Gorillas & Masai Mara - Camping

Gorillas & Masai Mara - Camping

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15 Days From

$7350

$5880

Gorillas & Masai Mara - Camping

15 Days Starting in Nairobi and ending in Kigali

Visiting: Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda

Tour operator:

Exodus Adventure Travels

Tour code:

WYU

Guide Type:

Fully Guided

Group size:

6 - 18

Physical rating:

Easy & Moderate

Age range:

16-99

Special diets catered:

Please inform Exodus of specific dietary requirements

Tour operated in:

English
From: $7350 $5880 Operator discount: -$1470 -20%

NB: Prices correct on 22-Nov-2024 but subject to change.

This tour is no longer available, please see similar tours below or send an enquiry

Tour Overview

The Masai Mara, a vast grassland teeming with animals, has an astonishing amount of wildlife, including lions, cheetahs and, at certain times of the year, the wildebeest migration. Lake Nakuru National Park has an incredible variety of birds plus a healthy population of white and black rhinos while Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to hippos, elephants, buffalo, leopards and elusive tree-climbing lions plus a huge variety of birds. Murchison Falls is one of the most impressive national parks in Africa, renowned for scenic beauty, spectacular falls and abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, Ugandan kobs (antelope), leopards, and more than 450 bird species. We also go trekking to see the playful nature of chimpanzees. But the trip highlight is undoubtedly an hour with mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Uganda. This close-up encounter is arguably the most sensational wildlife experience of them all.

Highlights

  • Embark on an overland safari adventure across three African countries

  • Trek through Bwindi to spend an unforgettable hour with mountain gorillas

  • Track a chimpanzee troop as they swing through Budongo Forest

  • Search for elephants, leopards, lions, rhinos and more on multiple game drives

  • Camp under the African sky – our crew take care of all the chores!

Itinerary

Expand All

Day 1 : Start Nairobi; Overnight In Hotel

The adventure begins in Nairobi, the capital and largest city in Kenya. This evening’s welcome briefing is the perfect opportunity to meet your guide and get to know your fellow travellers.



Accommodation: Boulevard Hotel (or similar)

Day 2 : To Masai Mara; Late Afternoon Game Drive

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

After loading our things onto the vehicle, we depart Nairobi and travel approximately seven hours into the Masai Mara, a vast grassland teeming with life. Here wildebeest, gazelles, topis, zebras and buffalo abound in the rolling savannah, and never far away lay the predators: cheetahs, lions and hyenas. Between mid-August and late October, one of the greatest spectacles on Earth takes place in the Mara: the annual migration of thousands of wildebeest, gazelles and zebras trampling across the long grass. Nothing is guaranteed on safari, but with the help of our brilliant guides you should see and learn a huge amount about the Masai Mara wildlife as we drive through the park this afternoon.



Accommodation: Mountain Rock Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades available

Day 3 : Full Day In The Masai Mara

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Enjoy a full-day game drive in the Masai Mara to increase our chances of encountering many of the wildlife species in the reserve. We find a quiet spot inside the park to enjoy lunch by our vehicle, looking out across the plains. There is also an optional hot-air balloon safari at sunrise, which includes champagne and breakfast.



Accommodation: Mountain Rock Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades available

Day 4 : To Lake Nakuru National Park; Afternoon Game Drive

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We depart the Masai Mara in the morning after breakfast and drive to Lake Nakuru National Park, one of the finest small parks in Kenya, where we have an afternoon game drive. The park is widely known for having an impressive population of black and white rhinos, which are relatively easy to spot in the open savannah. Fever trees line the park and are a well-known spot for leopards to laze in, while one of the most impressive sights is the vast flamingo population. Owing to flooding, the alkaline content of the lake has changed in recent years; as a result, the flamingos no longer tend to be found in such large numbers, but this can change depending on the rainfall.



Accommodation: KWS Campsite (or similar) – full-service camping

Day 5 : Morning Game Drive In Lake Nakuru National Park; To Eldoret

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

This morning, we once again go in search of wildlife on a game drive in Lake Nakuru National Park. After lunch inside the park, we have a journey of around three hours as we drive to Eldoret, one of the larger cities in Kenya, where we spend the night.



Accommodation: Green Wood Campsite (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 6 : To Jinja, Uganda

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today there is a drive of about 155mi (250km) to Jinja, which should take about eight hours, including a border crossing into Uganda. The crossing can be slow but we leave plenty of time for this and you’ll no doubt find the experience interesting!



On the shores of Lake Victoria, Jinja is the adventure capital of Uganda. The area is most famous for grade IV and V white-water rafting excursions but there are plenty of other adrenaline-fuelled activities here.



Accommodation: Adrift Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 7 : Free Day For Optional Activities

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today is free to choose from a range of optional activities. White-water rafting in Jinja is considered to be among the best in the world, with a half- or full-day route that varies from quiet pools and forested islands to thunderous rapids and drops. There are several grade V rapids to navigate including Big Brother, Overtime and Silverback. If rafting doesn’t appeal, you can visit the source of the White Nile, one of the two major tributaries of the Nile.



Accommodation: Adrift Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 8 : To Murchison Falls

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We leave Jinja and drive to Murchison Falls National Park (six hours), the largest national park in Uganda, with rolling grasslands and wooded savannah. Tomorrow, we visit the top of the falls, where the river narrows from 165ft (50m) to crash through a 23ft (7m) gorge, falling 150ft (45m) to the rocks below. A truly impressive sight!



Accommodation: Sambiya River Lodge (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 9 : Full Day In Murchison Falls

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We have an early morning game drive in Murchison Falls National Park. We transfer by ferry to the north side of the Nile where we embark on our game drive. The area is home to elephants, giraffes, buffalo and Ugandan kobs, plus the predators: lions and leopards. After lunch, we travel by boat up the Nile, passing hippos and crocodiles, searching for elephants and waterbuck that come to the river to drink. The cruise lasts about three hours and we travel upstream to the bottom of the falls, stopping near the Devil’s Cauldron, the place where the water bursts through the narrow gorge and creates an outstanding rainbow.



Accommodation: Sambiya River Lodge (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 10 : Chimpanzee Tracking In Budongo Forest

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We depart early this morning for Budongo Forest, home to the largest number of chimpanzees in Uganda; we go on a trek in search of chimps and other wildlife. The walking is fairly easy due to the well-maintained trails and reasonably flat terrain. While trekking in the depths of the lush green forest, we are surrounded by bird song and hope to see velvet and colobus monkeys, wild pigs and, of course, chimpanzees. Once a chimp family is found, we have an hour with these fascinating creatures, to watch them interact and play with each other.



Accommodation: Simba Safari Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 11 : To Queen Elizabeth National Park

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Today, we have a long drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), which goes south along the eastern length of the Rwenzori Mountains, where we can see the glaciated peaks, weather permitting. We gently descend into the Great Rift Valley and QENP. The park resides in a fertile, equatorial area and has beautiful scenery. It is the most popular and accessible savannah reserve in Uganda. It is primarily associated with grassy savannah plains, but this impressive park also includes leafy rainforests, dense papyrus swamps and natural volcanic crater lakes. As a result, it has one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any game reserve in the world, including 95 recorded mammal species and more than 610 bird species.



Accommodation: Simba Safari Camp (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 12 : Spend A Full Day In Queen Elizabeth National Park

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We explore QENP on a game drive this morning, searching for elephants, lions, buffalo, leopards, hyenas, jackals, topis, kobs, bush bucks and various others. In the afternoon, there is an optional boat trip of about two hours along the Kazinga Channel to view one of the largest concentrations of hippos in the world (reported to be about 30,000) and other game with excellent birding. The game drive continues in the afternoon for those who do not join the boat trip.



Accommodation: Igongo Cultural Centre (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 13 : To Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

We have a final early morning game drive in QENP and depart after breakfast, heading for Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site and home to mountain gorillas. The journey is 185mi (300km) and takes five to six hours, including stops.



Accommodation: Virunga Hotel & Campsite (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 14 : Trek To See Mountain Gorillas In Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

You will probably remember today for the rest of your life as we spend a full hour in the company of a family of mountain gorillas! Owing to the terrain and need to explore to find the gorillas, our trek doesn’t follow a path; instead, our guides cut a route through the undergrowth. After a safety briefing, we are assigned to a gorilla family group and begin our trek. Expect a minimum of three hours of walking on irregular terrain; steep ascents and descents over muddy slopes are the norm. Strong footwear is essential and we recommend hiring a local porter to help you carry your bag/camera equipment and provide a steady, supportive hand (porters are arranged and paid for locally on the day).



Seeing wild mountain gorillas in their natural habitat is an experience you will never forget. An adult male can weigh up to 430lb (195kg), a female up to 220lb (100kg), and a male can reach 5ft 7in (1.7m) tall. They are almost exclusively vegetarian and quite destructive eaters, which makes them unpopular with the farmers lower down the mountain as they have been known to wreck a whole field of crops just to eat one plant. For this reason, and poaching, the gorillas are very carefully protected. Gorillas are gentle creatures and are not known to attack unless very severely provoked. The family groups we trek to see are habituated to human presence but to prevent over familiarisation our time with them is limited to one hour. If the permits for gorilla families close to where we stay are unavailable, there may be more permits for other areas of the park, although this will mean a longer drive to the start of the trek.



Accommodation: Virunga Hotel & Campsite (or similar) – full-service camping - upgrades and wifi available

Day 15 : Early Morning Departure To Kigali Airport

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

We depart early in the morning and transfer to Kigali airport. Our trip comes to an end in the afternoon when we bid our group goodbye.

What's Included

  • 14 breakfasts, 13 lunches and 13 dinners

  • All accommodation (see below)

  • All transport and listed activities

  • Tour leader throughout

  • One chimp permit and one gorilla permit

What's Not Included

  • Travel insurance

  • Single accommodation (available on request)

  • Visas or vaccinations

Food

Virtually all meals are included and will be prepared for you by our chef and crew. They are adept at catering for large groups of hungry travellers!



Breakfasts usually include cereal, toast and hot food such as porridge or eggs. Lunches tend to feature a range of sandwich options plus a fruit selection. Dinners usually feature soup, a main (a mix of local and international cuisine) and dessert (typically fruit salad). All cooking equipment is loaded onto the overland vehicle and so our crew are ready to prepare food wherever we stop – don’t worry about going hungry on this trip! You also have time to stock up on snacks and drinks along the journey.



For meals not included, it would be a good idea to allow a further US$100 to cover these.

Accommodation

On this trip into the wilds of Africa, we embrace our adventurous spirit and spend 13 nights camping. It's a back-to-basics experience, but the camping is full-service, which means the tents are put up and taken down by our crew. We use two-person tents and provide mattresses and all other equipment you need (except a sleeping bag and pillow). East African campsites vary in terms of facilities – do not expect hot showers, flushing toilets or Western standards of cleanliness. Upgrades to a room are available at some locations  – these can only be booked and paid for locally. In Nairobi, we stay in a small hotel.



Worth knowing



We have more than one accommodation option on some nights, which means that where we stay may differ to what is listed in the daily itinerary. The accommodation we select around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is dependent on the gate we are using to access the park.

Check out our Q&As

  • Are the local guides on the tour English speaking?

    Yes

  • Are vaccinations required for this tour?

  • What is the standard of the hotels on this tour?

    en suite facilities.

  • What is the maximum group size?

    18

  • What happens if I need to change my holiday date once I’ve booked?

    If you wish to make any changes to your booking, particularly if you need to alter any flights booked through us, please let us know as soon as possible. There is a booking or flight amendment fee of £40 per change and flight amendments often incur extra airline costs depending on the changes to be made and if the ticket has been issued or not.

  • How long has the tour company been trading?

    Exodus has been trading since 1974

  • What documents will I receive before I travel?

    Your final joining instructions and flight details, if booked with us, will then be sent out 2 to 3 weeks before departure. If you would like a hard copy posted, or if you require these any earlier, please contact the customer operations team. We advise that if you are booking connecting travel before receiving these, please ensure you leave plenty of time.

  • Do you operate a “single share” option and how does it work?

    Travellers are welcome to opt to share a room with a tour member of the same gender for no additional charge. If you'd like your own room, we can request a single supplement so that you will have your own room throughout.

  • Can I join the tour once it has departed?

    You are welcome to meet the group after the tour has departed however there is no reduction in rate for joining a tour after the departure date.

Reviews from travellers on this tour

Truly wonderful trip

This was our third camping trip with Exodus and this is almost becoming our preferred trip type - being cheaper doesn't hurt either. We were amazed at the shear number of animals we saw in Kenya and Uganda long before we got to the Gorilla area. We saw the big five, and mostly with babies!, great scenery, wonderful lakes and rivers. Game drives were varied not only in the nature of the country visited but also sometimes in the 'bus' sometimes in 4X4s and sometimes by boat. There were some longish drives but with lots to look at, stops for snacks and toilets, and time to charge cameras etc for the next stop. We felt very well looked after the whole time, and guided through formalities of border crossings etc. We were a smallish group of nine which meant we had lots of space, and we got on well.

GORILLAS & MASAI MARA

WOW! Talk about a holiday of a lifetime. This has to be one of the most amazing and special trips I have been on. From meeting the group at the airport I knew that it was going to be something special. Often as group leader, Benard and Nebert are fantastic at making you feel welcome and involving the entire group. There is a great bond between them and it was this bond and their fantastic characters that made the holiday so enjoyable for me, they are an ace team. A special mention to Benard as well for his cooking throughout the trip, he always accommodated people and the BBQ steak was awesome. Seeing all of the ‘big 5’ and all the other wildlife in their natural habitat is very special most of all, the Gorilla’s, for which we were incredibly lucky to see the famed Susa group. Most emotional and moving for everyone was definitely the orphanage which is doing such wonderful work, and the genocide museum which really hits hard. Thanks to each of the leaders and the rest of the group for making it such good fun, certainly memories that will last a lifetime.

GORILLAS & MASAI MARA

A truly outstanding trip - two weeks of amazing sights, fantastic wildlife and emotional moments spent with some great new friends and a terrific crew. Without doubt the best holiday I have ever had.

GORILLAS & MASAI MARA

We would do it all again tomorrow! A fantastic experience

Wonderful!

A wonderful once-in-a-lifetime experience!

gorillas and massai mara

Lets get one thing straight; you need to do this trip!! no matter where you've been and what you've seen there will always be a void in your portfolio unless you experience this. So much is included in such a small time period there is no time to get bored, all the I's dotted and the T's crossed for accommodation and service from the crew which were first class all the way, all building up to the gorilla trek which is so amazing words have not been invented which can express what I felt for that ever so short hour in their presence, but enough from me just go and experience it for yourselves.

GORILLAS & MASAI MARA

An inspirational adventure across 3 East African countries. This trip certainly lives up to its ratings and great reviews.

GORILLAS & MASAI MARA

Right, so this a trip for some serious animal lovers, game parks make up a majority of the tour and so anyone hoping for a glimpse into the more cultural anthropological elements of a trip to this part of the world should look for something else. There is also ALOT of driving so be prepared. That said was simply one of the best things I have ever done. It was my first trip away alone and was extremely nervous but was blessed with a fantastic group of people who I hope I'll know for a long time and an overall experience unparelled to much of the travelling I have done. The vistas are stunning, the animals plentiful, the tour guide and ensemble amazing creating a truely memorable few weeks.

An amazing trip

This memorable trip was made special by the excellent leader Jacob and his team Stonecold, the wonderful driver, Godfrey the chef and assistant Esther. Whilst the journeys were often very long we had plenty of stops. The trip was filled with humour and fun. The group ages were from 42 to 69, we were at the upper end. For us the key was having a go. We were encouraged to try white water rafting and not only did we manage to do it , it was an excellent experience. Upgrades to cabins were available at most campsites. We saw so much on safari , big 5 , countless birds and much more. Our skille driver ensured we got the best photos.

A rewarding experience.

This was not the trip I had planned to take over Christmas, but it turned out to be truly rewarding, overall, although a little more of a heads-up regarding the gorilla trek would not go amiss. The whole trip may be rated as "2" - leisurely - and, for the most part you are travelling in a truck and this describes it well, but the mountain trek is definitely a "4", minimum (and I've been on a "3" and it was more demanding than that!). After 3-and-a-half hours up and down the mountain, mostly in pouring rain and hail, exhaustion was setting in when we reached our gorilla family - but the encounter really made the effort worthwhile. Looking back, however, most of my photos were shot long before we arrived in Rwanda - the game drives through the Masai Mara were very successful! In all of the drive, the only thing we missed was a leopard, but we did get to see rarities like the serval and jackel, so that was very satisfying. Some of the so-called "comfortable" camps were a bit of a let down, with poor washrooms and very elderly tents, badly in need of replacement, but the Exodus camps were great, as was our superb team lead by Peter Kiptoo, driver Boniface, cook Esther and assistant Amos. They really helped to make the experience all the more memorable by looking after us all so well. This is a trip to be recommended!

Read all 60 reviews

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  • Transfer as credit to Future Tours

    Exodus Adventure Travels allows you to transfer existing payments to a future tour to avoid cancellation fees if you can't travel and inform exodus adventure travels, 43 days before departure.

  • Low Deposit

    Exodus Adventure Travels requires a minimum deposit of 25% or the full booking value, whichever is less, with the final balance not due until 90 days before departure.

  • Cancellation Policy

    We don't charge a cancellation fee, here is a summary of exodus adventure travels charges.

    Up to 70 days before tour starts: Forfeit 100% of deposit.

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