15 Days Uganda Rwanda Safari Guided Motorcycle Tour

You will be picked up at the airport. Kigali is a big city with friendly inhabitants. The city is scattered over several hills. It is developing rapidly, with shopping malls and office buildings. It is a safe city, and many claim it to be the tidiest urban area in Africa. You are not allowed to bring in plastic bags, and it is unmentionable to through rubbish on the streets. We stay in a nice hotel with a swimming pool and bar.

We start riding through the city streets that curve alongside the many hills. Getting out of the city is a challenge with big trucks climbing those same hills. But we quickly leave the tarmac and follow our journey through the country side. We will stop for a simple lunch and then continue our way west to Kibuye, a town situated at Lake Kivu. This fresh lake is believed to be one to five million years old and has a depth of 485 metres. Straddling the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kivu is one of a string of lakes lining the East African Rift Valley where the African continent is being slowly pulled apart by tectonic forces. The resulting stresses thin the Earth’s crust and trigger volcanic activity, creating hot springs below Kivu that feed hot water, carbon dioxide and methane into the lake’s bottom layers.

All day long we follow the coastline of Lake Kivu again. This is a mountainous area and therefore often gives great views. We will spend a while following the notorious Congo-Nile trail while our support car follows another route. Ruhengeri is tour destination for the day. Every now and then the road is very bad. At the top of the lake we turn off the trail and ride alongside the many volcanoes of the Volcanoes National Park. This gives way for spectacular scenery.

We ride on a winding road between two lakes and then arrive at the border with Uganda. In Uganda, we ride to the town of Kisoro. Depending the time, it takes to cross the border, we will make a detour around Lake Muhule and follow a path of lava rock into the mountains. Then we continue on a beautiful tarmac road that curves, bends, descends and climbs along small villages, banana fields and lush green vegetation. Our last kilometers will be on a gravel road riding on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, home of an immense diversity of species but most famous for its Mountain Gorillas. There are about 459 Gorillas’ living in the forest, which makes up almost half of all the mountain gorillas in the world.

We will spend the entire day visiting the Gorillas. We will have arranged the necessary permits in advance. Only eight people per day are allowed to visit the three gorilla families. We can stay with the family for a maximum of one hour. A family sleeps in a different place every night. In the early morning so-called 'trackers' are sent to locate the family. The group of eight visitors, led by a guide and a few rangers, will then be guided through the dense forest to the family via GPS coordinates. How long we have to walk to get to the gorillas is therefore entirely dependent on where the family is. But this uniquehour with the gorillas is worth every walk. Alternatively, you can stay relaxing at our nice hotel, walk around the forest village where we stay, or do a guided nature tour.

Today we ride into the real highlands. The unpaved roads take us across the mountain range to the hilly landscape along Lake Edward. Here begins the Queen Elisabeth National Park. A long, unpaved road runs through this park. We follow this route and almost certainly see wildlife on the way. Uganda is still the only country in Africa where you can ride through some nature parks with a motorbike. We stay at one of the many crater lakes at a local family run Ecolodge and campsite. The owner can share stories about the community and several initiatives they work on to empower the people.

In the morning there is an option to go Chimpanzee trekking. We are close to a population of Chimpanzees not often visited by tourists. From a greater distance you can already hear the huge population of chimpanzees who are foraging high in the trees. When we get closer they will first show us that they are the rulers of the forest by making a lot of noise and shouting. Alternatively, you can take a crater walk. We are close to the Kazinga channel, which divides Lake Edward from Lake George. We can organize a 2-hour boat ride along the shores of Queen Elizabeth Park to see fishermen, many types of birds, crocodiles, hypos, and land animals – such as buffalo, waterbucks, often elephants, and sometimes even a lion. We will continue our way to pass the equator. On the west side of the road is the Ruwenzori mountain range, with the 4.843 meters high mount Baker. On the east side is the Kibale Forest National Park. We spend the night here in a jungle lodge. Watch out for all the monkeys surrounding our dinner table!

Today we have an exciting riding day through the rural countryside of southern Uganda. Beautiful mountain ranges shrouded in mist reveal themselves and are interspersed with tea plantations. Groups of women in colourful clothes walk through the fields with big loads on their heads. We pass through villages and banana fields as we curve our way to Lake Mburu Lake Mburo is a small national park surrounding the lake of the same name. This is the only park where we can officially enter with our motorbikes as there are no wild cats and elephants. Here we will spot small groups of zebras, buffalos and giraffes.

We start the day with a nice off-road route towards Mbarara. After a short tarmac road, we will continue on a long gravel stretch towards the Tanzania border. After lunch, we take the highway towards Kabale. We will climb to above 2,000 meters! Next, it is a short off-road ride to our accommodation where we can enjoy a cold drink overlooking the lake.

We start the morning with an opportunity to either sleep in, take a canoe ride, or enjoy a village walk. Then we start the engines again and head to the border. After the border, we quickly leave the highway and ride into the tea plantations region. This is an adventurous route that brings us to Nyagatare, a small provincial town.

We head our way to the south where we ride through warm and low-lying plains. We can enjoy empty stretches of new highway with digital speed cameras checking our speed. We will still definitely enjoy some gravel roads along the Akagera National Park, a long stretch of protected area from north to south that borders Tanzania. The park includes savannah, woodland, and swamp habitats and a dozen of lakes. After practically eliminating poaching in just five years, lions and black rhinos were reintroduced between 2015 and 2018, and white rhinos were introduced in 2021 in a conservation move to help protect the species.

Today there is the option to do a game ride to explore the richness of the National Park, both in nature and in wildlife. There is also option to do a half-day trip in the area on the motorbike. You can also opt to just relax with a book.

Today we take an adventurous ride along the Burundi border. It is mostly gravel that we will see today, so it is good to have had a rest day beforehand. It will also become more hilly again, and the vegetation changes. Also, the population density changes: Rwanda is very populated - it is as dense as the Netherlands - but we now head into an area where we will not see people every kilometre! We stay in a simple town near an African Art Museum

Today we head back to Kigali. Depending on the time left today we can ride on the provincial border to Muhanga on the main road and continue the highway into Kigali. However, we could also follow unpaved roads to reach Kigali. We are back in our hotel where we started. In the afternoon you can visit the genocide museum and the Hotel Milles Colinnes (hotel Rwanda from the film of the same name). Alternatively, you can enjoy the hotel Sauna/massage facilities.

It's the end of the trip and time to say goodbye. You will leave for a flight to return home.