Bill & Alison’s 8-Day Uganda Safari Adventure With Medi
Guided by Mugerwa Medi | Kibale · Queen Elizabeth · Bwindi · Entebbe
There are safaris that check boxes, and then there are safaris that change you. The 8-day journey that Bill Smith and Alison embarked on across Uganda’s western wildlife corridor was firmly the latter — a rolling immersion into chimpanzee forests, open savannah teeming with lions, mist-wrapped mountain gorilla territory, and all the warmth of a country that wears its nickname, the Pearl of Africa, with complete justification.
Their guide and driver for the entire journey was Mugerwa Medi, a seasoned Ugandan safari professional whose knowledge of the country’s parks, wildlife behaviour, and hidden gems turned every hour on the road into part of the experience. This is the story of those eight remarkable days.
Day 1: Entebbe to the Equator — Crossing the Line
The adventure began with departure from Entebbe, Uganda’s gateway city draped along the shores of Lake Victoria. Almost immediately, the landscape began to shift — from urban sprawl to banana plantations, rolling green hills, and the first glimpses of rural Ugandan life.
The first major stop was the Uganda Equator monument at Kayabwe, on the Kampala–Masaka highway. Standing precisely on latitude 0°00’00”, Bill and Alison posed for photographs straddling the northern and southern hemispheres simultaneously — one of those small but genuinely exhilarating moments that only travel provides. Medi demonstrated the famous water rotation experiment, showing how water drains in opposite directions just metres apart on either side of the line, drawing delighted disbelief from the pair.
After lunch and a browse through the craft stalls surrounding the monument, the drive continued westward into the afternoon, the landscape growing lusher and more dramatic as Kibale Forest drew near.
Days 2–3: Kibale National Park — Dancing with Chimpanzees
Accommodation: Kibale Primate Lodge (2 nights)
Arrival at Kibale National Park, nestled in the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains, felt like stepping into another world. The forest here is ancient and extraordinarily biodiverse — home to 13 primate species and some of the densest chimpanzee populations on the continent. Kibale Primate Lodge provided a warm welcome, its comfortable cottages set within the forest itself, with the sounds of the bush as a constant companion through the night.
The centrepiece of the Kibale stay was chimpanzee tracking — a genuinely unforgettable wildlife experience. Led by experienced Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers, Bill and Alison trekked into the forest at dawn, the air heavy with birdsong and the scent of damp earth. Within an hour, Medi and the rangers had located the habituated chimpanzee community. What followed was extraordinary.
The chimps moved through the canopy with breathtaking speed and agility — hooting, drumming on buttress roots, and grooming each other in social clusters on the forest floor. A dominant male strode past within arm’s reach, unbothered and magnificent. Alison later described it as one of the most emotionally resonant wildlife encounters of her life: “They look at you and there is absolutely someone home. It’s humbling.”
Beyond the tracking, the afternoons offered guided nature walks through the forest, birding (Kibale is a paradise for birders, with over 370 recorded species), and evenings relaxing on the lodge veranda with sundowners as red-tailed monkeys played in the trees overhead.
Days 4–5: Queen Elizabeth National Park — The Lions of Ishasha
Accommodation: Ishasha Wilderness Camp (2 nights)
Leaving Kibale behind, Medi drove south through the Kasese corridor toward Queen Elizabeth National Park — Uganda’s most visited protected area and one of Africa’s most ecologically diverse, straddling the equator between the Rwenzori Mountains and the vast waters of Lake Edward.
The destination within the park was particularly special: the remote Ishasha sector, famous worldwide for one extraordinary phenomenon — tree-climbing lions. Unlike most African lion populations, the Ishasha prides have developed the habit of lounging in the branches of enormous fig trees, surveying their territory from above. It is a behaviour documented in very few places on earth, and Ishasha is the best.
Ishasha Wilderness Camp proved a superb base: intimate, beautifully positioned on the banks of the Ntungwe River, with tents that combined bush authenticity with genuine comfort. Hippos grunted through the night just beyond the riverbank, and the campfire conversations under star-filled skies were the kind that travel writers spend careers trying to recreate.
The game drives delivered everything promised and more. Medi located the famous tree-climbing lions on the first afternoon — two young males draped lazily across the branches of a giant fig tree, surveying their territory with magnificent indifference. Cape buffalo, Uganda kob, warthog, and elephant rounded out the sightings, while a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel — a natural waterway connecting Lakes Edward and George — brought them within metres of enormous hippo pods, Nile crocodiles, and extraordinary birdlife including the prehistoric-looking shoebill stork.
Days 6–8: Bwindi Impenetrable Forest — Face to Face with Mountain Gorillas
Accommodation: Gorilla Leisure Lodge (3 nights)
The culmination of the journey was Bwindi Impenetrable National Park — a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most biologically rich forests in Africa. Bwindi is home to roughly half the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, a population of just over 1,000 individuals. Gorilla trekking here is not merely a safari activity. It is a pilgrimage.
Gorilla Leisure Lodge provided three nights of warm hospitality on the edge of the forest, its elevated position offering sweeping views across the Bwindi landscape at dawn — layers of forest-draped hills dissolving into morning mist in a scene of almost implausible beauty.
The gorilla trek itself is the experience by which all other wildlife encounters are judged. Starting early with a briefing from rangers, Bill, Alison, and Medi made their way into the forest on foot. The terrain at Bwindi lives up to its name — the vegetation is dense, the slopes are steep, and the trekking can be physically demanding. But when the rangers radioed their position and the group pushed through a final wall of vegetation to find themselves standing 10 metres from a 220-kilogram silverback mountain gorilla, every step was instantly forgotten.
The silverback — patriarch of a habituated family group — sat calmly pulling apart a branch, occasionally fixing the visitors with a slow, ancient gaze. Young gorillas tumbled and wrestled nearby, a nursing mother watched with quiet vigilance, and the whole family unit went about their morning with a domesticity that felt simultaneously wild and deeply familiar. The permitted one-hour visit passed in what felt like minutes.
Bill, who had traveled widely across Africa, said afterward that nothing had prepared him for the emotional impact of the encounter: “You read about it, you see documentaries, and then you’re standing there and it just breaks you open. There’s no adequate description.”
The remaining days at Bwindi offered village walks through local Batwa and Bakiga communities, further birding (Bwindi holds over 350 bird species including 23 Albertine Rift endemics), and long, peaceful evenings at the lodge reflecting on what they had witnessed.
Day 8: The Road Back to Entebbe
The drive back to Entebbe was quieter than the outward journey — not from exhaustion, but from the particular contemplative mood that overtakes travellers at the end of a journey that has genuinely moved them. Medi navigated the long return with his characteristic combination of safe, confident driving and easy conversation, pointing out landmarks and sharing stories of Uganda’s history along the way.
Arriving at Two Friends Beach Hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria, Bill and Alison had one final evening to absorb what eight days in Uganda had given them — extraordinary wildlife, remarkable landscapes, unforgettable human connections, and the deep satisfaction of having seen, however briefly, creatures whose continued existence on this planet is both precious and precarious.
Trip Snapshot
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Duration | 8 Days / 7 Nights |
| Driver-Guide | Mugerwa Medi |
| Parks Visited | Kibale, Queen Elizabeth (Ishasha), Bwindi |
| Key Activities | Chimp tracking, tree-climbing lion drives, gorilla trekking, Equator stopover |
| Accommodation | Kibale Primate Lodge · Ishasha Wilderness Camp · Gorilla Leisure Lodge · Two Friends Beach Hotel |
Uganda remains one of East Africa’s most rewarding and underrated safari destinations. With the right guide, the right parks, and the willingness to immerse yourself fully, it offers wildlife encounters found nowhere else on earth.
Here’s a polished conclusion you can drop straight into the article:
Ready to Write Your Own Uganda Story?
Uganda is not a destination you simply visit — it is one you carry with you long after the journey ends. The chimpanzees of Kibale, the tree-climbing lions of Ishasha, the mountain gorillas of Bwindi — these are encounters that reshape how you see the world and your place in it.
If Bill and Alison’s adventure has stirred something in you, there has never been a better time to start planning your own Uganda safari. Mugerwa Medi and the team at Rent a Driver Uganda are ready to craft a journey tailored entirely to you — whether you dream of primate tracking, savannah game drives, cultural immersion, or all of the above.
Get in touch today and let the planning begin:
📧 Email: info@rentadriveruganda.com 📞 Call / WhatsApp: +256-700-135-510
Your Pearl of Africa adventure is waiting.
