This private road trip safari with 4×4 rooftop tent car will take you to all East African safari parks and it starts from Rwanda to Tanzania to Kenya and finally end in Uganda. The safari routes will be successful with a 4×4 land cruiser hardtop, a manual and 05-seater car fully serviced to much your standards.
In Rwanda, our main interest was seeing mountain gorillas but started it with a city tour where we visited some historical places like Kigali genocide memorial. At this site, we were able to witness all what remained after the massacre in 1994. This where we remember and honour more than a million victims of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.
The centre has different exhibit places with space of skulls of survivors and their personal belongings, photographs of survivors, reconciliation efforts, and genocide perpetrators. Another space has photographs and descriptions of genocides that have happened around the world showing that this indeed is not a Rwandan problem but a world problem that should never happen again.
We later continued to Volcanoes National Park where we directly went to the camping site and had a wonderful night in the rooftop tent fully comfortable with its inbuilt mattress. We wake up early morning heading direct to the park headquarters for briefing and in groups of eight people we started searching for the gorillas which took us approximately 6hours to meet the apes and once we met them, we took one hour with them learning about their behaviours as well as their social habits. After the one hour, we went back to the starting point to pick our trekking certificates then later went for lunch.
After lunch, we went to the Dian Fossey Museum as a sign of respect to the woman conservationist who made the life of gorillas easy to grow.
At this museum, we visited Dian Fossey room where we encountered all her belongings, she used to use at the old research centre where she was buried. This gave us a greater insight of Dian.
Later went back to the camping site for yet another wonderful night in the rooftop tent where we were so safe to the extent that no wild animals can attack us since we were up on the car. Its such a flexible new methodology where you move with your bedding up on the car.
Early in the morning after breakfast, we drove heading to Tanzania fully enjoying the countryside with no panic of where to sleep since we were moving with our bedding. It was such a strong jeep maneuvering the roads of Serengeti national park. Once we reached the park, we head direct to the camping site prepared our delicious meal and then a great night in our rooftop tent.
Early in the morning after breakfast, we went for a game drive in the central Serengeti which gave us a great insight of the park. We started our day with an unforgettable sunrise game drive across the Serengeti. Saw the sun set fire to the savannah as predators such as leopards and lions hunt for their morning meal. This was led by an experienced guide who took us through the different corners of the park.
The day was spent exploring, spotting, taking photos and exclaiming at the natural world around us. Many delights are immediately recognized once you enter the field and it continues until we left the park. Continued to the northern part where we camped along the way enjoying the rooftop tent services.
Early wake up continuing to the migration centre. One of nature’s great occasions is the spate of annual river crossings by migrating wildebeest, with many in easy reach between July and October. If the migration coincided with our visit, and we witnessed this stupendous natural event, the drama of a river crossing is one of the experiences among many you can never miss.
Everywhere you look when out on the show is drama being played out, with participants ranging from the largest elephant to the smallest beetle. Each is a truly unforgettable encounter. We again took a 4×4 rooftop tent car service in a convenient camp site on our way to Masai Mara in Kenya. Wake up early took breakfast and took a countryside adventure as we headed to Kenya’s Masai Mara known for its great migration phenomenon.
The great migration is the annual trek of two million herbivores across the Serengeti/Mara ecosystem. Although the enormous herds of grunting gnus can be seen year-round, the world-famous, nail-biting Mara River crossings (July to October) are an absolute must for every wildlife enthusiast’s bucket list.
It is one of the reasons which we had to move in the same time range giving us a great deal to enjoy such grooves during the Mara crossing. We were able to encounter crocodiles in the water angry target the crossing animals as their meal. The predators were also along the river banks waiting for the same meal.
It is really surprising to see that after all those many days on the road, our 4×4 rooftop tent car is still strong pushing us to Uganda to enjoy our last bit of east Africa. We again crossed to Uganda through the Busia boarder and then take a short break at Jinja for relaxation before heading to Kidepo Valley National Park. The strength of this jeep was really amazing and we did not find any challenges with it. As we relax in Jinja, we had to visit the source of the Nile and also took up some refreshing activities like kayaking and rafting which really made us more rejuvenated to continue with our trip.
The Nile is home to the best grade 5 white water rafting in Africa. The weather was conducive and the water rapids looked surreal. White water rafting on River Nile is best done in groups, for our case we did it in a group of six and an all-day rafting session covers a distance of about 21 kilometres through the eight big rapids. In some parts, the water is calm, clear and perfect for swimming.
Plenty of bird species were also seen hovering around. We enjoyed a great night in our rooftop tent jeep at river Nile explorer camping site where we prepared our delicious meal.
Early in the morning, took breakfast and continued our journey to Kidepo Valley National Park. In full enjoyment of the countryside, we reached the park and checked in to the camping centre, prepared a meal and overnight in the rooftop tent where we enjoyed the morning sun rise and great views of the entire park.
Took a game drive one of the top activities in the park done along the Narus Valley since much of the year, the park’s wildlife gathers here. This area is well designed with track circuits and from a 4×4 tour car we had clear views of herbivores grazing in the short savanna plains. Lions and other cats were sighted on top of rocks and Kopjes looking out for prey in the vast plains.
We later took another drive to Murchison falls national park. It was an amazing drive with the strongest rooftop tent jeep which moved with not even a slight change in its energy. We took a launch trip up the stream all the way to the bottom of the waterfall during which we saw various animals and birds as well as exploring the Nile River. The launch starts at 09.00 and 14.00 every day. The round trip took about 03 hours. Another boat trip went downstream from Paraa down to the papyrus delta at the point where the river enters into Lake Albert. This 4-5 hour round adventure provides a good chance of discovering the shoe bill stork and different varieties.
We also took the most spectacular view of the waterfall on the ‘top of the Nile’ where the sight & sound of the Nile crashing through a small chasm made a memorable assault on our senses. The site can be reached either by car or on a 30 minutes climb, from the boat at the bottom of the falls. We finally had the best night in our rooftop tent and a delicious meal prepared by us.
Our final day took us to Ziwa rhino sanctuary before heading to Entebbe for our home flight. It allowed us to experience the majesty of these creatures up-close with a rhino trek, where an experienced ranger led us on foot to see them at a safe distance (6-7 meters away). We took our lunch at Ziwa restaurant and then took a scenic drive to Kampala to catch up with our flight. At Entebbe airport, we delivered the car back to Mike and then proceeded to the checking point for our flight and this made it the end of our trip to east Africa worth an experience.