Chimpanzee tracking in Kibale Forest

a truly delightful area to visit

At 766 square kilometres, Kibale National Park is a reasonably large conservation area which is located around 20 km to the southeast of the town of Fort Portal in south-western Uganda.

It is the prime location in the country for chimpanzee tracking, home to an estimated 1500 chimps, divided into fifty or more groups. Some of these groups have become habituated to the presence of humans and can be reasonably easily found and approached.

Kibale National Forest has one of the highest diversity and concentrations of primates in Africa, with thirteen species including chimpanzees, Ugandan red colobus monkeys, L’Hoest’s monkeys, Uganda grey-cheeked mangabeys, black-and-white colobus monkeys, red colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, olive baboons, bushbabies and pottos.

The reserve has established itself as an essential stop on the main safari route through Uganda, usually in combination with the gorilla tracking in Bwindi Forest and savanna safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Of the roughly 30-50% of visitors to Uganda who choose to explore beyond the gorillas of Bwindi Forest, almost everyone deploys nights in the Kibale area.

The usual stay duration in this area is 3-5 nights.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Kibale Forest is generally considered to be during the May-Sep and Dec-Feb dry seasons.

The is dominated by a tropical rainforest climate, which is characterised by high temperatures year round. It also tends to rain year round, but some months are usually slightly drier than others.

Getting around

Up to around 2015 getting around Uganda was something of a mission. The only real option was to travel by guided overland safari, which might sound great, but the reality was that most of the hard miles were on relatively uninteresting main roads rather than interesting safari areas. It was both tiresome, time consuming and, for smaller groups, surprisingly expensive.

Fortunately there is now a reliable schedule of light aircraft flights connecting the main safari areas, operating out of the hub airport at Entebbe and visiting Bwindi Forest, QENP, Kibale Forest, Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley.

However we are big fans of overland safari when done in the right areas, so we now maintain a fleet of safari vehicles out in the Western Rift Valley, which enables us to connect by road between Bwindi Forest, QENP and Kibale Forest, as an optional inset to a flying safari.

The Kibale Forest area can therefore be connected by light aircraft, usually in a clockwise loop, in from Bwindi Forest or QE and out to Murchison Falls or back to Entebbe. There are multiple airstrips in the area to serve the various lodge locations.

Kibale Forest is also the usual end point for the overland segment driving north from Bwindi Forest and through QE.

We always include all connecting transport in your trip unless you specifically ask us not to.

Where to stay

The majority of the accommodation options in the Kibale Forest are clustered around the park headquarters on the western flank of the reserve.

Although there’s a couple of decent options, they are small and are unable to cater to the demand during the high seasons. The remainder of visitors are obliged to stay in a handful or rather simple facilities.

It is noticeable that no major safari companies have yet committed to a major development in this area, presumably due to the shortcomings of the protection provided by the parks authority and the resulting lack of reassurance to potential long term investors.

The stand-out option is undoubtedly the intimate Ndali Lodge.

usually combined with the gorillas of Bwindi Forest