Uganda Luxury Safari

An early start for the scenic drive southwest through Uganda's lush highlands — tea estates, banana plantations and the equator crossing. The landscape changes with every hour.

Arrive at your luxury forest-edge lodge in the late afternoon. Sundowners on the veranda as the ancient Bwindi canopy settles into dusk. Tomorrow, you enter the forest.

The moment you have been waiting for. After the ranger briefing at UWA headquarters you enter the forest on foot. Your trackers know where the gorillas are — the trek can last one to six hours.

When you find them, you have one full hour in their presence. A silverback at arm's length. Infants playing in the undergrowth. It is the most intimate wildlife encounter on earth. First permit ($800) is fully included.

What makes this luxury itinerary exceptional: you trek a second, completely different gorilla family in the higher-altitude Ruhija sector. Different terrain, different family dynamics, a different forest entirely.

Two gorilla encounters across two consecutive days is a privilege available to very few visitors and is the defining experience of this 12-day journey. Second permit ($800) is fully included.

Drive north to Ishasha, one of Africa's most exclusive wildlife secrets. The fig trees here are the preferred afternoon resting place for lions — a behaviour found in only two places on earth.

Your guide knows every tree they favour. Afternoon game drive across remote savanna — buffalo herds, Uganda kob and the occasional leopard accompany the quest for the tree-climbers.

Morning game drive across the Kasenyi plains — one of Uganda's richest wildlife corridors with dense Uganda kob, lion prides and frequent elephant herds moving between the lakes.

Afternoon launch cruise on the Kazinga Channel. Both banks are lined with hundreds of hippos at close range, Nile crocodiles, buffalo and an astonishing variety of waterbirds.

A full day to explore Queen Elizabeth at leisure. Dawn game drive at first light when the lions are still active on the Kasenyi plains, then a midday break at the lodge.

Optional afternoon walk into the dramatic Kyambura Gorge — a forest-filled rift valley inhabited by habituated chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and an extraordinary variety of birds.

Drive north through the Fort Portal crater lake region — a volcanic landscape of jewel-coloured lakes set in emerald hills. Stop at the tea estates of Rwenzori and the overlook above Lake Nkuruba.

Arrive at Kyaninga Lodge on the rim of an extinct volcanic crater — arguably Uganda's most beautifully situated lodge. Afternoon at leisure before a three-course dinner.

Kibale Forest is home to the world's highest density of habituated chimpanzees. Your tracker knows this troop intimately — you will get close enough to hear them communicate and feel the electricity of a troop in motion.

Afternoon option: the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary — an extraordinary community-led conservation project with over 200 bird species and eight primate species. The chimp permit is fully included.

Drive north to Murchison Falls National Park — Uganda's largest park, where the Albert Nile squeezes through a seven-metre gap before plunging forty metres into the Albertine Rift. Arrive in time for the afternoon boat cruise.

The Nile launch takes you to the very base of the falls. Banks alive with hippos, Nile crocodiles, elephant and buffalo. One of Uganda's most spectacular experiences.

Murchison's north bank is Uganda's finest game drive territory — vast open plains where lion, elephant, Rothschild's giraffe and Cape buffalo move freely against the backdrop of the Nile. Dawn is the best time.

For the ultimate Murchison experience, an optional hot air balloon safari launches at sunrise — champagne breakfast in the bush afterwards. The afternoon is yours — pool, spa or a guided nature walk along the river.

A final early game drive if your departure allows — last lions, last elephants, the Nile glittering in morning gold. Then south to Entebbe, through the highland countryside that bookends this extraordinary journey.

Your guide accompanies you to the airport for farewell. Twelve days. Five national parks. Two gorilla treks. A Uganda that most travellers never see. Webale nyo — thank you, Uganda.