Uganda mountain biking holiday

country:	Uganda, Rwanda
trip type:	Adventurous mountain biking holidays
departures:	2009: 30 May
price:	From €1870 (14 days) excluding flights. Local payment US $150, bike hire if required US $200

Mountain biking holidays here Gorilla safaris

Uganda holidays

the amazing things you'll be doing

14 days - Adventure biking in the friendly heart of Africa. Uganda – described by Winston Churchill as the “Pearl of Africa”, is one of Africa’s most beautiful countries, with stunning mountains and natural scenery it is home of half of the world’s last remaining mountain Gorillas and home of some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.

From the Port town of Entebbe, we bike across forest clad islands; through Uganda’s rural heartland and villages that rarely see foreigners; camp on secluded islands both upon Lake Victoria and in the middle of the River Nile; experience East Africa’s adventure capital Jinja, on the banks of the mighty White Nile or help out on a local community project.

This is a truly breathtaking trip. Enjoy awesome biking on little used dirt roads through some of the most stunning rainforest and rural farming landscapes you will ever hope to find; enjoy game viewing by bike in the seldom visited Lake Mburo National Park. Meet and chat with the local people or just sit back and watch life go on in true relaxed Ugandan style.

trip profile

Travelling by boat, Mountain biking & Gorilla safari in Uganda

14 Days Adventure biking – Entebbe to Kampala.

10 - 11 days biking; 90% dirt roads; some off road experience preferred. From 35km to 75km per day; 100% vehicle supported.

Group size minimum 4, maximum 10; plus Escape leaders and local staff. Accommodation is twin share, 1 night hotel, 12 nights camping (Upgrades to rooms are available at some campsites at your own expense).

Food includes 3 meals per day from evening day 1 to breakfast day 14, except for 2 lunches and 2 evening meals which are at your own expense to give you the opportunity to experience local cuisine.

Game viewing by bike in Lake Mburo National Park.

Mpanga and Mabira Forest Reserves.

Visit to Ngamba Island Chimpanzee refuge.

1 Night Sesse Island and 1 night on an Island on the Nile River.

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	Arrive Entebbe
Day 2:	Morning visit to Chimpanzee reserve island. Afternoon ferry across Lake Victoria to the Sesse Islands.
Day 3:	Bike across Bugala Island.
Day 4:	Bike to and through Lake Mburo National Park.
Day 5:	Morning game viewing by bike, afternoon transfer to Mpanga forest.
Day 6:	Transfer through Kampala, bike on back roads to Mabira Forest.
Day 7:	Explore Mabira Forest by bike or foot.
Day 8:	Bike along rural back roads to Jinja.
Day 9:	Free day, optional activities or help on community and environmental projects.
Day 10-11:	Bike through the heart of rural Uganda.
Day 12:	Bike along an abandoned railway and the river Nile to our Island Campsite.
Day 13:	Bike towards Kampala.
Day 14:	Depart Kampala.

Optional extension:
Mountain Gorillas – Uganda is home to half the world’s remaining population of mountain gorillas the rest being in neighbouring Rwanda and Congo (approx 600 in total). If you can we recommend taking the time for a 4 or 5 day safari extension to Western Uganda or into Rwanda to experience these magnificent primates. Please contact us for suggested itineraries and contact details for local Ugandan safari operators to organise this for you.

how this holiday makes a difference

Mountain gorilla, Mountain biking & Gorilla safari in Uganda

It is important to us that when we travel to different parts of our amazing planet that our exchange is always a mutual one and that we make a positive contribution to people and places that we visit along the way.

These days ‘responsible travel' and ‘sustainability' are hot topics. Responsible travel is not about donating large sums of money to charity (at least not without thoroughly researching the long-term intentions or effects of the charity). We believe responsible travel is about taking time to think about how our actions can benefit or how they impact the people, communities, economies, environments and eco-systems we visit, and then use this to make a difference (or sometimes more appropriately - how we can NOT make a difference). We are constantly considering our actions and how we and the people who travel with us can improve our impact on the places we visit.

Here are just some of the ways that we ‘make a difference’:

Social integration with the local people is a central part of our trips. Simply travelling by bike is a great start – a great way for our bikers and local people to meet and start a conversation.
During their stay in Uganda we give our bikers have the option of spending time (a few hours, days or weeks) with the Soft Power Education Project – which is a project which builds schools, provides resources and schooling for AIDS Orphans.
We always buy locally grown food and shop in small local markets; we support local businesses by staying in locally owned campsites and taking our bikers to local operations, sanctuaries and wildlife parks.
Educate our bikers – about the effects of buying products that come from endangered species, or products that are destructive to wildlife or the environment (any wooden products that come from the destruction of Ugandan rainforests for example).
Waste/rubbish management – when we travel we should treat our surrounding as we would treat our home (or better!). We do our best to avoid ‘single use packaging’ only using reusable or recyclable packaging. We recycle what can be, and manage any rubbish in the best possible way e.g. in Africa – all of our organic waste is feed to local domestic pigs and goats, and we always leave our campsites as we find them (or better!).
We avoid campfires to help prevent deforestation. (Three are some places where wood is purpose grown and replanted for fire wood - for the occasional campfire – but it is important to carefully check the source of firewood).
We have an environmentally conscious office – To avoid paper waste we aim to use as much computer technology as possible in our office. And when we do print we use paper from recycled sources!
We are currently working on a project where we calculate the environmental cost of each of our biker’s air travel to East Africa. We then transfer this cost into trees and plant the trees in a local reforestation project during our biking journey. In addition to this for every trip we lead we will plant sufficient trees to offset the CO2 emissions of our support vehicle. We plan to initiate this project in 2008.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.