Off-the-beaten-track walking safari in southwestern Uganda

Our driver will pick you up from Entebbe International Airport (15 minutes) and check you in at your hotel within Entebbe. You'll meet with your trip specialist for a briefing just before dinner.

Otherwise, there are optional activities around Entebbe for those who arrive early and want to stay active. For example, bird-watchers can visit the world-renowned botanical gardens or Mabamba swamps to meet the prehistoric shoebill. You can take a quiet walk to the local markets or shop at the modern malls.

You'll stay at: Boutique Hotel Number 5 (Luxury) or Papyrus Guesthouse (Comfortable)

You'll be up early and catch a one-hour domestic flight from Entebbe to Kisoro Airport at 7:30 am. Kisoro Airport is just outside Bwindi Impenetrable National Park's south side. A driver will pick you up and transfer you to where the village walking experience starts.

The trail will take about 45 minutes between Kisoro Town and follows village footpaths through remarkable scenery with incredible views of cultivated mountain slopes, rainforests, and human settlements.

Along your hike through village paths, you meet fascinating people and learn powerful knowledge of local people's daily lives. Many children and local people will greet us as they tend their fields and livestock and collect water from local springs.

The path will take you to the edge of Lake Mutanda's calm waters, where you'll meet the fishermen and boat traditional dug-out canoes. You continue in a northerly direction in dug-out canoes with tales from your guide and the chants from fishermen. The 2.5-hour canoeing journey is not just a ride, but the healing calmness of the enchanting landscape, water, rowers, and sound is unmissable. The local lives around the lake will cross your boat trail with fishers checking their nets, people taking produce to market by canoe, and others cutting reeds for creativity and construction.

You'll disembark at Mutanda Lake Resort docs, where you'll check in, have lunch and freshen up for a dreamy evening. At the beach cottages, you can view a cross-section of the Virunga mountains with their dark blue sunset reflection off the lake.

This relaxed Dutch-owned resort has luxury chalets raise off a wooden platform with lovely porches and polished wooden floorboards plonking directly on the lake in a superb location.

Staying at: Mutanda Lake Resort

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

There is 19 kilometers of walking trail between Mutanda Lake Resort and Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge, your next destination.

You will walk the trail within 2-3 hours if you are thirsting for more rural landscape trekking. Twirling across terraced garden slopes, homes, dusty roads, and up and down hills, the trail leaves no mountainous landscape views to imagination. It is perfect for the adventurer in you.

If you're not up to another walk, your driver will pick you up in the later breakfast hours and drive up the mountains to Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge. He can also cut the trail shorter for some who prefer a less strenuous walk.

In the evening, a few hours before sundown, you will join the Batwa elders on a 2-mile forest trail as they showcase their ancient forest cultures, medicines, and entertainment. They used to live in the rainforest with the gorillas, and now all they can do is show you how they used to live as a way of keeping their cultures alive. It's quite entertaining.

Staying at: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

There are a couple of activities to hype you up for gorilla trekking the following morning.

Many travelers stay back at their cottage and hang out with others while marveling at the glamorous views across the mountainous rift valley region at a 7,000-ft (2400 meters) elevation. Drink some Cognac, Whisky, or South African wines at the bar, meet the chef for insider local recipes or make friends with locals for unguided indigenous storytelling.

Visit the local shaman, or traditional healer, who will take you through his nature lab and show you how humanity lived for more than 70,000 years without modern medicine.

Take the Suma waterfall village trail if you still have that off-the-beaten-track walking energy with you. It is about 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) through valley villages, ranches, and gardens on steep slopes. The 7-meter falls are located on the edge of Suma village and feed a river that snakes through the village into the rainforest jungle. You will be dazzled by the aerial view of the community from the entrance on a ridge.

There are other activities to keep you on your toes.

• Go to the ‘Top of the World’ – Experience a 360° view of the entire
• rural landscape on a sundowner picnic.
• Visit a local school or clinic
• Observe the making of local beer and gin
• Visit a homestead to sample some local foods
• See the local blacksmith at work
• Visit the women’s craft center
• Enjoy dances performed by the youth group

Staying at: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

It will be an early start of another active day; you must be up by 7:00 am, have breakfast, get your lunch-pack, and check your gear. Your private driver will have you at the briefing point before 7:30 am. gorilla trekking starts at about 8:00 am, irrespective of the weather and group size.

You may take almost the better part of the day in the jungle, but definitely more time tracking the mountain gorillas than watching them. You have about one hour to watch the dark-fared giant beasts staying 10 meters away from them. But sometimes they come closer, and you must follow the rules of the jungle.

The time you spend with the great apes will greatly compensate for all the jungle hiking that challenges your health and fitness. I recommend you work out for a few days before you come.

You'll be out of there relatively by 2:00 pm; you'll have lunch somewhere in the jungle and get back to your cottage for the evening. Take advantage of the after-dinner talk in the lounge.

Staying at: Nkuringo Bwindi Gorilla Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

You'll get on the trail at about 8:30 am after a short briefing with your walking safari guide at the lodge. You must hit the trails in the misty early morning hours so that the intense afternoon sunrays find you under the jungle canopy. You'll travel with a local guide and two gun-bearing rangers for security. Go light; just your backpack with lunch, a camera, and walking. It takes about 4-5 hours to walk the trail.

Two trails meet somewhere in the jungle and meander down to Buhoma town; you'll have to select one. The longer one takes about six plus meanders along the Kashasha river and over several ridges. The shorter one starts at Kashasha River, down Nteko valley, and meanders along Ivy River. You must drive about 15 kilometers to Nteko village to start the Ivy River Trail. However, both trails deliver the same jolt of adventure for intrepid travelers.

The richness of this UNESCO Worl Heritage site and the benefits of walking in an untamed rainforest to your health is just enough to lure you to this Uganda gorillas & wildlife safari package. The local walking guide will be your connection to this impenetrable jungle, with occasional sightings of prominent inhabitants like chimpanzees, forest elephants, birds, monkeys, and butterflies.

On the other side, you'll check in a forest cottage in Mahogany Springs Lodge, in the spring valley overlooking the Bwindi, now a penetrable forest.

Staying at: Mahogany Springs Lodge

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (packed), and Dinner.

You'll spend the day at Mahogany Springs Lodge with a few joyful activities, village walks, and a visit to the Ride4AWoman creative studio for local women.

Mahogany Springs lodge enjoys relaxing views across the forest canopy for a quiet stay at the cottage balcony.

Mahogany Springs Lodge promises its guests privacy and serenity blended with optimal comfort in a spectacular natural setting overlooking Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. It spreads on the banks of the Muyanja river, which flows through the jungle.

The exotic gardens and intricately designed stone pathways leading to the river invite you to explore every corner of this magical place, uncovering the various surprises along garden trails, such as the homegrown vegetable garden.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will catch an 8:00 am domestic flight from Kihihi Airport (an hour's drive from Buhoma) to Entebbe International Airport on the shores of Lake Victoria. The flight takes about an hour, flying over Uganda's most beautiful landscapes and Lake Victoria.

Optional Accommodation Papyrus Guesthouse
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch (Packed), Dinner