Day 10 – Transfer from Ishasha to Kibale Forest

The drive from Ishasha to Kibale Forest takes approximately three to four hours north through the Queen Elizabeth National Park and then into the Fort Portal area on the edge of the Kibale forest. The road passes through the dramatic crater lakes landscape of western Uganda, a series of ancient volcanic craters now filled with dark water and surrounded by community land, tea estates, and the remnant forest patches that characterise the transition zone between the park’s open savannah and Kibale’s dense equatorial forest.

Arrive at your Kibale accommodation for lunch and the afternoon. The afternoon is free for rest after the Ishasha game drives and the Bwindi trekking that have preceded it. The forest around your accommodation begins to be audible in the late afternoon, the chimpanzee calls carrying through the canopy from the habituated communities nearby, providing the best possible preview of what the next four days will bring.

Day 11 – First Chimpanzee Trek in Kibale Forest

The chimpanzee trekking morning begins with an early briefing at the Uganda Wildlife Authority office before first light. Your ranger explains the tracking protocols and the behavioural rules that the habituation programme requires of all visitors. The trek begins at the forest edge and moves into the interior following the advance team’s radio contact with the habituated community.

Chimpanzee tracking is more physically demanding than gorilla trekking because the chimpanzees move through the canopy and across the forest floor at a pace that the trackers must follow, sometimes for extended distances and sometimes in conditions of difficult terrain and dense undergrowth. When the community is found, the experience is intense and extraordinarily alive. The alpha male’s territorial calling echoes through the canopy. The individuals move through the branches above you with a speed and agility that makes the gorilla’s measured ground movements seem contemplative by comparison. Infants cling to their mothers’ backs. Adolescents chase each other through the undergrowth. The community does not stop for the visitors: it continues its morning as it would without you present, which is the point of the habituation programme and the source of the experience’s authenticity.

Return from the trek by midday. The afternoon is spent exploring the forest trails around your accommodation with your guide, covering the primate species beyond the chimpanzees that make Kibale one of the most primate-rich forests in Africa: red colobus, black-and-white colobus, L’Hoest’s monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, and the olive baboons that move through the forest margins.

Day 12 – Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary Walk

The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary is a community-managed conservation area on the eastern boundary of Kibale Forest, covering a papyrus swamp and wetland corridor that holds exceptional wildlife in a different habitat from the forest interior. The guided walk through Bigodi is one of Uganda’s most rewarding ecotourism experiences and one of the highlights of the uganda honeymoon safari itinerary package.

The sanctuary’s birdlife is extraordinary. The great blue turaco, one of Africa’s most spectacular birds, is reliably found in the canopy above the wetland margins. The African grey parrot, the papyrus gonolek, the black-and-white casqued hornbill, and multiple kingfisher species all use the sanctuary’s wetland and forest edge habitats. Chimpanzees from the Kibale forest frequently move through the sanctuary in the morning, and the walk regularly encounters these animals in the wetland habitat rather than the forest interior, a different perspective on the same community you tracked the previous day.

The sanctuary is managed by the Kibale Association for Rural and Environmental Development, a community organisation that has turned conservation into a sustainable livelihood for the surrounding villages. The walk includes an explanation of the community conservation model from your guide and a visit to the community centre that the sanctuary supports. It is the human dimension of the Kibale forest experience and it adds a depth to the wildlife encounters that the purely wildlife-focused game drive cannot provide.

Day 13 – Second Chimpanzee Trek and Romantic Forest Farewell

The second chimpanzee trekking morning uses the second permit to visit the habituated community again, this time with the familiarity and the specific attention that a second encounter allows. The first trek produces wonder. The second trek produces observation: the ability to focus on specific individuals, to follow the social dynamics of the group with a more educated eye, and to appreciate the particular quality of the forest and the chimpanzees’ movement through it that the first morning’s general amazement cannot fully absorb.

The afternoon is the last full afternoon in the Ugandan forest, and Africa Bed of Roses Safaris arranges the romantic farewell for your final Kibale evening. A private candlelit dinner in the lodge with the forest around you and the sounds of the chimpanzee community in the canopy above, the last evening of the most extraordinary honeymoon in Uganda itinerary that this country offers. The forest has mountain gorillas, tree-climbing lions, chimpanzees in their territory, the Kazinga Channel at dusk, and the Bigodi wetland in the morning. Tomorrow the journey back to Entebbe begins.

Accommodation Options

Primate Lodge Kibale (Mid-Range Lodge, inside Kibale National Park, on the forest edge)

Kibale Forest Camp (Mid-Range Tented Camp, Kibale National Park)

Turaco Treetops (Mid-Range Lodge, Kibale area, in the forest canopy)

Nights: 4 nights at your chosen Kibale Forest accommodation

Meals: Full board throughout. Two chimpanzee trekking permits, Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary guided walk, and private romantic farewell dinner included. Drinking water provided.