Bokmakierie99
Well-known member
In the first two weeks of December this year we took a trip around south-western Uganda, following mostly the typical birding itenerary:
Day 1: arrive Entebbe, drive to Semliki National Park
Day 2: birding hike in Semliki NP
Day 3: morning in Semliki, then drive to Queen Elizabeth - evening drive there
Day 4: Morning drive at QENP, then boat trip on Kazinga channel.
Day 5: Birding on drive out of QENP, then drive to Buhoma, in Bwindi Impenetrable NP
Day 6: birding hike in Buhoma area of Bwindi
Day 7: travel to Ruhija, birding "the neck"
Day 8: Ruhija swamp hike
Day 9: Bird on drive out of Bwindi, then drive to Mgahinga NP
Day 10: Hike up Mt. Sabinyo
Day 11: Birding in Mgahinga
Day 12: drive to Lake Mburo NP, evening drive there
Day 13: birding drive at LMNP, then drive to Mpanga Forest
Day 14: Mbamba Swamp, then back to Entebbe.
We travelled with a company called Roadtrip Uganda; we hired a car, along with driver/guide, camping gear, cooking equipment, etc. Including both the cost of the guiding/car and our food and lodging, we spent a little over $100 per person per day.
Our guide was an excellent birder named Luke - he was very knowledgable and quite keen to find us as many of our target birds as possible. He's a freelance guide, so while we hired him through Roadtrip, he presumably could be hired through other companies.
With Luke and a series of excellent local guides he arranged for us (he was a big help at Bwindi in particular, getting us guides who knew about the local birds rather than just about the gorillas) we managed a total of 372 species on this 14-day trip, including about 180 life birds for myself and 15 of the 25 Albertine Rift endemics.
I've started writing up a day-by-day report of our travels, and I'll post it here as I finish it.
Day 1: arrive Entebbe, drive to Semliki National Park
Day 2: birding hike in Semliki NP
Day 3: morning in Semliki, then drive to Queen Elizabeth - evening drive there
Day 4: Morning drive at QENP, then boat trip on Kazinga channel.
Day 5: Birding on drive out of QENP, then drive to Buhoma, in Bwindi Impenetrable NP
Day 6: birding hike in Buhoma area of Bwindi
Day 7: travel to Ruhija, birding "the neck"
Day 8: Ruhija swamp hike
Day 9: Bird on drive out of Bwindi, then drive to Mgahinga NP
Day 10: Hike up Mt. Sabinyo
Day 11: Birding in Mgahinga
Day 12: drive to Lake Mburo NP, evening drive there
Day 13: birding drive at LMNP, then drive to Mpanga Forest
Day 14: Mbamba Swamp, then back to Entebbe.
We travelled with a company called Roadtrip Uganda; we hired a car, along with driver/guide, camping gear, cooking equipment, etc. Including both the cost of the guiding/car and our food and lodging, we spent a little over $100 per person per day.
Our guide was an excellent birder named Luke - he was very knowledgable and quite keen to find us as many of our target birds as possible. He's a freelance guide, so while we hired him through Roadtrip, he presumably could be hired through other companies.
With Luke and a series of excellent local guides he arranged for us (he was a big help at Bwindi in particular, getting us guides who knew about the local birds rather than just about the gorillas) we managed a total of 372 species on this 14-day trip, including about 180 life birds for myself and 15 of the 25 Albertine Rift endemics.
I've started writing up a day-by-day report of our travels, and I'll post it here as I finish it.