Traveling through Uganda and Kenya at your own pace with a 4×4 Car with rooftop tent is the ideal way for many travelers to discover the beautiful countries. Self-drives through Africa have become very popular in recent years. All the self-drive routes are tailor-made, entirely according to the wishes of the customer.
I have been on various safaris in Kenya and Uganda over the last 20 years but my road trip Africa experience was absolutely outstanding and awesome from start to finish. It went straight to the top of the list of my safari trips.
Below are the some of the reasons you should visit Kenya on a self-drive safari and see its attractions.
The beautiful classic wildlife is the main reason to visit Kenya. While many visitors come for the migration, Kenya is excellent year-round, with a large number of world-class national parks – apart from the Masai Mara, there’s Amboseli, Samburu, Lake Nakuru, Tsavo East and Tsavo West – where superb wildlife-watching is almost guaranteed.
Kenya is a Big Five attraction, with healthy populations of elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard and rhino, but the birdlife is also outstanding, as is the cultural element – this is the land of the Maasai, Samburu, Turkana and others. The sheer number of habitats, too, make for wonderful scenery – endless horizons in the Maasai Mara, tropical forests in Kakamega, the starkly beautiful parks of the north, and peerless Kilimanjaro views from Amboseli.”
You watch and spot wildlife on a self-drive’s Kenyan parks, but it can vary from park to park. Most of the more popular parks that you can visit on a Kenya tour – Amboseli, Maasai Mara, Samburu and Lake Nakuru – have fabulous wildlife-watching opportunities. Dense wildlife populations in all of these parks make them good all-round safari destinations that enable you to see as many animals (and different species) as you can in a short period of time.
Other parks are more specialist – such as the birds and primates of Kakamega, and the sitatunga in Saiwa Swamp – allowing you to tick off a hard-to-find species, usually without the crowds. And a more exclusive Kenyan safari experience is possible in the conservancies of Laikipia – you pay more, but, with the exception of Ol Pejeta Conservancy, crowds are non-existent and wildlife watching is excellent. At most of these conservancies, you can get off-road as well, meaning that you’ll get a lot closer to the animals than you will in a national park
Best months to visit Kenya for wildlife safaris are June to October. During these months, the weather is always dry (although it can get really hot in October and the tail-end of September) and most trails are open. This also coincides with the wildebeest and zebra migration in the Masai Mara. This is the dry season, and as it progresses, water sources for animals tend to dry up and become fewer, drawing animals in numbers to those that remain.
Note, during the dry months, crowds are also larger in some parks, the line of safari vehicles can take away something from your experience, and some areas of the Maasai Mara can be completely overwhelmed with vehicles during the migration.
I also visited Uganda on my self-drive safari and this was a must visit bucket list. Uganda has so much to offer by my highlight were mountain gorillas. They have a small range extending over Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Between these countries, four parks offer mountain gorilla trekking. Most popular and accessible are Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda and Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda.
The experience in these parks is similar, but with some differences. While gorillas live in thick rain forest in Bwindi, their habitat in Volcanoes National Park is mainly bamboo forest. Although you can’t predict where gorillas will be each day, the treks in Bwindi are usually more demanding than those in Rwanda. The tracking is part of the experience, so if you’re physically fit, a longer trek can be a positive.
Besides mountain gorillas, Uganda has so much to offer including Queen Elizabeth National Park. The park offers a variety of activities such as chimpanzee trekking in Kyambura Gorge and a boat trip on Kazinga Channel. The wildlife is diverse and one of the highlights is the tree-climbing lions in the Ishasha sector of the park.
Murchison Falls National Park is another attraction one can visit on a self-drive safari. The park offers excellent wildlife viewing as well as spectacular scenic beauty. You can take a boat trip on the Nile River to the famous Murchison Falls or to the delta. The latter is particularly rewarding for birders, and sightings of the prehistoric shoe bill are very common in this area.
You can also self-drive to the remote Kidepo Valley National Park. This park offers a true wilderness experience and is home to many species that don’t occur elsewhere in the country, including the graceful cheetah and Ostrich. And to the primate lovers should visit Kibale Forest National Park as it offers the most reliable chimpanzee trekking in the country, and a special habituation program is available for visitors wanting the spend a full day with their closest.
So, all in all I strongly recommend 4×4 Car Hire Uganda. The jeep was in a good condition. We had a very nice time and everything was as it was supposed to. Nothing to complain about.
