Wildlife
The Animal Within
Driving a 4x4 vehicle outfitted with roof tents and camping gear in the middle of the African bush, on long game drives, meeting hidden tribes and getting an insight into their lives, soaking up on breath-taking landscapes - rift valley, crater lakes, tropical evergreen jungle and the spectacular African savannah - that’s the ‘Pearl in the Bush’ for you. An overland drive that knits through 5 major national parks in Uganda, home to Africa’s Big Five, it offers opportunities to spot some of the most endangered species in the world in their natural habitat, away from the touristy and commercial feel (as in Tanzania and Kenya). Mountain gorillas, chimpanzees and the tree-climbing Savuti pride of lions, besides the many herds of elephants, hippos and a rich variety herbivore game are top attractions. The Karamajong people, who inhabit the North – their life and lifestyle is a huge highlight. The route also touches the famous Murchison falls wherein the river Nile makes a jaw-dropping descent through a narrow gorge. As the African bush life crawls up every inch of your mind, body and soul, it also exposes you to simplicity, bare-bone living, joy and beauty to help you reflect, recalibrate, and construct a fulfilling life. This overland drive is also ideal for families who wish to head out on an exotic wildlife experience driving their own 4wd vehicle. If life in the bush, driving besides lions and elephants on dirt tracks with your near and dear ones in remote corners of Africa has fascinated you, then join us to live every moment of it!
Explore a world that is so similar, yet, distinctly so different from ours. This drive is about not just seeing animals; it is about gaining an insight into their behavior and life in order to understand the animal within each of us.
Quick Facts
- Dates: Jan 2024
- Mode: self-drive, 4wd expedition ready Toyota Landcruiser or similar
- Start and End point: Entebbe, Uganda
- Max no. of participants: 16
- Nature of drive: exciting drive through pretty landscape, on game tracks
- Difficult level: Level 2, Intermediate
- Total Distance: 2600kms
- Total No. of driving day: 14
- No. of bush camping nights: 6
Highlights
- Meet the Karamajong tribe; agro pastoral herders who migrated from Ethiopia in search of pastures in 1600AD and settled along the Sudan, Kenya and Ugandan borders. Visit their homesteads to understand what has kept them ticking for this long – forgotten, isolated yet content and indeed very healthy people!
- Experience the Kraal; highly concealed, fortified with multiple layers of thorn bush fence, these are cattle camps in the bush, the workplace of the Karamajong. Witness spearing of the cow, and taste (if you’d like) the meal that they believe has kept them healthy for hundreds of years – cattle blood mixed with milk!
- Kidepo National Park; located in the northeastern corner of Uganda, the rugged savannah is punctuated with large herds of game, buffaloes (over a thousand of them in a herd), zebras, giraffe, umpteen number of elephants, the park has the Cheetah, Lions and the Leopard for the cats
- Murchison Falls National Park; home to the world’s most powerful waterfall, the park is brimming with game; especially the giraffe, elephants, lions and plenty many herbivores
- Camping in the bush; hear the bush as you sleep in the midst of animals, on roof top tents, only to be entertained by orchestra of the wild – all night long!
- Boat cruise on the Nile; watch the hippos and crocs up close as we spend an afternoon going upstream to see the powerful Murchison falls on the river Nile by boat; the wildlife are in plenty inside and along the river
- Chimp hike at Kibale National Park; track a family of chimpanzees in the wild inside Kibale National Park which is known for its primate diversity
- Queen Elizabeth National Park; known for its lions and elephants, the park rests on a large crater – cactus trees are unique to this landscape. Mix of marshlands, savannah, crater lakes and fertile swamps – the sunrise and sunsets here are some of the best
- Tree Climbing Lions of Ishasha; for some reason, just two prides of Lions in the world have adapted to climbing big fig trees and have begun to prefer the trees than the ground. One pride lives in Tanzania and the other in Uganda. We go looking for these magnificent beats on the fig trees in Ishasha, Southern part of Queen Elizabeth National Park
- Gorilla Tracking at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park; track our closest relatives in the wild who share 98.6% of our DNA – the mountain gorillas at Bwindi. Its surreal and eye opening – an encounter that is so up close and personal.
- Just some stunning landscapes; experience the length and breadth of Uganda across regions, wherein the transition drives from one park to another offer extraordinarily different landscapes
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