uganda & kenya: bwindi’s gorillas and the conservancies

Road inside each country, air between the regions.

In Uganda the Nteko ridge is either a long day on the road from Entebbe or a scheduled light aircraft, an 11-seat Cessna Grand Caravan, to one of the airstrips serving Bwindi and a slow run on dirt at the far end; we confirm which suits your dates.

The crossing to Kenya is flown into Nairobi, which is what the night in Karen is for. From there the three tracts of private land are linked by light aircraft, beginning with the flight out to Mara North and continuing to Namunyak and the Laikipia walking country.

Not every conservancy airstrip has a scheduled service, so we also build in private charters, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12. Scheduled aircraft allow 15 kilograms each in soft bags, hand luggage counted.

Very likely, though nobody can promise a sighting.

Trackers are out at first light at the nests the family left, so the rangers start the morning with a fair idea of where to head, and we put success on Uganda's gorilla treks at better than 95 per cent.

The effort is the part nobody can predict. The lodge stands at roughly 2,000 metres on the Nteko ridge and the forest falls away below it, so the walk goes down in the morning and climbs back on the way home, when you have least left.

We allow two to seven hours for a trek and ask for moderate fitness, and the Authority limits you to one hour with the family. Sticks are handed out, porters can be hired, and trekkers must be 15 or over.

Only between about July and October, and only if a crossing matters more to you than the quiet.

The herds reach the wider Mara around July and stay into October, and the crossing points people wait at are inside the national reserve, so getting to one means a full day out of the conservancy with lunch in the car.

Nothing about it can be scheduled. A herd may go in within minutes of reaching the bank, mill about for days, or turn away, and plenty of mornings pass with nothing happening, so tell your guide on the first evening if it is the priority.

Outside those months, and on the other days, the conservancy repays the time instead: resident lions and leopards, a vehicle, guide and spotter to yourselves, and night drives, walking and off-road approaches, none of which the reserve permits.

Manageable for most people, and yes, the camels can be ridden.

A day is typically 8 to 15 kilometres and about four to five hours including stops for wildlife and a drink, walks are built around the fitness of the people on them, and it is nothing like a military march.

The country is high, about 5,000 feet, so the shade stays cool even in the middle of the day.

The camels carry what you would otherwise be carrying, the camp and the water and the food, with the day's drinks and snacks kept within reach, and anyone whose legs have had enough can get up on one.

Children are taken from about four years old, with the walk shaped around them. Bring boots you have already worn in.

Five months we rate highest at every stop: January and February, then July, August and September. They give the firmest footing in Bwindi, dry walking country in Laikipia, and the herds in the wider Mara from July onwards.

June, October and December are in-between months, sound in most places with a chance of showers somewhere along the way.

March and November are the two to think twice about, both rated challenging in Bwindi and November challenging in the Laikipia highlands too, which matters on a route that finishes on foot.

April and May are the long rains, rated challenging at every stop here.

The wetter months do carry real advantages: permits are easier at short notice, lodge rates come down, the Mara is green with newborn animals and few vehicles, and heavy cloud gives photographers soft, even light on a dark-coated animal.

Most of it moves, and two things do not.

Gorilla permits are issued for a named park on a named day, with eight places to each habituated family, so those dates go in first and the Kenyan half is built around them. The camel camp is put up and taken down for your party, so it is planned rather than switched at short notice.

Both Kenyan camps are small, four tents at the Mara River crossed on foot by the rope bridge and six on the hillside at Namunyak, so they fill early and their dates tend to decide the shape of the fortnight.

Within that, the easy changes are the balance of nights: fewer in the Mara and more on foot, a second gorilla permit, or the coast added at the end. Tell us what matters most.