20 Days East African Safari

You land at Entebbe International Airport and your driver-guide is waiting past the arrivals hall. After a quick hello and a short briefing about the days ahead, you head off for an early lunch so the afternoon is free for the water.

Lake Victoria sits right here, the third largest freshwater lake in the world, and its papyrus edges hold one of the best birding spots in the country. You slip into a low wooden canoe and push into the Mabamba channels. The prize is the shoebill, a tall grey bird with a heavy hooked bill that stands stock-still in the reeds. Sightings are good but never certain, so treat one as a gift. While you glide, watch for Angola swallows skimming the surface, Madagascar bee-eaters on the papyrus tops, and African jacanas stepping across the lily pads on long toes.

The pace is slow and the light on the water is lovely late in the day. When the canoe turns for shore, you head back to your hotel. Dinner and the night are in Entebbe.

After breakfast you set out on a long but scenic drive north, roughly six to seven hours in total, toward Uganda's oldest protected park. The road rolls past small towns, roadside markets, and green farmland, so there is always something to look at through the window.

Partway you stop at Ziwa Rhino Reserve, the one place in Uganda where you can walk with southern white rhinos. A ranger leads you on foot, keeping a safe and respectful distance, and explains how these heavy grazers were brought back after they vanished from the wild here. The walk lasts about an hour across flat, grassy ground, and getting close on your own two feet feels very different from watching from a vehicle.

You break for lunch in Masindi, a busy trading town, before the final stretch to your lodge near or inside Murchison Falls. Arrive in the late afternoon, settle in, and let the driving fall away. Dinner is at the lodge and you spend the night close to the park.

You are up early for a game drive across the northern grasslands, where the low sun stretches long shadows over the plains. This open country is good for wildlife on the move at dawn. Keep watch for zebra, buffalo, giraffe, warthog, and the odd herd of Uganda kob. Lions rest in the shade of thickets and leopards are here too, though far shyer and less often seen. Overhead and along the ground you may pick out crested cranes, guineafowl, and turacos among Borassus palms and flat-topped acacias.

After lunch you swap the vehicle for a boat. The launch runs upriver toward the falls, and the banks are lined with hippos wallowing in pods and Nile crocodiles hauled out to bask. As you near the gorge, the Nile funnels through a gap barely seven metres wide and crashes down in a wall of spray and noise. The boat holds its position so you can take it in and photograph the churn.

You cruise back down with the current as the afternoon cools. Supper and another night are spent at your riverside lodge.

Before leaving the park you climb to the top of Murchison Falls on foot. Standing at the lip, you feel the spray on your face and watch the whole river squeeze itself into that narrow slot below. On a bright morning rainbows hang in the mist, and it is a fine spot to linger before the road.

Then you point south and west toward Kibale Forest National Park, a drive of about eight to nine hours. The country changes as you go, from open savanna to the folded green hills of western Uganda, dotted with tea estates and busy little villages. You stop for lunch along the way and can browse a local market if you feel like stretching your legs and buying a few snacks for the road.

The last hour brings tall forest crowding the roadside, a sign you have reached primate country. You reach your lodge near Kibale as the light goes soft, in good time to wash off the dust before the evening meal. Dinner and overnight are close to the forest edge.

Kibale holds one of the highest densities of primates in Africa, and this morning you go looking for its stars. After breakfast and a briefing, a ranger leads your small group into the trees on foot. You follow calls and rustling until you find a chimpanzee family, perhaps grooming, feeding on figs, or crashing through the canopy overhead. Along the way you often see red-tailed monkeys, grey-cheeked mangabeys, vervets, and black-and-white colobus with their flowing tails.

The forest is humid and the ground uneven, so the walking can be a little work, but the reward of sitting quietly near wild chimps is worth it. You return for lunch and a rest through the warm middle of the day.

In the afternoon you visit the Isunga community nearby. Local hosts share songs, dances, and stories, and take you up to a viewpoint they call the Top of the World, where the land drops away in every direction and craters pock the hills. It is a gentle, human end to a wild morning. Dinner and the night are at your lodge.

Today is mostly a driving day, and a beautiful one. After breakfast you head south toward Bwindi, a thick, ancient mountain forest that shelters close to half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. The route winds through terraced hillsides, banana groves, and small farming towns where daily life spills onto the roadside.

You break for lunch en route and stop at a viewpoint or two, since this is high, green, rumpled country and the panoramas are hard to resist. The final approach climbs and twists as the forest thickens, and the air turns cooler and fresher the higher you go.

You reach your lodge on the forest edge in the late afternoon or early evening, a little tired from the road but settled in a quiet, misty place. Tomorrow's trek needs an early start and a decent night's sleep, so you eat well and turn in. Dinner and overnight are at your Bwindi lodge, with the forest close enough to hear at night.

This is the day many travellers plan the whole trip around. You reach the park headquarters early for a briefing on how to behave around the gorillas, then you are assigned a habituated family and set off on foot with rangers and trackers. The trek can be short or it can take several hours of climbing over roots and through dense growth, since the gorillas move where they please. When you find them, you get one full hour in their company.

Watching a silverback rest while youngsters tumble and wrestle around him is a quiet, close, and moving thing. Keep your voice low, follow the ranger's lead, and let the hour unfold. Then you make your way back out and return for lunch and a rest.

Later you can visit the Batwa people, the forest's original inhabitants, who share their music, hunting skills, and oral traditions from a life once lived entirely under the canopy. It is a thoughtful counterpoint to the morning. Dinner and a final Bwindi night follow.

You leave the mountains behind and drive toward Entebbe, with a photo stop at the equator line where a guide shows you the little water-swirl demonstration on either side of the marker. It is touristy and fun, and a good spot for a lunch break.

At the airport you catch your flight across to Nairobi, which spares you two hard days of overland driving and border queues. From the air you get a sense of the sheer scale of the land you have been crossing.

On the Kenyan side a company representative meets you at the airport and drives you to your hotel in the city. The rest of the evening is yours to rest and reset before the Kenyan leg begins in earnest. Have a proper meal, repack, and get some sleep. Dinner and the night are in Nairobi.

You start with a short tour of Nairobi, Kenya's fast-moving capital, taking in a few of its landmarks and getting a feel for the modern face of the region before you return to the wild. It is a relaxed morning with no rush.

Then you set off toward Lake Nakuru National Park, a drive of about five to six hours. The road climbs to the edge of the Great Rift Valley, where a viewpoint opens onto the huge trough below, its floor scattered with old volcanoes and distant lakes. It is one of the finest roadside views in the country, so the camera comes out.

You stop for lunch along the way and reach your lodge near the park in the afternoon. Nakuru is compact and easy after the long transfers, and the setting by the water is calm and green. Settle in, watch the light change over the lake, and enjoy an easy evening. Dinner and overnight are at your lodge beside the park.

A full day in the park lets you work its varied ground at a comfortable pace. Nakuru is fenced and well stocked, which makes it one of the better places in Kenya to look for both black and white rhino as they graze the open flats. You also stand a good chance with buffalo, waterbuck, the tall Rothschild's giraffe, and big herds of zebra and wildebeest, while lions rest up in the yellow-barked acacia woodland.

In the afternoon you swing down to the shoreline. In the right conditions the shallows draw flamingos in pink drifts, along with pelicans, kingfishers, and dozens of other water birds, though flamingo numbers rise and fall with the water so no two visits look alike. Even on a quiet day the birdlife here is rich and close.

As the sun drops you make your way back through the park, watching for animals coming out to feed in the cooler hour. It has been a full, satisfying day on wheels. Dinner and another night are spent at your lakeside lodge.

After breakfast you head for the Masai Mara, Kenya's most famous reserve and the northern reach of the great Serengeti-Mara plains. The drive takes you back across Rift Valley country and out onto the high grasslands, with stops at viewpoints and trading centres where you can stretch, buy a curio, or grab a cold drink.

The last stretch of road is rough and dusty, a proper safari approach, and the land slowly opens into the wide, rolling savanna the Mara is known for. Herds begin to appear even before you reach the gate, which sharpens the sense that you have arrived somewhere special.

You reach your lodge or camp with time to spare before dinner. Depending on the day you might settle in and relax, or take a short drive near camp as the afternoon cools. Either way the evening is easy, with the sounds of the plains close by. Dinner and overnight are at your Masai Mara camp, well placed for the full day of game viewing that follows.

You give the Mara a whole day, which is exactly what its wide plains deserve. From soon after breakfast you roll out across open grassland that seems to run to the horizon in every direction. This is big-cat country, and your guide works the ground for lions lazing in prides, cheetahs scanning from termite mounds, and, with luck, a leopard draped in a riverine tree.

Between the predators the plains are busy with zebra, wildebeest, topi, eland, and elephant families moving between browse and water. In the migration months the sheer number of animals can be staggering, though even outside that window the Mara stays generous.

You make your way to the Mara River, where hippos jam the pools and crocodiles lie along the banks. If the season and the herds line up, this is where dramatic river crossings happen, but they follow no schedule and cannot be promised. You take a picnic lunch in the bush and keep going through the golden afternoon. As the light turns, you head back to camp for dinner and the night.

Today you leave Kenya and enter Tanzania overland. After breakfast you drive south to the Isebania border crossing, where you clear immigration on both sides. Border formalities take a little patience, so your guide helps keep the paperwork moving while you stretch and take in the change of scene.

Once you are through, you continue into the northern Serengeti, one of the greatest wildlife regions on the planet. You break for lunch and then, rather than simply driving to camp, you turn the last leg into a game drive, easing into the park with your eyes on the grass. The Serengeti's endless plains open around you, and the first lions, giraffes, or elephants of the Tanzanian leg tend to appear before you even reach your beds.

You arrive at your lodge or tented camp in the evening, back on safari after a day partly given to logistics. It feels good to be among the animals again. Dinner is served and you spend the night deep inside the Serengeti.

You spend the cool early hours out on the plains, when the Serengeti's wildlife is most active. This park is famous for its predators, and mornings are prime time to find lions finishing a hunt or hyenas trotting home along the tracks. Between them the grasslands hold huge numbers of grazers, and in season the migrating herds stretch across the land in ribbons. Watch too for cheetah on the rises and, in the right corners, the rare black rhino.

You return to camp for lunch and a break through the hot middle of the day, when the animals rest and so can you.

In the afternoon you visit a Maasai village near the park. The Maasai are known for their bright red shukas, their beadwork, and a herding way of life held onto through generations. Your hosts show you inside a homestead, demonstrate a jumping dance, and answer questions about how they live alongside the wildlife. It is a warm and genuine break from the vehicle. Dinner and the night are back at your Serengeti camp.

You begin with a guided walking safari across a safe stretch of open country, on foot with an armed ranger. Walking slows everything down. You notice the small things you miss from a vehicle: tracks pressed in the dust, dung and its stories, birdcalls, and the little creatures that keep to the grass. It is a quiet, grounding way to feel the land.

After the walk you set off southeast toward the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, leaving the flat plains for higher, greener country. The road climbs steadily as you go, and the air cools with the altitude. Depending on time your guide may pause at a viewpoint where the land falls away in wide, hazy folds.

You reach the crater rim in the evening, often wrapped in cool highland mist, and check into your lodge perched up on the edge. If the cloud lifts you may catch a first glimpse down into the caldera before dark, a taste of tomorrow. Wrap up warm, since nights up here are chilly. Dinner and overnight are on the Ngorongoro rim.

This morning you descend the steep track down into the Ngorongoro Crater, a collapsed volcano whose floor holds one of the densest gatherings of wildlife in Africa. Down on the grass and around the soda lake you have a real chance at all of the Big Five in a single day, with black rhino the hardest and most prized of them. Lions, elephants, buffalo, and thousands of zebra, wildebeest, and antelope share the enclosed floor, and flamingos often wade the shallow water.

Because the crater walls hold the animals in, the wildlife density here is unlike almost anywhere else, though it is still wild and sightings depend on the day. You take a picnic lunch beside a hippo pool, keeping an eye on the cheeky kites overhead.

In the afternoon you climb back up to the rim, stopping for the long panoramic views down into the bowl and for the birds along the forested edge. It is a fitting high point for the mainland safari. Dinner and a last highland night are spent at your rim lodge.

You leave the cool highlands and fly out to the coast, trading dust and grass for sea air and palms. A guide meets you at the Zanzibar airport and takes you into Stone Town, the old heart of the island and a UNESCO-listed maze of coral-stone lanes.

On a walking tour you wind through narrow alleys past carved wooden doors, quiet courtyards, and old merchant houses. Your guide points out landmarks like the House of Wonders and the sobering site of the former slave market, telling the layered story of Arab, Indian, African, and European traders who all shaped this Swahili port. The town rewards slow wandering, so you stop for coffee and let the pace of the coast take over.

This is the start of the relaxed Zanzibar tail of the trip, where the driving stops and the days soften. Feel free to shop for spices or crafts before the light goes. In the evening the waterfront comes alive with food stalls. Dinner and overnight are in or near Stone Town.

In the morning you drive out to Jozani Forest, the last real stand of native woodland on the island and the only home of the Zanzibar red colobus monkey. These russet-and-black primates live nowhere else on earth, and here they are used to visitors, so they feed and play close to the walkways while you watch. A boardwalk also leads through a patch of mangrove, where the roots and tides show a different side of island life.

After the forest you visit a spice farm, the reason this island was once so prized by traders. A local guide walks you among the trees and vines, cracking, crushing, and peeling as you go so you can smell and taste cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and turmeric fresh from the plant. It brings the flavours of the coast to life in a way no market stall can.

You often finish with a plate of tropical fruit before heading back. The rest of the day eases off toward the beach. Dinner is served and you spend the night on the island.

Today has no schedule at all, and after nearly three weeks on the move you have earned it. The island's east and north coasts are lined with soft white sand and warm, clear water in shifting shades of turquoise, and the whole day is yours to spend as slowly as you like.

Swim, doze under a palm, and let the tide come and go. If you feel like doing something, you can arrange a snorkelling trip out to the reef, a spot of fishing with local boatmen, or a sunset dhow sail, though none of it is required. The point of the day is rest.

Meals lean on the sea here, so lunch might be grilled fish or prawns straight off the boat, eaten with your feet more or less in the sand. As the day cools you can walk the beach or simply watch the fishermen bring in their boats. It is a gentle, happy close to the trip. Dinner and your last full night are spent on the coast.

Your final morning is easy and unhurried. Enjoy a proper breakfast and, depending on your flight time, one last slow walk on the beach or a swim before you pack the last of your things. There is no rush and nothing on the schedule but a fond goodbye.

When it is time, you are transferred to the airport for your flight home or onward to your next stop. Over twenty days you have crossed swamps, savannas, forests, a crater, and an island, seen gorillas, big cats, rhinos, and the great herds, and shared time with people whose lives are woven into these places.

We are grateful you chose to spend this trip with us, and we hope you carry the best of it home with you. Safe travels, and we would be glad to welcome you back to East Africa again one day.