I recently returned from an 18-day tour of Kenya and Uganda with Acacia Africa. It was a tremendous experience and I’m thrilled to share the highlights in this post. In time I’ll write more in-depth about each part of our itinerary, but for now here’s an overview.

This particular tour is called Mountain Gorillas to the Mara. You can do longer or shorter versions of this trip; there are dozens of itineraries to pick from on the Acacia Africa website. This one covers the parts of Kenya & Uganda that I most wanted to see, and the dates fit in well with my other African travels. Plus a friend of mine had recently come back from overlanding in Africa and recommended this company.

“Overlanding” refers to a certain style of travel (read my full post about it here) — instead of flying from place to place, this kind of tour drives the whole way… even if it means covering extremely long distances in the vehicle. (Two days of our trip we drove for 14 hours with only toilet stops — departing at 4am and rolling up to our campsite at 6pm.) It’s typically cheaper than more efficient forms of travel, plus you get to see the countryside from the truck window. Each night we camp at various campsites; there’s an option to pay for a room upgrade if you want a night off from sleeping in a tent. Everyone is expected to pitch in by participating in daily chores like cleaning the truck, food prep, or meal clean-up duty. Due to the relatively slow pace and camping accommodation, this is among the most budget-friendly ways to travel around Africa.

Here’s our group of happy campers:

And our truly stellar tour guides, husband-and-wife team Riaan & Juliana from South Africa. For the past 18 years, they’ve lead tours throughout Africa during the off-season (winter in South Africa); the rest of the year they are UPMs (unit production managers) for film and TV shows that shoot in Cape Town. How cool is that?

Here is our overland truck, nicknamed Tana — it’s fairly comfortable and fits a surprising amount of gear: all our tents, sleeping mats, tables, chairs, food, cooking gear (including stove, oven, and coolers), over 20 passengers and their belongings, and dozens more miscellaneous items. See those numbered lockers in the back? We’re each assigned one to store our personal bag and gear.

Each day on tour, Tana looked like a tornado had whipped through it. But after the tour ended, Riaan & Juliana did a very thorough truck cleaning and Tana looks newer than ever.

Here’s a sample campsite, Eldoret in Kenya:

And a few scenes from overland life:

We majorly lucked out in the food department because Juliana is an excellent cook. In fact, she got her start in the film and TV industry by cooking for craft services in Cape Town many years ago. Those skills come in handy when you have a truck full of hungry campers to feed each night.

Here we are chopping up veggies for lunch one afternoon:

On one of our first nights together, we played an introduction drinking game… which involved doing a single shot of vodka that was 96% proof alcohol. My insides are still burning.

Here are some new friends from the tour: Brad from the States, Liz & Jason from Canada, Kamani from New Zealand and Cheryl from Australia.

Here are Johannes and Thomas, two brothers from Germany. They were the most helpful passengers (always jumping to do any task or assist in any way) and also the biggest troublemakers (pumping a fog machine and fire cracker into our tents on the first night as a practical joke).

A big pile of love:

On day 1 of our tour, we visited Lake Nakuru which is located just a few hours’ drive from Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. We jumped into a game drive vehicle and spent several hours searching for wildlife. Since it was my first time on safari, I didn’t realize how lucky we were — we saw great diversity and number of species.

Like these male black rhinos, who took turns charging at each other:

And this tableau of zebras and gazelles:

We also saw a lioness in a tree (!), a rhino with birds eating ticks off its body, lots of water buffalo, and flamingos in the distance on Lake Nakuru.

Here our group gets off the game drive vehicle to relax for a moment at Lake Nakuru:

The next day we cross over the equator in Kenya; soon enough we’ll pass it again on the Uganda side.

Here we are entering Uganda and visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park:

We go chimp trekking here. Guides with machetes and machine guns (overkill if you ask me) lead us into the dense jungle to find chimps playing in trees. They’re cute to watch for awhile, but this is just a lukewarm preview for our exciting (and expensive) gorilla trek scheduled in a few days.

We spend our first night in Uganda at a fabulous campsite in the capital city of Kampala. It has a pool!

The next day we travel a LOOONG way across Uganda to Lake Bunyoni. It’s scenic and calm — I’m immediately won over by this charming location.

That evening we gather to watch the film Hotel Rwanda. This is another reason Riaan & Juliana are awesome — they have a projector and show movies a few nights during our tour (other topical selections include The Last King of Scotland and Gorillas in the Mist).

We have the next day free and our outstanding guides have offered to organize a group trip to neighboring Rwanda. This is feasible because the newly-launched East African visa ($100) covers three countries — Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, so we can easily get over there for a day trip. Previously, you’d have to re-pay the $50 Ugandan visa fee even if you only left for a few hours. So Riaan & Juliana are excited to visit Rwanda for the first time and have offered to arrange transport for the group so that we can go to Kigali, the capital city. They’ve planned for us to spend a few hours at the Genocide Museum and then have lunch at Hotel Des Mille Collines, which the film Hotel Rwanda was based on.

The following day is a big one: we go trekking to look for gorillas in the jungle. For many people this is the highlight of the entire tour — and at a price tag of $660 USD, there’s a lot riding on this hike. It can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 4 hours to find them, and then trekkers return back the way they came, so it can be an all-day activity. While we start out on an actual path, we soon veer off into the jungle and our machete-totting guide literally bush-whacks a trail.

We’re advised to wear boots and gloves. Here’s my gorilla trekking ensemble:

After two hours, we find a band of gorillas. There’s a whole family — one silverback male, a few females, and some young ones. We get up close and personal with them and it’s magical.

A few more photo highlights from this day:

On our way back across Uganda, we get lunch from street vendors — they crowd around our overland truck and we pull down the windows to bargain with them.

Here’s my friend Cheryl from Australia, who very patiently models food for me whenever we eat:

Our next stop in Uganda is Jinja, a town located on the Nile River. We stay at a great campground overlooking the river:

One night we all go out for a sunset cruise. Don’t we clean up nicely?

Here’s a few shots around sunset — it’s a spectacular one:

The most popular activity in Jinja is white water rafting on the Nile. There are many class 5 rapids, plus a class 6 rapid that we have to get out and walk around since it’s just for professionals.

It starts off all calm and smooth…

And ends up like this:

I am a total wimp in the rapids. I have some fun photos and videos to share when I do an in-depth recap of our white water adventure.

Following our four days in Jinja, we return to Kenya and visit Lake Naivasha. Some images from our campsite:

I spend our free day in Lake Naivasha visiting two attractions: Crater Lake and Hell’s Gate National Park.

The animals along the Crater Lake walk are really impressive — giraffes and warthogs, plus buffalo, zebras, and more.

Hell’s Gate is best seen on bicycle, so I rent one and head 8km towards a hike in the gorge.

I find adventure on the way back — buffalos have blocked the path (they are quite dangerous and will charge humans without much provocation), so I flag down a bus of Kenyan schoolchildren and hitch a ride. They very kindly welcome me aboard, thereby saving my life!

The next day we return to Nairobi for a day of relaxation.

And now we’ve arrived at the final portion of our tour — a two-night trip to the Masai Mara National Reserve in southern Kenya. Our package includes an upgrade to a giant tent with beds and private (outdoor) toilets and showers.

It rains here both afternoons but we’re rewarded with impressive game drives — the Masai Mara is loaded with animals.

We spot two cheetahs, elephants playing in the mud, and a yawning lioness.

The next day we head out for an all-day game drive.

This time we spot more giraffes, and one-eyed male lion, and loads of elephants.

Most wildebeests have migrated from the Serengeti up into the Masai Mara by this time of year, and we see hundreds of them.

There’s a cornucopia of wildlife: hippos, giraffes, baboons, and Thompson’s gazelles.

And many more herds of elephants. I could watch these guys all day.

Our final stop is a Masai Mara village. We’re greeted by men of the tribe who are of age — they’re called warriors — who show off their colorful garb and demonstrate high jumping skills.

The village children are playfully adorable.

This tour exceeded expectations and I’m so pleased with Acacia Africa — and especially our guides, Riaan and Juliana — for showing us such a fantastic time.

I’m looking forward to sharing more photos and video from this trip in the coming months!

Many thanks to Acacia Africa for discounting my Mountain Gorillas to the Mara tour in exchange for blog and photography services. Opinions are my own.