gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (though many visitors claim that tracking chimpanzees was just as exciting!).

However, the most pressing issue needs to be addressed first.

Why did we opt to visit Bwindi, Uganda, rather than Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, to view mountain gorillas?

To begin, it is important to recognise that the mountain range that surrounds the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda is also home to most of the mountain gorillas that are still alive today. Families of gorillas frequently ignore national boundaries and travel freely between them!

With the opening of multiple 5-star lodges and a threefold increase in the price of gorilla permits compared to just five years ago, Rwanda has recently shifted its marketing strategy to target affluent clients. The gorilla permits would amount to $3,000 because we enjoy going gorilla tracking twice on a safari. Trekking with gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo costs a lot less. We are presently not offering gorilla trekking expeditions to that region due to the extremely unpredictable nature of the situation.

We have decided to go to Uganda for gorilla trekking since it gives us the chance to view Shoebills and Chimpanzees, two of the region’s most iconic animals.

Day 7 and 8: Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

We will designate our gorilla family for the day and begin the gorilla trek in the morning by heading over to the park gate at either Buhoma or Ruhiji, which is a bit further away—it all depends on the gorilla permits we are handed.

When people ask us how long a typical gorilla trek is, we never give them a clear answer. Our fate is dictated by the family of gorillas that day and their whereabouts from the night before. The aforementioned factors also affect how challenging it is to track gorillas; yet, a group can only travel at the speed of its slowest member. Do not be hurried. Once we locate the mountain gorillas, our experience with them will begin, which will last one hour.

Not only is it a great way to support the local economy, but we usually recommend hiring a porter from the area to help with the photography gear.

In our in-depth chat, we gleamed a wealth of information about gorilla trekking safaris. For any questions you may have, we recommend reading that. Click on this link.

Seeing mountain gorillas for the first time in their natural habitat can be an unforgettable and life-changing event. You are completely immersed in the experience of being in a moving car. You and these mild-mannered behemoths will share a home with the mountain gorillas for a little while. Because this experience is so life-changing, we always split our gorilla tours into two trekking trips. This allows you to relax a bit and really immerse yourself in your surroundings on the second trek, after the initial rush of adrenaline has worn off.

Naturally, your photo host, will be at your side the whole way during the gorilla hike, offering suggestions for what to shoot and how to adjust the settings.

After your two days of gorilla trekking, you’ll head back to Buhoma Lodge to go over your photos and begin editing. Upon completion of the first gorilla walk, your photo host will offer insightful criticism and recommendations for the second day’s photo shoot.

Day 9: Heading back to Entebbe

We return to Entebbe via the airport for the brief flight on the final morning of our gorilla trekking trip. Still, there are plenty of other places to explore in Uganda, such as the northwestern Murchison Falls National Park, which is famous as a birdwatching hotspot. If you would want to include this in your itinerary, please inform your safari planner.

We can return to Entebbe International Airport in plenty of time for most connecting flights, but if you need to spend the night there, we can also take care of that and any other airport transfers you may need.

The annual wildebeest migration through Kenya’s Masai Mara also makes East Africa a very busy place at this time. Details about our own Migration Safari, which is meant to complement this set of dates, may be found here.

End of the 9-Day Uganda Chimp And Gorilla Trekking Photography Safari