Gorilla Trekking

Arrive at Ruhija park headquarters at 7:30am for the briefing. Your permitted group of eight is allocated to one of the habituated gorilla families found in this sector. The trek through highland forest may take two hours or five — the gorillas move daily and the trackers radio ahead with their position. Your one hour with the family begins the moment you find them: a silverback who has seen a thousand trekkers and remains utterly indifferent, juveniles playing in the vines, a mother nursing her infant in the undergrowth.

Overnight

Bakiga Lodge

A morning walk in the Bwindi buffer zone with a local naturalist guide — Bwindi's birdlife is extraordinary, with Grauer's rush warbler and the African green broadbill among more than 350 species recorded in the forest. In the afternoon, visit a community group on the Ruhija forest edge, meeting the Bakiga families who live alongside the gorillas and whose livelihoods tourism now supports.

Overnight

Bakiga Lodge

Final morning birding around the lodge gardens before transferring to Kihihi airstrip or beginning the long drive back to Entebbe. Bwindi stays with you — the weight of the silverback's gaze, the smell of the forest, the silence between the trees.

Overnight

Bakiga Lodge

Transfer to Musanze (about two and a half hours). In the afternoon, track the golden monkeys of the Virunga bamboo forests — a species found only in this corner of Africa. These bright, social primates move through the bamboo in family groups of up to 80, and the tracking is a wonderful warm-up for the gorillas tomorrow.

Overnight

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel

Rise at dawn and drive to the park headquarters for the morning briefing. You are allocated to a habituated family of between five and thirty gorillas. The trek may take one hour or five — the forest keeps its own time. When you find them, you have exactly one hour in their company. A silverback the size of a man sits three metres away. He is not threatening; he is simply being himself. Your hour in his world will be unlike anything you have experienced.

Overnight

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel

Hike to the site of Dian Fossey's Karisoke Research Centre, passing through the forest she spent her life protecting. In the afternoon, optional second gorilla trekking permit if you wish to meet a second family. Return for dinner and an early night.

Overnight

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel

Drive back to Kigali for your international flight home, or extend your stay at the coast or on a classic East Africa safari.

Overnight

Five Volcanoes Boutique Hotel

Fly or drive west to Kibale National Park, home to 1,500 chimpanzees — the highest density anywhere in Africa. Afternoon chimp tracking: enter the forest and follow a habituated community as they feed, groom and play in the canopy. The similarity to human behaviour is striking and unsettling in the best possible way.

Drive south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. A boat safari on the 32-kilometre Kazinga Channel is one of Africa's great wildlife experiences: hippos within touching distance, enormous Nile crocodiles on the banks, and thousands of birds. Game drives in the afternoon search for elephant, buffalo, topi and Uganda kob.

Overnight

Kyambura Gorge Lodge

Drive to the remote Ishasha sector, home to Uganda's famous tree-climbing lions. These individuals have learnt to rest in the branches of fig trees to avoid the insects on the ground and to catch the breeze. Seeing a lion fifteen feet up in a tree is a sight you will not forget.

Overnight

Kyambura Gorge Lodge

Transfer to Bwindi and two nights at the forest-edge lodge. Spend the first afternoon acclimatising with a forest walk in the buffer zone. On the morning of day six, join your allocated trekking group for the gorilla trek. Bwindi's forest is steeper and denser than Rwanda's — the trek is more physical, and the reward is proportionally greater. Your hour with the gorillas will be spent in silence, watching a life lived entirely on its own terms.

Overnight

Bwindi Lodge

Spend the morning on a guided walk with a local community guide through Bwindi's edge villages, learning how Batwa people lived in the forest for centuries before conservation relocated them, and how community tourism now supports their culture. Afternoon transfer back to Entebbe.

Transfer to Entebbe Airport for your international flight home.

Drive to the Volcanoes National Park headquarters for the 7am briefing. Your private guide accompanies your group to the habituated family allocated for the day. Rwanda's forest is more accessible than Bwindi's, and the habituated families here are relaxed and close — the silverback may settle within two metres of you, his family moving around him in a scene of complete calm. Your one hour with them will be unlike any other hour of your life.

Overnight

Bisate Lodge

A morning tracking the golden monkeys of the Virunga bamboo forest — endemic to this corner of Africa, they move in troops of up to 80 through the dense bamboo, acrobatic and vividly coloured. In the afternoon, hike to the site of Dian Fossey's Karisoke Research Centre through forest that Fossey spent her life defending, arriving at the graves of gorillas and the researchers who protected them. Return for a private dinner by the fireplace.

Overnight

Bisate Lodge

A final walk on Bisate's restoration slopes, watching the sunrise catch the volcanic peaks. Brunch at the lodge, then transfer to Kigali for your international flight home, with an optional orientation stop in Kigali city if your flight allows.

Overnight

Bisate Lodge