Self-Drive to Kibale Night Tour
Kibale Forest Nocturnal Walks
Kibale forest national park has been mostly known for chimpanzee tracking and habituation as well as a research destination on the chimpanzees. Chimpanzees are the closest species to humans; in fact, their DNA is far closer to that of human beings than it is to other primates such as the mountain gorillas. But besides chimpanzees, what else does Kibale forest national park have to offer?
A number of materials have been authored addressing the different activities that are carried out in Kibale forest national park however; most of them address activities of the day. These include chimpanzee tracking, bird watching, primates viewing: monkeys and other primates, big forest mammals such as forest elephants and buffaloes can also be found in Kibale forest national park.
Nocturnal Forest Walk
The 779 square kilometers park is one of the few places in Uganda where nocturnal forest walks/ hikes can be carried out. Nocturnal forest walks are a special kind of Uganda safaris arranged in Kibale forest national park to discover in-depth the lives of the nocturnal animals in Kibale forest national park including but not limited to Pottos, Tree Hyrax, Serval cats, and Civet cars among other indigenous nocturnal animals.
Besides the nocturnal animals, it is a great opportunity to spot some of the rarest wild scenes such as sleeping monkeys and chimpanzees. These are some of the moments that are rarely caught on camera but through a nocturnal forest walk, there are higher chances of seeing these once in a lifetime scenes.
Nocturnal Bird watching and tracking
Kibale forest national park is one of the amazing birding destinations in Uganda with bird species such as Black Bishop, western Nictator, yellow-billed barbet, white-spotted fluffail, brown crowned tchagra, white-breasted Negrofinch among several other species.
Though most of these bird species are tracked during the day, there are some bird species that can only be spotted during the night and Kibale forest national park is the best place to carry out this once in a lifetime adventure.
Over 370 forest bird species have been recorded in Kibale forest national park some of which can only be spotted at night. These include but not limited to the nightjar and owls.
Night Hike
Bwindi impenetrable forest national park is been ranked as one of the best-hiking destinations in the whole world, however; regardless of its top spot on the top 20 hiking destinations in the whole of Africa, the park does not offer night hiking. This is one of the points the gives Kibale forest national park an edge over almost all the other parks in Uganda because of its night hikes.
Night hikes come handy with night forest sounds that can be heard distinctively because of the silence that hovers over the forest in the night. The main purpose of the hike is to enjoy a forest walk while identifying the different sounds made by insects, birds as well as animals in the forest and matching the sound to the respective species by the help of the game ranger/guide.
Duration
With reference to forest walks, bird watching and tracking, and a night hike; all these activities are carried out in specifically two hours. This is to limit night activity in the forests as one of the ways of being a responsible traveler.
After this great exploration, there is a lot to think about and share but storytelling sometimes cuts us short. The natural beauty is this park is beyond articulation, it can only be articulated with a specially hardened vocabulary which will only be a summary of a thousand words.