Am really very appreciative for the service offered to me, I had a good time on my safari with the car I hired from car hire in Uganda. Augustine was such a great guy, he responded to me on time and he gave me a discount on my car rental. I booked the car for 11 days and I wanted a self-drive safari to Uganda where I visited various adventurous places. I traveled with my wife and we hired a Rav4. I really appreciated because we paid upon on our arrival at Entebbe international airport where I met Augustine ready with the car at the airport waiting for us.
He accepted payment on arrival at the Entebbe International Airport. He had a placard reading my name and immediately we greeted, after we inspected the car and everything was ok, the car was well maintained and in good condition, we paid all the money he charged us and signed the contracted, we didn’t take long reading the contract because he had already sent it to us. We drove off to our pre-booked accommodation in Entebbe. We planned in time our trip and everything was booked on time, late planning is ever disappointing, you end up getting wrong choices on accommodation and transportation.
On the first day of the safari, I toured the capital city Kampala which gifted me with an opportunity to see the cultural and historical sites within the capital city Kampala, since it was not my first time to visit Uganda, I knew some of the interesting places around the capital city, we visited Kasubi Tombs the burial place for over 4 kings of Buganda, here we were briefed and we got clear information about the history of Buganda and Uganda in general. The tombs were burnt in 2010 and it is still under construction, however, we were given a chance to tour the place. We also visited the Kabaka’s lake which is located just a few kilometers from the capital city Kampala. The lake is blessed with various species of birds that live and feed on the lake, we were briefed about the lake and how it was created. We proceeded to the holy places and visited the Lubaga and Namirembe cathedrals. Don’t forget the Bahai temple one of its kind in Africa. We took lunch in the capital city Kampala and later we proceeded to the national museum which gave us more and clear information about the history of Uganda and later to Namugongo shrine where the Uganda martyrs where killed for failure to denounce their faith. From here we drove back to Kampala to our pre-booked accommodation in Kampala (Acacia lodge)
On the 2nd day of our tour, I embarked behind the steering and drove to the eastern part of Uganda up to the source of the Nile at Jinja. Here we enjoyed a full day rafting at the wonderful white water river Nile. We were served breakfast and lunch; we only had dinner at the lodge at Jinja Nile Resort.
From Jinja, we took along drive to the fantastic park Murchison falls national a home to a wide biodiversity of animal species. We reached the park in the late evening, the drive seemed not to long since we had various stopovers on the way to admire nature and lunch break. At Murchison falls national park, we enjoyed viewing the top of the falls, game viewing was superb, we so various species of wildlife including giraffe, elephants, buffaloes, lions, various species of antelopes, and more interesting the boat cruise on the Nile river which gifted us with more chance of viewing several species of wildlife including the hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes and elephants were seen along the shoreline as well as several species of birds, we were more lucky we spotted the rare shoebill.
On the 5th day of our tour we transferred to Kibale forest national park which is known as a home to the primate world. We drove for over 8-9 hours to reach Kibale forest. We stopped at Fort portal for lunch and we spent the night at Irunga Lodge. We spent sleepless night waiting for tomorrow’s interesting and memorable moment, chimpanzee tracking. This day was so memorable we met our closest relatives the chimps who shares almost 98% of human genes. We tracked in the Kibale forest and we were able to see the chimps, we spent 1 hour with our relatives. Not only primate species but we come across several other species of primates like the black and white colobus moneys, and in the evening we took the Bigodi nature walk where we met so many other species of primates and birds, it was a memorable day.
Following a hearty breakfast on this day at the lodge, we drove for about 3-4 hours to Queen Elizabeth national park we passed through the crater lakes to catch up with an afternoon boat cruise on the Kazinga channel. It was an amazing day, on the boat we were gifted with a great chance to meet various species of wildlife including schools of hippos and crocodiles, buffaloes and elephants were spotted at the shoreline, our guide was so resourceful he fed us with any informative information we needed to know while at the boat, we spent to up to 2 hours while on the boat at the Kazinga channel which connects lakes George and Edward. The Mweya safari lodge was very good option for our dinner and an overnight, it’s stated close to the Kazinga channel. Very early in the morning, with the guide, we started a morning game drive to catch-up with several species of wildlife that rush to their hide-outs including the hyena, civet cats, leopards, lions, buffaloes, elephants, water bucks, Uganda kobs, many species of birds among many others. We came back to the lodge for lunch and in the afternoon we visited the salt lake at Lake Katwe.
On the 8th day of our car rental safaris, we proceeded with our tour to Bwindi impenetrable national park and we passed through the Ishasha sector an extension of Queen Elizabeth national park. We were lucky that we spotted the tree climbing lions sited on fig trees or tree blanches and on the way to the park we spotted some animals, we arrived at the lodge in the late evening at Buhoma lodge. Following the morning was a great day, we walked up very early for a simple breakfast in order to catch with a short briefing from the park wardens who briefed us about the dos and don’ts while with the gorilla a magical experience. We were assigned to the ranger guide and the gorilla family we booked for; in a group of 8 people we entered the forest to begin the search of our closest relatives, the search was unpredictable however after searching for 4 hours we finally came across the a group of the endangered mountain gorillas, we spent with a group for only one hour the restricted time to stay with the gorillas, we took photos and videos with them of which any time we look at them remind us that wonderful experience we shared them with our family and friends who hopefully willing to come for the same experience.
After this wonderful gorilla tracking experience we transferred to Lake Bunyonyi which is known as one of the deepest lakes in Africa. We took a sun boat canoeing ride at the lake and explored very many species of birds; we spend our last night at Lake Bunyonyi Arcadia Cottages.
Following the morning, we drove to Mbarara for lunch and later stopped at the equator crossing for photography and snacks and later we proceeded to Kampala and later at the airport to meet our departure flight back home. We met Augustine at the airport and we return the back the car to him. We never had any problem with the car, we experienced only a flat tyre but we replaced it very first and we continued with our safari. Thank you very much we had a memorable self-drive safari in Uganda with a curtsey of our well rental car and we hope to come back next year and I am going to recommend your elsewhere.
