Five parks, one base, no wasted days.

Kibale holds the densest population of primates in East Africa and the best-habituated chimpanzee groups in Uganda. It is also, from here, a half-hour drive.

Half the world's remaining mountain gorillas live in Bwindi. An hour with a habituated family is the single most expensive and most remembered morning of most people's trip.

Buffalo, elephant and lion on the Kasenyi plains, and the Kazinga Channel in the afternoon — one of the densest gatherings of hippo and birdlife on the continent.

Dozens of explosion craters filled with deep green water, ringed by tea and banana country, with the Rwenzori behind them on a clear day.

The entire Nile forced through a seven-metre gap and thrown down into the gorge below, with the boat up to the base and the delta run for shoebill.