Sample tailor-made journey, fully customizable
Ouganda
13 days / 11 nights
Murchison Falls National Park
After a night in Entebbe (depending on your international flight), you’ll meet your private French-speaking guide and set off for Murchison Falls National Park.
The road heads north, and Uganda unveils its first promises: hills lined with banana plantations, red laterite villages, smiling faces along the tracks. Gradually, savannah takes over.
Along the way, a stop at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is a must! This is where Uganda’s last rhinos are protected — a rare and valuable encounter.
Soon the Nile asserts itself, majestic and untamed, carving its powerful course through the heart of the country’s largest national park: Murchison Falls.
Here, the landscape stretches as far as the eye can see, dotted with doum palms and golden grasslands.
Two days will be devoted to wildlife viewing on the park’s northern bank.
Uganda’s largest park is known for its Rothschild’s giraffes, its elephants and its remarkable landscapes.
You’ll explore the delta circuits in search of lions and leopard.
You’ll also stand a good chance of spotting patas monkeys.
In the afternoon, it’s time to head to the Nile, travelling upstream against its turbulent current aboard a boat.
This is where the falls explode through a narrow gorge, becoming the calm river where you can admire numerous hippos and crocodiles basking on sandbanks and riverbanks.
A raw, wild, untamed spectacle — the perfect image of a still-fierce and magnificent Uganda.
Parc national de Murchison, Ouganda © Shutterstock
Kibale Forest / Chimpanzee Habituation Day
Departure for Kibale.
The road stretches south, skirting the jagged ridges of the western Rift, then descends towards the quiet shores of Lake Albert. Villages follow one after another, colourful markets come alive as you pass, and gradually the landscape closes in, thickens, announcing the great forests of Kibale.
Here, at the heart of one of Africa’s finest tropical forests, you’ll settle in for two nights at a lodge nestled at the park’s edge.
At first light, the adventure begins. This is no ordinary trek, but a rare immersion — a full day devoted to observing chimpanzees in their natural habitat.
Alongside researchers and rangers from the Uganda Wildlife Authority, you’ll follow trails still beaded with dew up to the trees where the chimpanzees are slowly waking.
The first calls ring out, branches shake, and the group stirs, ready to begin its day.
Following the chimpanzees means accepting their pace, their wanderings, their noisy play or sudden silences.
You’ll watch them feed, call to one another, sometimes quarrel.
Until evening, until each one returns to its nest of branches for the night, you’ll be privileged witnesses to this wild, preserved but fragile life.
A carefully supervised experience, designed not to tame but to approach, with respect, the last remaining territories of the great apes.
Chimpanzés à Kibale, Ouganda © Christophe Courteau
Queen Elizabeth National Park
The road winds between Uganda’s hills and lakes, slipping west towards the open plains of the park’s northern sector: Mweya.
In the north of the park, Mweya juts out like a peninsula, encircled by the calm waters of the Kazinga Channel. It’s there, in the late afternoon, that you’ll board a boat.
The light fades slowly, gilding the shores where buffalo and elephants come to drink. The lapping water barely covers the hoarse calls of hippos or the heavy wingbeats of cormorants.
Crocodiles lazing on the banks, monitor lizards on the prowl, elephant families splashing about — and on the calm waters, silent boats gliding by, captivated.
The best time of day for wildlife viewing on safari is early morning!
You may watch the spectacular clashes between kob rams defending their territory. You might also spot lions, drawn by the high concentration of potential prey.
In the afternoon comes the call of the south. The track heads off towards Ishasha, the park’s southernmost territory, known for its lions with their singular habits.
Queen Elizabeth National Park / Ishasha Sector
Further south in Queen Elizabeth National Park, the track leads further away. Three hours’ drive from Mweya, through an Africa that reveals itself without pretence.
Along the way, a first safari presents itself, fleeting but promising.
Antelope lounging beneath fig trees, elephants hanging back in the tall grass.
The savannah hints at its secrets.
Then comes Ishasha.
A remote corner with a taste of adventure.
A territory forgotten by the crowds, wild, pure, vibrant.
Here, the lions climb trees.
They rest there at midday, paws dangling, gazes distant, regal and languid at once. A unique scene, forever etched in the memory of those fortunate enough to cross their path.
Ishasha is one of East Africa’s most unspoiled gems.
On your return, camp awaits. The light fades slowly over the Ishasha River. The sounds of the bush intensify: ibis calls, rustling grass, distant growls.
The campfire crackles.
Stars light up one by one overhead.
Uganda is yours. For one night.
Parc Queen Elizabeth, Ouganda
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park
A last glimpse of the savannah.
A final crossing of Queen Elizabeth National Park, still carrying the scent of dry grass and sun-warmed earth. One last 4×4 safari before changing worlds.
The road winds towards Bwindi, where light filters through cathedral-like canopies, where the hills are draped in ancient, deep, impenetrable forest.
Bwindi’s tropical forest is a unique and diverse ecosystem. A primary forest, thousands of years old, home to a thousand forms of life, sensed more often than seen.
UNESCO recognized this well: this forest is a universal treasure, a living sanctuary, refuge to a rare and precious biodiversity.
And then comes the big day.
The day of the trek. The day of the gorillas.
There are no certainties here. Only the unexpected, the unpredictable.
You make your way on foot into the dense vegetation.
You slip, you climb, you move slowly forward, through mud, over roots, sometimes in the rain, always under the forest’s unseen gaze.
Breath short, legs heavy, heart alert.
Sometimes it takes two hours, sometimes eight. But at the end of the path, silence falls.
A rustle, a silver back emerging from the foliage.
Dark eyes watching you, unafraid.
Time stands still.
Emotion overwhelms.
Face to face with the forest’s last giants.
Gorilles des montagnes à Bwindi, Ouganda © Corinne Le G.
Entebbe / Mabamba Swamp
To avoid the long drive back, a short flight carries you gently to Entebbe, where you’ll spend two nights.
The next day, head to Mabamba Swamp, a secret place where the adventure begins: the search for the Shoebill in the Mabamba wetlands.
Located west of Entebbe, Mabamba Swamp is one of the best places to see the Shoebill. After a few minutes in a small canoe, the papyrus reeds part to reveal flat, grassy wetlands where a number of Shoebills can regularly be spotted.
The boat becomes the final witness to this living, raw and fleeting tableau.
This journey, suspended between earth and sky, leaves you with a soul touched by the wild beauty of Uganda.
Recherche du Bec en Sabot, Ouganda © Christophe Courteau