The Kibale Forest - Chimps

January 9-12, 2026 from the itinerary: Fly Entebbe to Kasese on AirLink. In Kasese meet your driver/guides for the rest of the journey - Oscar and Jack. There is a ~2.5 hour transfer by car to the Kibale Forest National Park and your lodge for the next 3 nights: Primate Lodge Kibale. Along the way, enjoy a guided hike to the "top of the world" viewpoint where you have a wonderful view of 3 crater lakes, plantations, and local villages.

Kibale National Forest: Kibale Forest National Park sits in western Uganda and is known for having one of the highest concentrations of primates in Africa. The forest is home to thirteen primate species, including red-tailed, L’Hoest’s and black-and-white colobus monkeys, as well as the grey-cheeked mangabey and red colobus. Birding is strong too, with around 325 species recorded, along with more than 200 butterfly species.

Primate Lodge sits inside the Kibale National Park, The cottages are positioned among the trees and have a private veranda that looks straight into the forest. The location is one of its biggest strengths. It sits only a short walk from the starting point for chimpanzee trekking and forest walks, so there are no long transfers or early morning drives. Our room was a "luxury cottage"

Moreen from Nkuringo safaris gave us a briefing last night on what today would hold. We were told no poles were needed for the hike - she was wrong, but I get ahead of myself.

We were up at 4:15 to finish packing with about 30 minutes for breakfast.  Even with the pre-order my drinks didn’t quite make it out by the time we had to leave.  Thankfully the airport was close by.

The Entebbe Airport was a bit odd

We had to go through security twice.  We were grouped together by black boarding passes for our flight to Kasese. The small plane took off on time.  

Taking Off

There were low clouds and the land looked like small islands surrounded by the sea.

Kasese from the air looked huge.  It has about 500,000 inhabitants.  I generally had the feeling that this area of the country was a nicer place to live that Entebbe.  Things looked a bit more prosperous and clean.

The flight was uneventful and we landed at the small grass strip Kasese Airport

to meet Oscar and Jack - our guides/drivers for our entire trip.   

Oscar and Jack work for the Nkuringo Safari Company.  The Company was named after a group/family of guerrillas from the Nkuringo section of the Kibale Forest. Oscar is in his early 30s and Jack in his early 40s with 3 children.

The  journey to the forest took a couple of hours, mostly along paved roads.  The cars were as comfortable as they could be, given the state of the roads, and there were always snacks and water available. Here we are in the cars:

Cotton is a big crop here.

There is an election coming up on January 15. We expect the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni, to be re-elected. He has been in power for 41? years, so Uganda is a "democracy" in that they have elections, but the result is pretty much known. We expect all internet to be turned off close to the election. The government turns it off to try to reduce election-related violence. I bring this up now because along the way we saw various demonstrations and marches showing support for the candidates.

Along the way we stopped to see the view of the crater lake that is on the Uganda 20,000 note.

We stopped to start the hike described in the itinerary which was over some hills - about 2 hours and about 3.5 miles.  As mentioned above, Moreen said we didn’t need poles and I would say she was wrong, but we all survived without incident.  Parts of it were quite steep and Ann clocked one of the up hill sections at a 30+ angle of ascent.  And it was hot.  We were hiking during the middle of the day.

We made it to the “Top of the World” view point where we could see all three lakes. This is also where Nkuringo is building another lodge. Hopefully this is to be completed this year.

A particularly steep downhill brought us to the edge of one of the crater lakes where the guide told us of two hippos, Happy and Friendly, that adopted the 3 lakes and would walk between them.  For the next part of the walk we followed the hippo trail hoping to spot them along the way.

We continued through several villages and farming areas.  We saw coffee trees and tea farms.  The villages generally looked much more prosperous than Entebbe and much cleaner.

Our hike to the Top of the World and back down again

We finished up the hike and took the jeeps the rest of the way to the Forest. 

Kibale National Forest is known for its primate viewing and it didn’t disappoint us today.  Almost immediately after entering we saw several families of baboon and grey cheeked mangabey monkeys with very long thin tails.  Also there are some lovely butterflies.

Finally we arrived at our home for the next three nights, the Primate Lodge Kibele. 

Where we were greeted with a fresh juice.

Our Room

We have a lovely room, but there are some issues with a blown electric generator.  As a result, there was no WiFi when they turn off the backup generator so it can cool down.  During our stay we had intermittent blackouts while the backup generator was allowed to cool. The main generator was expected to be fixed be in 3 days’ time (about the time we leave).  During our free afternoon the electricity was off more than it was on.  Even though we were promised hot water wouldn’t be affected, by the time I took a shower the water had turned pretty cold, pretty quick.  My view is that it was all part of the adventure.

When we were finally allowed to have lunch, lunch was lovely - I had soup and fruit.  We weren’t allowed lunch until about 2:30pm.  Our breakfast had been at 5am….There were snacks in the car, but I’m not sure anyone really had any, so our group was pretty hungry.

Dinner was at 7 and on the way to dinner we had a chimpanzee sighting in the Lodge grounds.  It was wonderful to watch them for about an hour.  They even finally came down to the ground.  They were much bigger than expected and this experience was so much better than going on safari from a jeep.

While waiting for dinner we watched the antics of a baboon family in the trees.

Chimps and Baboons at the Hotel

Dinner was amazing - The soup was carrot and ginger.  I was sorry I didn’t have that as it was amazing.  I had the “taste of Uganda” which was navy beans in a rather spicy brown sauce with mashed plantain, half a chapati and rice.  It was delicious.  Dessert was crepe suzette which was also tasty.  I ate way too much.

We had peppermint tea delivered to the room and we fell into bed.

January 10 - Chimpanzee tracking experience, Swamp Walk, Germans and the Night Hike

From the itinerary: After an early breakfast, you'll head to the Kibale Forest National Park Visitor Centre for a briefing from the Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers before beginning your morning chimpanzee tracking experience. The forest walk usually lasts between 2 to 5 hours, depending on the location of the chimpanzee community.

Along the way, your guide will interpret the sights and sounds of the forest ... from butterflies

and birds to primates such as the red colobus, black-and-white colobus, and red-tailed monkeys.

Once you locate the chimpanzees, you will spend up to one hour observing them as they play, feed, and interact in their natural habitat. It's an extraordinary, humbling encounter.

Return to the lodge for lunch and a short rest. In the afternoon, visit the

Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a community-run project known for its rich birdlife, butterflies, and

the chance to spot more primates, including grey-cheeked mangabeys.

It was again an early morning, but we were able to walk to the reserve. Our experience was more like a nature walk, but even this we needed a couple of people with us with AK47s in case we encountered any agressive animals. We learned about medicinal plants and finally saw a small troop of 4 chimps, one mother with a baby and an older son. The viewing experience wasn't the best as it was very crowded with other groups vying to see the group, although they eventually cleared out. The best part was when other chimpanzee groups vocalized and group we watched reacted. 

We walked in and saw another few coming through, one of which climbed down and almost went over to say high to Lisa and Rob. 

From there we walked over to a place and stood to hear interesting chimpanzee facts. This was interesting until it was clear he was just trying to fill time.  I believe we stood there for about an hour and would have preferred we walked on to see other areas of nature. 

Lunch was lovely potato and leek soup and fruit for desert (no photos).

The afternoon activity was a walk through the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary. This was billed as a bird watching trip through the swamp. We saw several different types of monkeys, but no birds.   The walk through the actual swamp was along a wooden walkway which was a bit exciting as parts weren’t up to good repair. 

At the other end we ended up at a community. Thankfully there were not a lot of children to hang around me. Our first experience was a coffee making demonstration. The women rebelled when they wanted to wear local clothes. The demonstration was mildly interesting- I enjoyed watching Rob, John and Chris try their hands at pounding the beans. 

From there it was to weaving. There was a dance demonstration and Rob and John were good sports and danced with them. 

Thankfully we didn’t have time for the banana man and had to rush back for dinner which was another taste of Uganda- tonight chicken and peas. It was delicious. 

The night hike was a bit of a disappointment. The fireflies were amazing but the Germans with their lights were really annoying. We didn’t see much of anything, except Vena found this pretty feather. 

Poor Vena erased all her photos while we were waiting to go on the hike:(. 

While writing this I am lying in bed and listening to thunder in the distance 

January 11 - Mountain biking. NOT.

From the itinerary: After breakfast, you'll set off for an incredible experience riding through the scenic landscapes surrounding Kibale National Park and its chain of crater lakes. Cycle along winding single tracks through small villages and farmlands accompanied by a local guide (approximately 3 hours).

Take in views of lush forest edges, rolling tea fields, and the distant Rwenzori Mountains. Return to the lodge in the afternoon to relax and enjoy the tranquil forest setting before dinner in the evening.

This is a lie-in day because we had nothing planned in the morning.  We had a lovely Ugandan Rolex for breakfast - this is an omelet rolled up in a chapati. 

The morning group (Lisa, Rob, Chris, John) went mountain bike riding.  Vena, Ann, Chris and I had a chat and then the girls went for the nature walk where we saw a very interesting spider. This is called an orb weaver spider and had 4 horns on it.

On the way back we saw red-tailed monkeys.

The group came back from the morning bike ride and confirmed my worst fears about the biking difficulty factor, but some good news about a nice lodge where we could stay and relax with WiFi (ours still hadn’t been repaired).  So today was a day off for me and I got a lot of admin stuff done.  Vena did the easier biking trail which still seemed to be very challenging.

Our return to the hotel included the Banana Man who made all sorts of alcoholic beverages with bananas. 

He seemed to have sampled quite a lot of his product by the time we got there. 

I was able to get a good shot of a weaver bird, which are very pretty.

We also saw an interesting way of transporting live chickens....

I had avocado toast for dinner which seemed to be enough (no photos) and was very tasty with tobasco sauce.

The night was very black when I got up to go to the bathroom and I was thankful not to run into anything and to find my way back to the bed….