4 Days chimpanzee trekking and habituation safari
4 Days Chimpanzee Trekking & Habituation Safari: Itinerary, Experience and Costs.
Our 4 days chimpanzee trekking and habituation safari is an interesting primate safari that will take you to Kibale Forest National Park in western Uganda, which is famously known for harbouring the highest number of chimpanzees and other primates like red colobus monkeys, grey-checked mangabeys, red-tailed monkeys, vervet monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, bush babies, and others. During this Uganda safari in Kibale Forest National Park, you will get an opportunity to spend time with both the habituated and semi-habituated chimpanzees in their natural habitat.
Highlights of the 4 days Chimpanzee trekking and habituation safari
Day 1: Pick up and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park.
Day 2: chimpanzee habituation experience
Day 3: Chimpanzee trekking and Bigodi swamp walk
Day 4: Departure to Kampala/Entebbe
Detailed itinerary
Day 1: Pick up and transfer to Kibale Forest National Park.
Depending on your location, our driver-guide will pick you up from Entebbe airport or your hotel, brief you about the trip and then start the safari to Kibale Forest National Park. You will have lunch en route on the way and enjoy beautiful views of the scenery, tea plantations, and crater lakes, among others. Upon arrival, you will check into the lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 2: Chimpanzee habituation experience
After an early breakfast, your driver guide will pick you up from the lodge with your lunch box to transfer to the park headquarters for a briefing about the rules and regulations for chimpanzee habituation. After the briefing, you will start trekking in the forest with researchers, chimpanzee doctors, park rangers and park guides, which takes a whole day. During the trek, you will be able to spot different bird species in trees and other primates like blue monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, and olive baboons, among others.
Once the chimpanzees are located, you will be allowed to spend four hours with them, learn and ask questions about the habituation process, and watch chimpanzees feed, groom their young ones, breastfeed, play, rest, and take photos and videos. Later return to the park headquarters, where you will be awarded a certificate for participating in chimpanzee habituation, and then return to the lodge for relaxation, dinner and overnight.
Day 3: Chimpanzee trekking and Bigodi swamp walk
You will have breakfast at the lodge and meet up with your driver guide to go for a chimpanzee trekking briefing at Kanyachu Visitors Centre, where, after, you will be allocated a habituated chimpanzee family, an experienced park guide and park rangers and start trekking in the forest. Chimpanzee trekking in Kibale Forest National Park takes about 2 to 5 hours, depending on where the chimpanzees are located, because they like to move from one place to another in search of food. Once the chimpanzees are found, you will be able to spend one hour with them, watch them carry out their daily activities and take pictures and videos with a flashless camera.
After the one-hour encounter, return to the lodge for lunch, after which you will go for a guided nature walk in the Bigodi wetland, where you will look out for different primates like the grey-checked mangabey, black and white colobus monkeys, L’hoest monkeys, vervet monkeys, and blue monkeys and spot bird species like hornbills, turacos, kingfishers, and parrots, and mammals like otters, bushbucks, and sitatungas, among others. After the swamp walk, you will drive back to the lodge for dinner and overnight.
Day 4: Departure to Kampala/Entebbe
Enjoy a relaxed breakfast, check out of the lodge, and meet up with your driver-guide to start the journey back to Kampala with an en route lunch on the way. Upon arrival, your driver guide will drop you off at Entebbe airport or drop you off at any place of convenience. End of 4 days of chimpanzee trekking and habituation safaris.
The tour includes
- Chimpanzee trekking permit
- Chimpanzee habituation permit
- Bigodi swamp walk
- Full board accommodation
- Meals at the lodge and en-route (breakfast, lunch and dinner)
- Full-time English-speaking driver guide
- 4WD safari Vehicle and fuel
- Pick up and drop off in Kampala/Entebbe
- Bottled drinking water during the safari
The tour excludes
- Airflight tickets (International and domestic)
- Visas
- Travel insurance
- Personal expenses like buying alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks, souvenirs, crafts, telephone calls, laundry services, and hiring a porter, among others.
- Tipping and gratuities.
