Uganda being a landlocked country in East Africa has diverse landscape encompassing the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains and immense Lake Victoria. Its abundant wildlife includes chimpanzees as well as rare birds. Remote Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a renowned mountain gorilla sanctuary. Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest is known for its 43m-tall waterfall and wildlife such as hippos.
Uganda’s rainforests also shelter some of the apes’ family being chimpanzees and monkeys and this makes it the world’s best destination for primate tracking. Birding is also spectacular. To the east lies open savanna, where plains animals and predators roam in abundance. Uganda’s rivers—including the White Nile, birthed in Lake Victoria—teem with hippo and crocodile. To experience the diverse riches of Uganda is to concur with Sir Winston Churchill that it is “end to end one beautiful garden.”
Mountain gorillas are Uganda’s most important attraction. Half the world’s population of this critically endangered species (fewer than 800 remain) reside in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where they are threatened by encroachment on habitat, transferable diseases and poaching. Other primates include chimpanzees, blue monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, velvet monkeys, olive baboons and bush babies.
The savanna and swamps offer encounters with lion, zebra, buffalo, elephant, giraffe, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena, jackal, waterbuck, bushbuck, topi, oribi, duiker and the rare sitatunga, an aquatic antelope.
Uganda’s many lakes and rivers are home to prolific hippo and crocodile. Given its extreme biodiversity, Uganda is paradise for birdwatchers, with more than 1,000 species comprising 67% of Africa’s and 11% of the world’s total population. Some of the more fascinating varieties include crested crane, shoebill stork, African fish eagle, jacana, Narina’s trogon and African pygmy geese.
Compact Uganda is a microcosm of African wildlife and environments, offering diverse safari experiences. Gorilla trekking is the high point of any itinerary. To track these wondrous creatures through misty forests and gaze into their equally curious eyes is a wildlife encounter without parallel. Chimps are the highlight at Kibale Forest, which harbors the greatest variety and concentration of primates in Africa, and an amazing assortment of tropical birds. Scenic Queen Elizabeth National Park stretches from the crater-pocked foothills of the Rwenzori Range—the “Mountains of the Moon”—to the remote Ishasha River. Its varied habitats range from gallery and lowland forest to wetlands and savanna, where classic plains game graze. Boat cruises on Kazinga Channel and in Lake Mburo National Park offer front-row views of hippo, crocodile and water birds. At Murchison Falls, witness the Victoria Nile plummet 130 feet into Lake Albert.
UGANDA SITES
Uganda – Gorilla trekking
Uganda is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa. With its dense misty forests, snow-peaked mountains, glassy lakes and sprawling savannas, it’s no wonder Winston Churchill dubbed this wonderful country the ‘Pearl of Africa’. While Mountain Gorillas are massive, powerfully strong primates, they are generally gentle and shy creatures. They are also social creatures and tend to stay in groups, led by a dominant male, which is a Silverback. Coming face-to-face with a gorilla and having a chance to observe a family in action in its natural setting, makes for an unforgettable experience. As much as mountain gorillas are the allure for many visitors, there’s an astounding variety of attractions for tourists. A land that’s painted in 1,001 shades of green with fantastic natural scenery. As part of the conservation efforts, the numbers of visitors per day allowed to ‘visit with’ a Gorilla family are limited.
With armed and trained guides escorting you, a trek through the forests and wilderness of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is itself an incredible experience, only to be crowned with the opportunity of spending time observing the Mountain Gorillas.
A reasonable level of physical fitness is required in order to undertake this trek, but every moment of the tough trek will be worth it once the mountain gorillas are sighted!
TOWNS
Kampala
Bustling Kampala makes a good introduction to Uganda. It’s a dynamic and engaging city, with few of the hassles of other East African capitals and several worthy attractions to keep you occupied for a couple of days. As the heartland of the Buganda kingdom, Kampala has a rich and colorful history, visible in several fascinating palaces and compounds from where the nation was run until the arrival of colonialism.
Kampala has several faces. There’s the impossibly chaotic jam of central Kampala, its streets thronging with shoppers, hawkers, and the most mind-bogglingly packed bus and taxi parks you’re ever likely to see. As you head up Nakasero Hill, you quickly hit Kampala’s most expensive hotels and the urban core fades into something of a garden city. The contrast is thoroughly Ugandan, and just another reason many people love Kampala.
Jinja
Famous as the historic source of the Nile River, Jinja is now the adrenaline capital of East Africa. Get your fix of white-water rafting, kayaking, quad biking, mountain biking and horse riding in a gorgeous natural setting with crumbling colonial architecture. The Nile River’s world-famous rapids are under threat, however. In 2011 the Bujagali Hydroelectric Project buried around half of the rapids under a giant reservoir. Although the government has pledged to not further dam the river, Uganda still needs energy and so a new hydroelectric plant is planned for Kalagala Falls. Though worker strikes and faulty construction have it behind schedule for now, it’s expected that the Isimba Dam will flood some key rapids and even an island lodging as early as October 2018. It’s not the end of rafting though. Meanwhile locals keep pushing to keep Jinja’s tourism industry alive with offerings that have wisely begun to diversify.
Entebbe
On the shores of gorgeous Lake Victoria, Entebbe is an attractive, verdant town that served as the capital city during the early years of the British protectorate. Today it’s the relaxed pace of life and nearby natural attractions that give the city its charm rather than any notable colonial relics.
National Parks
Bwindi Impenetrable Forests National Park
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park lies in southwestern Uganda on the edge of the Rift Valley. Its mist-covered hillsides are blanketed by one of Uganda’s oldest and most biologically diverse rainforests, which dates back over 25,000 years. The forest is one of the richest ecosystems in Africa, contains almost 400 species of plants. An estimated 320 mountain gorillas – roughly half of the world’s population, 350 species of birds, 120 mammals and a lot more…
Rwenzori Mountain National Park –
The Rwenzori Mountain also known as “Mountains of the Moon” a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lie in western Uganda along the Uganda-Congo border. The equatorial snow peaks include the third highest point in Africa, while the lower slopes are blanketed in moorland, bamboo and rich, moist montane forest. The national park hosts 70 mammals and 217 bird species including 19 Albertine Rift endemics, as well as some of the world’s rarest vegetation.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is located in western Uganda, and is Uganda’s most-visited National Park. Named after Queen Elizabeth II and was established in 1954. The park’s diverse ecosystems, which include sprawling savanna, shady, humid forests, sparkling lakes and fertile wetlands, make it the ideal habitat for classic big game, ten primate species including chimpanzees and over 600 species of birds.
Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s largest national park. It measures approximately 3,840 square kilometres (1,480 sq mi). The park is hosting 76 species of mammals and 451 birds and a lot more…
Kibale Forest National Park Kibale National Park is a national park in South Uganda protecting moist evergreen rain forest. It is 766 km^2 in size and is located between 1100 and 1600 meters in elevation. Despite encompassing primarily moist evergreen forest, it contains a diverse array of landscapes. Kibale is one of the last remaining expanses to contain both lowland and montane forests. In East Africa, it sustains the last significant expanse of pre-montane forest. The park is home to a total of 70 mammal species, most famously 13 species of primate including the chimpanzee, contains over 375 species of birds.
The source of the Nile
There is something magical about the Nile, the longest river in the world and the source of life for many great civilizations throughout the ages. The source of the Nile, alluded to hazily in the ancient writings of Ptolemy, stood as one of the great geographical mysteries of the Victorian Age. Closer to home, the Nile downriver from Jinja, Uganda, offers some superb white water rafting and game fishing.
Mt. Elgon National Park
At 4,000km² Mt. Elgon has the largest volcanic base in the world. Located on the Uganda-Kenya border it is also the oldest and largest solitary, volcanic mountain in East Africa. Its vast form, 80km in diameter, rises more than 3,000m above the surrounding plains. The mountain’s cool heights offer respite from the hot plains below, with the higher altitudes providing a refuge for flora and fauna. Mount Elgon National Park is home to over 300 species of birds, including the endangered Lammergeyer. Small antelopes, forest monkeys, elephants and buffalos also live on the mountainside.
- Semliki National Park
Semuliki National Park sprawls across the floor of the Semliki Valley on the remote, western side of the Rwenzori. The park is dominated by the easternmost extension of the great Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin. This is one of Africa’s most ancient and bio-diverse forests; one of the few to survive the last ice age, 12-18,000 years ago. While Semuliki’s species have been accumulating for over 25,000 years, the park contains evidence of even older processes. Hot springs bubble up from the depths to demonstrate the powerful subterranean forces that have been shaping the rift valley during the last 14 million years.
Kidepo Valley National Park
Kidepo Valley National Park lies in the rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda’s borders with South Sudan and Kenya, some 700km from Kampala. Gazetted as a national park in 1962, it has a profusion of big game and hosts over 77 mammal species as well as around 475 bird species.
Lake Mburo National Park
Lake Mburo National Park is a compact gem, located conveniently close to the highway that connects Kampala to the parks of western Uganda. It is the smallest of Uganda’s savannah national parks and underlain by ancient Precambrian metamorphic rocks which date back more than 500 million years. It is home to 350 bird species as well as zebra, impala, eland, buffalo, oribi, Defassa waterbuck, leopard, hippo, hyena, topi and reedbuck.
