Ngamba Island, about 30+ miles away by boat, is located on Lake Victoria south of Entebbe. Of its approximately 100 acres, 98 acres are forested and used by the chimpanzees. It was officially opened to visitors in 1999 and is home to orphaned chimpanzees.

Ngamba Island is a project of the Chimpanzees Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust, and a member of the Jane Goodall Institute Uganda. This project provides orphaned chimps with a secure home to live out their lives. Once chimps are orphaned, it is impossible to return them to their natural habitat and the Island is overcrowded already thanks to poachers who kill the parents and sell the baby chimps as pets or to zoos. As a matter of fact, the female chimps are kept on birth-control to keep the population down on Ngamba!

welcome to Ngamba Island, Uganda
You can visit Ngamba on a day-trip and view a morning or afternoon feeding, or stay overnight in Ngamba’s exclusive East African-style tented camp. There are only four tents which overlook the lake with private decks. Inside are full-size twin beds, en suite bathroom facilities and solar lighting. Meals are provided and drinks are available.

You could view any of the daytime chimpanzee feedings from the visitors platform along the edge of the Sanctuary fence, the bedtime and early morning feedings at the holding facility or even take a forest walk with the chimps.

viewing platform at Ngamba Island, Uganda
Details on the forest walk:

- Only a few people each day have an opportunity to join a group of young chimps on a one-hour walk through the forest, accompanied by a trained member of the Sanctuary staff. These chimps are used to human contact and will play-bite, climb on you, like to be carried, grab your glasses, jump on you from the trees or just hold your hand!

- There were extremely rigid vaccination and health requirements. Some of the vaccines needed were HepA, Hep B, Measles, Meningitus, Polio, Tetanus and Yellow Fever, and if you had any kind of cold or virus upon arrival, your chimp walk was off. It could be possible to kill off the entire chimpanzee population of the island with one human virus. And,

- There is a charge of $250 per person for the one-hour walk with the chimps.

ex-Marine and I debated back and forth and decided not to walk with the chimps for various reasons. We would be happy with all the viewing instead.
Now you know as much about Chimpanzees as we did and it was time for our boat ride to Ngamba…

putting on life jackets for boat ride to Ngamba, Uganda 

approaching Ngamba Island, Uganda
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