16-Day East Africa Grand Tour

Day by day

1. 01

   Arrive at Entebbe

   Met in arrivals and ten minutes to the lake shore. Nothing is scheduled on a landing day, deliberately, because the next fifteen are full. Over dinner your guide runs through the whole route, the two permit dates the rest of the trip is built around, and what to keep in a day pack across ten flights.

   • Entebbe, Uganda
   • The Boma Entebbe
   • Dinner
2. 02

   Fly to Kihihi and down into Buhoma

   The mid-morning aircraft to Kihihi takes about ninety minutes over Lake Victoria and the western rift. From the strip it is a 45 minute drive down into Buhoma through tea and banana country with the forest wall ahead of you. The afternoon is the gorilla briefing at the sector headquarters, a gear check and an early night, because tomorrow is the hardest day of the trip.

   • Entebbe to Kihihi and Buhoma, Uganda
   • Bwindi Lodge
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
3. 03

   Gorilla trek in the Buhoma sector

   Briefing at 07:30, walking by 08:00, with a ranger, two trackers and an armed escort. Trackers have been out since first light and radio the family position back, so the route is directed, but it can still run to eight hours in each direction on a wet slope at altitude. One hour with the family. Take the porter regardless of how fit you are: they carry the bag, they pull you up the steep sections, and the fee goes to people living on the park boundary.

   • Buhoma sector, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
   • Bwindi Lodge
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
4. 04

   North through Ishasha to the Kazinga Channel

   Two hours north on rough road to Ishasha, then a circuit of the fig loops looking along the horizontal branches for the lions that lie in them, which are not guaranteed and never have been. Another two hours brings you to Mweya on the peninsula between the channel and Lake Edward. The afternoon launch runs thirty-two kilometres of water at eye level past continuous hippo, elephant coming down to drink and buffalo in the shallows.

   • Buhoma to Ishasha and Mweya, Queen Elizabeth National Park
   • Mweya Safari Lodge
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
5. 05

   Kasenyi at dawn, then north to Kibale

   Out at 06:00 onto the Kasenyi plains for the Uganda kob rutting grounds and the lions that work them, back for a late breakfast. Then three hours north through the Ndali and Kasenda crater field, dozens of explosion craters with lakes in most of them, which is one of the best drives in the country and worth a stop above Lake Nyabikere. You reach the Kibale escarpment in the late afternoon.

   • Queen Elizabeth to Kibale Forest, Uganda
   • Kyaninga Lodge
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
6. 06

   Chimpanzee tracking at Kanyanchu

   Out at 08:00 in a group of six with a ranger, on flat to gently rolling ground that is far kinder than Bwindi was. Kibale holds thirteen primate species at the highest density recorded in Africa, and the community tracked here has been habituated since 1993, which is why the sighting rate sits above 90 per cent. One hour once they are found. The afternoon goes to the Bigodi wetland circuit on the boundary, run by the community association.

   • Kibale Forest and Bigodi, Uganda
   • Kyaninga Lodge
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
7. 07

   Kasese to Entebbe, and on to Kigali

   A transfer day. The morning aircraft from Kasese to Entebbe takes about an hour, and the regional flight to Kigali another hour after a wait, so you land in Rwanda in the early afternoon. Kigali International is inside the city, which puts you at the memorial at Gisozi by mid afternoon. Take the audio guide and give it the time it deserves. Dinner in Kiyovu, and Kigali eats considerably better than most people expect.

   • Kibale to Entebbe and Kigali, Rwanda
   • The Retreat by Heaven
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
8. 08

   Kigali to Nairobi and out to the Mara

   The second transfer day, and the longer one. Kigali to Nairobi is about ninety minutes, the cross-city move from Jomo Kenyatta to Wilson needs another ninety in traffic, and the flight west to the Mara is an hour with possible stops. You land on the Oloololo escarpment in the late afternoon and descend into the Triangle for a short first drive as the light goes.

   • Kigali to Nairobi and the Mara Triangle, Kenya
   • Angama Mara
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
9. 09

   A full day on the Triangle floor

   Out at first light with a packed breakfast and back when you have had enough. The Triangle is managed separately from the rest of the reserve, off-road driving is not permitted and vehicle numbers at a sighting are enforced, which is why a leopard here is watched by three cars rather than thirty. Expect lion daily, cheetah on the open ground toward the border and elephant along the river line.

   • Mara Triangle, Masai Mara National Reserve
   • Angama Mara
   • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
10. 10

    The Mara river and the escarpment ridge

    A morning at the river, at the hippo pools and, between July and October, at the crossing points, where a herd can build on the bank for hours and then turn away. Nobody controls that and nobody should promise it. In the late afternoon there is a walk on the escarpment ridge above camp with a Maasai guide, which takes in the whole Triangle and the Loita plains beyond it.

    • Mara river and the Oloololo escarpment, Kenya
    • Angama Mara
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
11. 11

    Across to Tanzania and Arusha

    One early drive on the valley floor, then breakfast and the short transfer up to the airstrip. The Mara to Wilson leg is about an hour, the cross-city move to Jomo Kenyatta another ninety minutes, and the flight to Kilimanjaro an hour with immigration at the far end. Arusha is forty-five minutes from the airport, at 1,400 metres, and your Tanzanian guide meets you at the lodge before dinner.

    • Masai Mara to Nairobi and Arusha, Tanzania
    • Arusha Coffee Lodge
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
12. 12

    Fly to Seronera in the central Serengeti

    The morning aircraft from Arusha takes a little over an hour, usually with one stop, and comes in over the plains with the scale of the park doing the explaining. The afternoon drive works the Seronera valley, where sausage trees along the watercourse hold one of the highest leopard densities in Africa and the resident lion prides are there in every month regardless of where the migration is.

    • Arusha to Seronera, Serengeti National Park
    • Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
13. 13

    A full day in the Serengeti

    A full day with a packed lunch, which means you can sit with a sighting rather than leave it to get back for a meal. Mornings are for the valley and the kopjes east of it, where cheetah hunt on the open ground. If you want the balloon, this is the morning it flies, lifting off before dawn and landing for breakfast in the grass about an hour later.

    • Seronera, Serengeti National Park
    • Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
14. 14

    Naabi Hill and the climb to the crater rim

    East across the short grass plains, through Naabi Hill Gate where you climb the kopje for the view while the paperwork is done, then four to five hours on corrugated gravel through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area past the Olduvai Gorge turning. The road climbs into cloud forest and out onto the rim at around 2,300 metres. The camp is on the flank of Olmoti, north of the rim road and away from the large hotels, and it is properly cold after dark.

    • Serengeti to the Ngorongoro highlands, Tanzania
    • The Highlands
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
15. 15

    The crater floor, from the descent road to Ngoitokitok

    An early start, because the camp is an hour from the descent gate and the floor is best in the first three hours. Roughly 260 square kilometres inside walls six hundred metres high, holding a resident population that mostly does not leave, so lion, elephant, buffalo and black rhino in a single morning is a realistic expectation rather than a good day. Picnic lunch at the Ngoitokitok springs, and back up the ascent road mid afternoon.

    • Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
    • The Highlands
    • Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
16. 16

    Manyara airstrip and the flight out

    A slow breakfast on the rim, then two hours down the escarpment to Lake Manyara airstrip with the rift wall on your left the whole way. The flight to Arusha or Kilimanjaro takes under an hour and connects with the evening long-haul departures. If you are carrying on to Zanzibar rather than flying home, this is where the beach extension picks you up.

    • Ngorongoro to Manyara and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
    • Departure day, no accommodation
    • Breakfast, Lunch