“Close encounter with mountain gorillas”
15 Day Exploring Uganda-Rwanda Safari Guided Motorcycle Tour
Kigali, Rwanda
Uganda-Rwanda Motorcycle Tour
Uganda is also known as ‘The Pearl of Africa’. This is a challenging motorcycle journey through a wonderfully diverse country. You see the most beautiful parts of both Rwanda and Uganda. However close neighbors they are, you will see the difference. Rwanda is a mountain-packed country where you ride challenging off-road tracks. In Uganda, you take time to visit the gorillas and chimpanzees and ride through national parks and beautiful scenic roads.This is a fantastic experience that will linger in your memory for a long time to come.
Key information
- Terrain: 40% off-road
- Bike: rental bike (Kibo 250 or equivalent)
- Mileage: 2,000 kilometers / 1,243 miles
- Daily rides: 100 - 240 kilometers / 62 - 149 miles
- Riding gear: Mandatory items include a helmet, motorcycle jacket with protection, gloves, a good strong pair of (motorcycle) trousers with protection or separate knee armor, and sturdy high (mountain) boots
- Meals: breakfasts
Meet the instructors
Remco
Read more
Read more
Highlights
- Starts and ends in Kigali, Rwanda
- Make your way west to Kibuye, a town situated at Lake Kivu
- Follow the notorious Congo-Nile trail
- Make a detour around Lake Muhule and follow a path of lava rock into the mountains
- Take a long, unpaved road through Queen Elisabeth National Park
- Ride through the rural countryside of southern Uganda
- Pass through villages and banana fields as you curve your way to Lake Mburu
- 14 nights accommodation
Skill level
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
13 days with instruction in English
The organizer also speaks: Dutch, German
Group size: 6-10 participants
Airport transfer included:
Kigali International Airport (Kanombe Airport)
Accommodation
With a few exceptions, you will spend the night in comfortable mid-range hotels during this trip.
Program
Itinerary
Day 1: Flight departure - arrival Kigali
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. You stay in a nice hotel with a swimming pool and bar.
Day 2: Kigali - Kibuye (Lake Kivu)
You 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 you quickly leave the tarmac and follow your journey through the countryside. You will stop for a simple lunch and then continue your way west to Kibuye, a town at Lake Kivu.
This fresh lake is believed to be one to five million years old and has a depth of 485 meters. 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.
Day 3: Kibuye - Ruhengeri
All day long you follow the coastline of Lake Kivu again. This is a mountainous area and therefore often gives great views. You will spend a while following the notorious Congo-Nile trail while the support car follows another route.
Ruhengeri is a tour destination for the day. Every now and then the road is very bad. At the top of the lake, you turn off the trail and ride alongside the many volcanoes of the Volcanoes National Park. This gives way for spectacular scenery.
Day 4: Ruhengeri - Lake Ruhija
You ride on a winding road between two lakes and then arrive at the border with Uganda. In Uganda, you ride to the town of Kisoro. Depending the time, it takes to cross the border, you will make a detour around Lake Muhule and follow a path of lava rock into the mountains. Then you continue on a beautiful tarmac road that curves, bends, descends and climbs along small villages, banana fields and lush green vegetation. The last kilometres 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.
Day 5: Lake Rhuija - stay Gorilla tracking
You will spend the entire day visiting the Gorillas. They will have arranged the necessary permits in advance. Only eight people per day are allowed to visit the three gorilla families. You 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 you 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 the nice hotel, walk around the forest village where you stay, or do a guided nature tour.
Day 6: Lake Mutanda - Dave the Cave
Today you ride into the real highlands. The unpaved roads take you 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. You 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.You 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.
Day 7: Dave the Cave - Lake Nkuruba
In the morning there is an option to go Chimpanzee trekking. You 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 you get closer they will first show you that they are the rulers of the forest by making a lot of noise and shouting.
Alternatively, you can take a crater walk. You are close to the Kazinga channel, which divides Lake Edward from Lake George. They 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.
You will continue your 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. You spend the night here in a jungle lodge. Watch out for all the monkeys surrounding your dinner table!
Day 8: Lake Nkuruba - Lake Mburo
Today you 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 colorful clothes walk through the fields with big loads on their heads. You pass through villages and banana fields as you curve your way to Lake Mburu. Lake Mburo is a small national park surrounding the lake of the same name. This is the only park where you can officially enter with your motorbikes as there are no wild cats and elephants. Here you will spot small groups of zebras, buffalos and giraffes.
Day 9: Lake Mburo - Lake Bunyonyi
You start the day with a nice off-road route towards Mbarara. After a short tarmac road, you will continue on a long gravel stretch towards the Tanzania border. After lunch, you take the highway towards Kabale. You will climb to above 2,000 meters! Next, it is a short off-road ride to your accommodation where you can enjoy a cold drink overlooking the lake.
Day 10: Lake Bunyonyi - Nyagatare
You start the morning with an opportunity to either sleep in, take a canoe ride, or enjoy a village walk. Then you start the engines again and head to the border. After the border, you quickly leave the highway and ride into the tea plantations region. This adventurous route brings you to Nyagatare, a small provincial town.
Day 11: Nyagatare - Akagera National Park
You head your way to the south where you ride through warm and low-lying plains. You can enjoy empty stretches of new highways with digital speed cameras checking your speed. You 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.
Day 12: Akagera National Park
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 the option to do a half-day trip in the area on the motorbike. You can also opt to just relax with a book.
Day 13: Akagera - Nyanza
Today you take an adventurous ride along the Burundi border. It is mostly gravel that you will see today, so it is good to have had a rest day beforehand. It will also become more hilly again, and the vegetation will change. Also, the population density changes: Rwanda is very populated - it is as dense as the Netherlands - but you now head into an area where you will not see people every kilometre! You stay in a simple town near an African Art Museum.
Day 14: Nyanza - Kigali
Today you head back to Kigali. Depending on the time left today you can ride on the provincial border to Muhanga on the main road and continue the highway into Kigali. However, you could also follow unpaved roads to reach Kigali. You are back in your hotel where you 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.
Day 15: Kigali - home
Today is departure day.
Skill level(s)
Beginner:
- can ride for 2-3 hours
- minimal riding experience
- assistance required
- comfortable with curves and leans
- basic experience with unsurfaced roads
- short distance ascents and descents
Intermediate:
- can ride for 3-4 hours
- average riding experience
- little assistance required
- comfortable with extreme curves and leans
- average experience with unsurfaced roads
- steep ascents and descents
Advanced:
- can ride for 5-6 hours
- extensive riding experience
- assistance on demand (if required)
- experienced with riding a variety of motorcycles
- comfortable with any terrain and weather conditions
Motorbikes
During this trip, you ride on a Haojin 200cc or equivalent motorbike.
Difficulty and off-road
During this trip, you do not ride at significant heights. The bad slippery roads (particularly after rain) can make travel heavy, however, this will probably only last a few days. About 60% of the route is on asphalt roads, which are often of remarkably good quality. Most gravel roads are also in decent condition. For a small part of the trip, you ride on more challenging unpaved roads. The quality of these roads is very different.
Instructors
Remco Van Stappershoesf
Remco studied business economics at the University of Amsterdam and worked for a number of years in business. When he worked as a management consultant in Uganda in 2002 and 2003, he became addicted to riding a motorbike in this beautiful country and surrounding countries. During that time he spend about 20,000 km on a 125cc Susuki through East Africa. Since then, he has combined his permanent work with travel and travel. For the Dutch travel agency Sawadee, he worked as a tourguide in Africa, but also in the Middle East and Asia. In 2009 he traveled through Latin America for six months.
Location
Route
- Day 1: Arrival Kigali, Rwanda
- Day 2: Kigali Karongi (160 km / 99 miles), Rwanda
- Day 3: Karongi Ruhangeri (172 km / 107 miles), Rwanda
- Day 4: Ruhangeri Ruhija (150 km / 93 miles), Uganda
- Day 5: Ruhija Gorilla Trekking, Uganda
- Day 6: Ruhija Dave the Cave (170 km / 106 miles), Uganda
- Day 7: Dave the Cave Lake Nkurubu (130 km / 81 miles), Uganda
- Day 8: Lake Nkurubu Lake Mburo (233 km / 145 miles), Uganda
- Day 9: Lake Mburo Lake Bunyoni (240 km / 149 miles), Uganda
- Day 10: Lake Bunyoni Nyagatare (120 km / 75 miles), Rwanda
- Day 11: Nyagatare Akagera National Park (155 km / 96 miles), Rwanda
- Day 12: Akagera National Park Stay, Rwanda
- Day 13: Akagera National Park Nyanza (100 km / 62 miles), Rwanda
- Day 14: Nyanza Kigali (175 km / 109 miles), Rwanda
- Day 15: Kigali - Departure, Rwanda
- Day 16: Arrival - Home country (not included)
Food
The following meals are included:
- Breakfast
- Drinks
The following drinks are included:
- Water
The following dietary requirement(s) are served and/or catered for:
- Regular (typically includes meat and fish)
If you have special dietary requirements it's a good idea to communicate it to the organiser when making a reservation
What's included
- All airport transfers
- 14 nights accommodation, including most breakfasts
- Motorcycle hire
- Support vehicle with local driver
- Fuel for the support vehicle
- Accompanying mechanic in support vehicle
- English tour guide on motorcycle
- Liability insurance for the motorcycle
- Comprehensive booklet
What's not included
- International flights
- Airport taxes and fuel surcharges
- Optional gorilla tracking permit (between 650 - 800 USD)
- Optional permit to visit chimpanzees
- All other meals and drinks
- Personal expenses
- Fuel for motorcycle
- Damage on motorcycle (must be paid afterward)
- Travel and cancellation insurance
- Cost of visa for Uganda (at the border 50 USD)
- Cost of visa for Rwanda
How to get there
Recommended Airports
KGL
Kigali International Airport (Kanombe Airport)
5 km
Transfer included
Airport: Kigali International Airport (Kanombe Airport)
Airport transfer included: Kigali International Airport (Kanombe Airport)
No additional charges. You can request this in the next step.
Cancellation Policy
- A reservation requires a deposit of 15% of the total price.
- The deposit is non-refundable, if the booking is cancelled.
- The rest of the payment should be paid 30 days before arrival.
For this organizer you can guarantee your booking through Tripaneer.com. All major credit cards supported.
114290
Similar Holidays you might like
Why choose Tripaneer.com
Largest Selection
Friendly Customer Service
Offers for every budget
Best Price