Kyambura Game Reserve or Chambura Game Reserve, which borders to the west of Kyambura Gorge, is part of the Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
It is home to a variety of wildlife, including the only primates in the Queen Elizabeth National Park. The area is an important water source for many animals and is surrounded by savannah, but is generally noted for its high concentration of primate life located in the gorge.
Kyambura Gorge is located in the far eastern side of Queen Elizabeth National Park in south western Uganda. About 1 km across and roughly 100 meters deep, the gorge also known as the ‘Valley of Apes’ is drained by River Kyambura.
Kyambura landscape is one of the most impressively extraordinary topographies you will find in Uganda and it is enclosed in a rich wildlife bio-diversity which contains of good numbers of primates, wild animals and birds.
The majority of visitors into the park are offered a Chimpanzee Safari to the incredible Kyambura canyon as an additional bonus to the main safaris involving game drives and a boat cruise.
When you enter into this remarkable Gorge, you will be impressed by the green, rich tropical forest nearby the Equator crossing making it another territory on its own. The Savannah above the gorge has a sensible aggregate of sun shine that provides brightness.
The tree cover in the under-ground jungle encompasses of rich chunks of plant life locked out much of the sunrays. Except when you are standing in a clear place, you certainly not need sunglasses or caps for a need to have a clear view for the great variety of Wonders within the Gorge.
Topmost Uganda Tour activities in Kyambura Gorge:-Chimpanzee Trekking is the main safari activity in Kyambura Gorge.
Most of the Chimpanzees in the gorge have been habituated meaning they are acquainted with human beings to the reality that they are can freely do their daily activities in the presence of people. Tours in the gorge are done between 1 – 3 hours and usually begin at 8:00 am and 2:00 pm every day.
Guided Nature Walks, Forest Walks and other Primates’ Tracking
Besides chimps in the gorge, there are other primate species found there like the Red Tailed Monkeys, Black and White Colobus Monkeys, Giant Forest Hogs, Baboons plus other mammals.
Birding Safari in Uganda
For bird watching, this valley of Kyambura is a birder’s Paradise and Butterflies abound. Around 332 bird species have been recorded in this Kyambura Wildlife Reserve with seven types of universal conservation concern.
Getting to Kyambura Gorge
In case you are travelling from Kampala, Uganda’s Capital City via Mbarara town, the place is 420 kilometres to be reached. And if you are moving from Kampala going through Fort Portal, you will cover a distance of 410 Kilometres.
Ugandan Local Charter flights are available from Entebbe International Airport to the Airstrip in south-western Uganda at Mweya or Kasese, flying for about an hour.
Accommodation Facilities around the Gorge
Kyambura Gorge is a part of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Within and outside the park is a collection of lodges good for use while of your Uganda safari to have a feel of the sights and sound this detached and impressive valley.
Accommodation properties range from high-class, mid-range to budget lodges. Examples are Katara lodge, Enganzi Lodge, Jacana Safari Lodge, Kyambura Gorge Safari Lodge and Kingfisher Kichwamba Lodge among others.
Kyambura Wildlife Reserve
The Kyambura Game Reserve is a fragment of the much toured Queen Elizabeth National Park in south western Uganda.
The wildlife reserve is home to a multiplicity of flora and fauna among which are the only primates in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The game reserve is a key water cradle to relatively several wildlife species and largely surrounded by grassland.
Kyambura Gorge Wildlife
The reserve is essentially the sole area where one can visit habituated chimpanzees on a chimp trekking safari in the park. Reservations for Chimpanzee tracking are made at the Mweya Visitor Information Centre in the magnificent Queen Elizabeth National Park.
The Mweya Office as well offers information on game drives and additionally sells postcards and maps and for other species of primates like the red-tailed monkeys, baboons, black and white colobus monkeys and the vervet monkeys.
Kyambura Chimpanzee Habituation exercise lasted about 2 years. Habituation of chimps implies that these primates are used to be close people and can interact with ease, play, eat or jump freely in the presence of people.
The area also hosts a wider range of avian species including the African Fin foot, the blue-headed bee-eater and the diverse falcons.
Large games like the gigantic forest hogs are common in the area. There gorge has got three salty crater lakes which attract a dozens of good-looking flamingo crowds that have not been seen anywhere in Uganda.
The precipitous hills of Kyambura Gorge were formed by the messy waters of the roaring River Kyambura. These slopes are shielded by a green riverine woodlands that are habitats to a variety primates including chimps, the black colobus monkeys, white Colobus monkeys, red tailed monkeys and the olive baboons among others primates categories.
Similarly, the green riverine jungle as well offer shelter to several forest birds and other species such as the Shoebill, Martial Eagle, Black-rumped Button quail, African Skimmer, Bar-tailed God-wit, Lesser plus Greater Flamingo, Chapin’s Flycatcher, White-tailed Lark, Corncrake, Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, Pink backed Pelican, Papyrus Canary, African Broad bill, White-winged Warbler, Black Bee-eater and the Papyrus Gonolek that are visibly common in the area.
The gorge of Kyambura can best be explored by hiking in form of a guided nature walk led by the proficiently experienced tour guides.
The guides explain to guests the natural attractiveness of the valley, its flora and fauna plus its depths. When at this wildlife reserve, you will ably have a close experience of the noteworthy wildlife in the area including the rousing chimpanzee.
Kyambura Gorge chimpanzee tracking safari may actually be done independently from Kampala or be combined any other tourism activity in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Based on the available time, the same chimps trekking is doable with other tour activities beyond the park like Gorilla Trekking in Bwindi, vacation tour of Lake Bunyonyi, Adventure of Rwenzori Mountain or Wildlife Safari in Lake Mburo.
Queen Elizabeth National Park where Kyambura Gorge is found is almost in the middle of the geographically positioned tourist destinations.