Lake Mutanda Experiences

January 17-18, 2026 from the itinerary

17th: After breakfast, depart Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park for Lake Mutanda. The journey spans roughly 1 to 1.5 hours. Your destination is Chameleon Hill Forest Lodge14, where you'll check in for a 3-night stay.

In the afternoon, you’ll have the chance to explore Lake Mutanda by bike. Starting from

Chameleon Hill, this route takes you around one of Africa’s most beautiful lakes, following a trail that can only be fully experienced on two wheels. It’s a scenic, ride that winds through villages, small farms and Matooke fields, giving you plenty of moments to interact with local

communities and take in the quiet, natural beauty of this part of Uganda.

18th: After an early breakfast, you’ll transfer to Mgahinga National Park Headquarters,

approximately 2 hours from Chameleon Hill Lodge. On arrival, a park guide will brief you on the day’s activity before you begin the golden monkey tracking experience.

Accompanied by your ranger, you’ll venture into the forest in search of the lively and

endangered golden monkeys. These primates are a subspecies of the blue monkey found only in the Virunga mountains. As you move quietly beneath towering bamboo and ancient trees, you’ll likely encounter a variety of forest birds and smaller primates that share the same habitat.

After your trek, return to Chameleon Hill Lodge for a relaxed afternoon overlooking the lake.

19th: Day at leisure

About Lake Mutanda: Lake Mutanda sits between Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, with the Virunga Mountains rising in the distance. It’s a small freshwater lake, but the setting makes it feel much larger. More than 100 bird species have been recorded here, and on clear days the foothills of the Virungas lead toward Mount Muhavura, which sits at just over 4 000 metres.

About the Chameleon Hill Forest Lodge: Perched on the shores of Lake Mutanda, Chameleon Hill Lodge offers spectacular views of the

lake’s islands and the surrounding hills. The lodge features ten colourful chalets, each

individually furnished and designed to provide comfort and unobstructed views across the water. We were in a deluxe chalet room.

January 17th: - Our trip to Chameleon Hill Lodge started with a 9am departure and an hour's drive to Lake Mutanda.  Along the way we had to wait about 15 minutes for an earth mover to get out of the way so we could pass.

Lake Mutanda is a lovely lake with about 80 islands.   Chameleon Hill Lodge is very colourful and owned by a German lady.  While very pretty, our room was very far away and a real workout any time we wanted to come uphill back to the lobby/restaurant.  

We found they kept bunnies who looked well taken care of.

In the afternoon I decided to take the hike option since I didn’t want to bike ride.  Here's Lisa convincing poor Oscar (guide) to go riding with them....

I went with Vena and Ann.  Our guide took us along the road to the local town (the way we drove in).  Along the way he filled us in on certain facts of life in the area, namely, men take many wives and have too many children.  Only the women are taught about birth control since they will have the "inconvenience" of providing for the family.  Some of the families have 10+ children.  I was pretty angry about this, didn’t buy candy for the children and just wanted to get back. The highlight of the trip was watching the "old guy" (looked 70, was probably 40) try to hold pig guts in one hand that wasn't quite big enough to hold them all, while wiping gore off his other hand on a bench. Unfortunately, no photos of this.

Tonight's dinner was salad

18th- Golden Monkey Tracking

The day started incredibly early - at 5am.  Here is my friend Lisa's imitation of a pack mule:

Vena’s phone shifted to Rwanda time and thankfully Lisa went to find her at 10 minutes to 6 as her alarm didn’t go off.  The 2 hour drive was along the typical rough roads until we got to the last few miles where the roads got much worse than we thought possible.  We saw bats along the way and some more nice views of the Lake.

It was very cold and I was glad I had the extra fleece and rain coat.

We caught the end of the cultural show

and went inside for the briefing that we couldn’t really hear because the security guys in the back of the room were talking too loudly.  It seemed like a big group until we were split up and met our guide.  The  porters were assigned and Everest came over and introduced himself to me - I didn’t want one.  Finally it was clear “the other Ann” hadn’t been linked to one, so she got Everest.  I found him to be extremely annoying as he was helping her with every step and stair.

I wasn’t going to go today (Chris didn’t go), but was talked into it because there were going to be switchbacks instead of a straight path up.  It soon became clear that there were no switchbacks.  Thankfully the steep bits were interspersed with rather level bits and it wasn’t too muddy.  The guide asked if his pace was ok and I said I couldn’t walk that fast.  Thankfully he stopped often and long enough so I could catch my breath.  This was probably extremely annoying to the others hiking.

After about an hour and 1500 feet elevation gain, we got to the bamboo forest and the areas where the golden monkeys were located.  The bamboo forest was my favourite part of the day and I could have just stayed there for the rest of the time.  

We were required to leave our poles, but keep our packs on and put on our masks.  I almost immediately realised it was a mistake not to have a pole as the forest floor was not visible and there weren’t any paths.  Things got very disorganised from here as the various groups spread out and it wasn’t clear who were our trackers.  

The monkey family was on the move eating.  They were very pretty monkeys and some posed for us.  

They started moving downhill which was concerning because I didn’t want to walk back up the hill.  The trackers weren’t helpful moving branches or identifying dangerous places as we walked.  I was sure someone was going to damage themselves and it turned out to be me when a branch I was holding broke and I fell down.  As I looked back I saw the porters were behind us with our poles - this would have been good to have about 25 minutes earlier.

I was nasty as I insisted I be given my poles so I wouldn’t wipe out again.

The way down was slightly different and very fast.  Thankfully no one hurt themselves.

The road back was the same, but felt worse, probably because we were tired.  It was good to have boots off and a shower.

Tracking Golden Monkeys

More wildlife around the Lodge

I had the vegetarian option for dinner.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Uganda.