Uganda

A UNESCO World Heritage Site and accessible only on foot, it is one of the oldest
and richest ecosystems in Africa which dates back over 25,000 years and contains
almost 400 species of plants, providing habitat for over 120 mammal species
(including 11 primates), 346 species of birds (including 23 highly localised
Albertine Rift endemics), 202 species of butterflies, 100 species of ferns, 27
species of frogs, chameleons, geckos and many other endangered species.
Bwindi is however most notable for about 320 Mountain Gorillas, about half the
world’s population of this critically endangered primate. Gazetted in 1991, the park
rose to her peak after Gorilla tracking became a tourist activity in April of 1993,
converting Bwindi into one of the most popular tourist destinations on earth. The

ten habituated families include Mubare, Habinyanja, and Rushegura near Buhoma,
Bitukura, and Orizogo in Ruhija area, Nkuringo group at Nkuringo, Nshogi,
Mishaya and Rushaga group. The 10th group is dedicated for research
Activities in Bwindi include: Gorilla tracking, Forest walks, Cultural visits with the
Batwa people and unbelievable bird watching – Uganda is the richest country for
birds in Africa with over 1,000 species recorded including almost half the
continent’s known species and over 10% of those recorded around the world.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest has a tropical climate with the annual mean
temperature ranging from a minimum of 7–15°C to a maximum of 20–27°C. Its
annual rainfall ranges from 1,400 to 1,900 millimeters. Peak rainfall occurs from
March to April and from September to November. The park’s forest plays an
important role in regulating the outside area’s environment and climate.

Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), Uganda’s most popular savannah park, is
located in western Uganda, approx. 438 kms/6 hrs southwest of Kampala.
Her 1,978 km² of open savannah, rainforest, dense papyrus swamps and brooding
crater lakes extends from Lake George in the northeast to Lake Edward in the
southwest and includes Maramagambo Forest and the Kazinga Channel that
connects the two lakes.
Established in 1954, it is home to an incredible array of wildlife including almost
100 species of mammals, from hippos, elephants, leopards, lions, the elusive giant
forest hog, the handsome Uganda kob to Chimpanzees in her Kyambura Gorge; all
these in addition to over 600 bird species.
Much of the best game viewing is in the northern, Mweya Peninsula area which
boasts a marvellous waterfront setting in the shadow of the Ruwenzori’s. The
southern area of Ishasha exiting toward Bwindi is famous for its “Tree-climbing
lions”, whose males sport black manes, a feature unique to the lions in this area.
The park is also famous for its volcanic features; volcanic cones and deep craters,
many with crater lakes such as Lake Katwe, from which salt is extracted. Unique
activities include regular game safaris, Launch cruises on Kazinga channel,
Chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura gorge and Guided walks in Maragambo forest
and popular for bird watching.

Kibale National Park, 320 kms/5 hrs from Kampala, is Uganda’s primates’
paradise, her 776 km² of moist evergreen rain forest home to the highest
concentration of primates in the world – 13 species, including the much ‘localized’
Red Colobus as well as L’Hoest’s monkey.
The elusive forest elephant, smaller and hairier than its bush counterpart, moves
seasonally into the park while other terrestrial mammals include buffalo, giant
forest hog, Golden cat, Civet cat, leopard and half a dozen antelope species. Bird
life is also prolific with 335 species including hornbills, Green breasted pittas
being the most afterthought bird, Great blue turacco, Rossi’s Turacco, the endemic
Prirogrine’s ground thrush the crowned eagle and African Grey Parrots.
But the park’s principal attraction remains the opportunity to track her 500
habituated Chimpanzees. These delightful apes, genetically the closest living
relatives of man are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting
trees. Tracking usually takes about 4 hrs.
One other unique experience in Kibale: join the habituation team that goes out in
the morning to study the chimpanzees and habituate them to humans.

Transected by Rivers Kidepo and Narus and well fed with ample rainfall, Kidepo
is an oasis in the semi-desert; unsurpassed scenery, dense Acacia geradi forest
along Lorupei River and breathtaking savannah landscapes dominated by Mt.
Morungole (2750m).
The park’s extremely diverse flora and fauna includes over 500 species of birds
and over 80 mammals species, (28 of which do not occur anywhere else in
Ugandan), including the bat-eared fox, spotted hyena, cheetah and leopard,
aardwolf, caracal, wild dogs, elephants, zebra, bush pigs, warthog, Rothschild
giraffe, buffalo, Eland, bushbuck, bush duskier, defassa water buck, bohor reed
buck, Jackson’s hartebeest and oribi as well as tree climbing lions; game viewing
could never be better. Less common residents include the greater and lesser kudu,
Chandlers Mountain reedbuck, klipspringer, etc.
Activities include: Hiking on Lamoj Mountains just a few kilometers from the Park
HQs, sightseeing at the splendid Kidepo River Valley dominated by Borassus palm
forest, the Kanangorok Hot Springs, located only 11 km from Kidepo river valley
and Cultural Performances such as the Emuya of the Naporre and Nyangia ethnic
groups and Lara karaka and Apiti dances of the Acholi.

It is the smallest of Uganda’s Savanna national park, it has a markedly different
fauna; it is the best place in Uganda where one can see the cape Eland, Zebra, Topi
and Impala (for which Kampala is named). Hippos, crocodiles, and a variety of
water birds are also found in the five lakes within the park while the fringing
swamps hide secretive papyrus specialists such as the sitatunga as well as the red,
black and yellow papyrus gonalek.
Lake Mburo National Park’s rich biodiversity includes 68 species of mammals
including buffalo, the occasional Roan antelope, Leopard, Hyenas, Jackals and
Giraffes which have been introduced in the park recently. The over 350 species of
birds includes Pelicans, Black crake, Heron, cormorant, fish eagle; you may also
sight the rare Shoebill Stork, marabou stork, the bronze-tailed starling and even
the Bare-faced Go-Away Bird, Nubian Woodpecker and Swamp Flycatchers and
one of special after thought birds the “Red faced barbet”. Activities include game
safaris, boat safaris, nature walks and now horseback safaris.

One of Uganda’s smallest parks at a mere 33.7 km², she encompasses the slopes of
the three northern most Virunga Volcanoes – Muhavura (4,127 m), Gahinga (3,474
m) and Sabyinyo (3,645 m) – thus protecting the Ugandan part of the Virungas,
their huge volcanic cones dominate her entire landscape.
Besides the Nyakagezi, the one habituated gorilla family consisting of 2
silverbacks, 3 adult females, 2 juveniles and 2 infants, this little gem is also home
to Golden moneys a localized and only found in this park, Black & White Colobus
monkeys, Blue Monkeys, Leopard, Forest elephant, Giant forest hog, etc.
Activities in this park include Gorilla Tracking (the Nyakagezi group sometimes
crosses the border into Rwanda thus not very reliable), a popular 6 hours round trip
hike through a pure Bamboo forest as well as Bird walks in search of the park’s 79
bird species including several endemics to the East Congo Montane region.

And the only one where all of the ‘Big Five’ are to be found; buffalo, elephant,
lion and occasional leopard seen above the River Nile while Southern white
Rhinos are being bred in a sanctuary south of the park – 40 to 50 of them are lined

up for release into the wild by around 2040. Together with the adjacent 748 km²
Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and the 720 km² Karuma Wildlife Reserve, the park is
part of the greater, 5,308 km², Murchison Falls Conservation Area.
The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45m over the remnant rift
valley wall, creating the dramatic Murchison Falls, the center piece of the park and
the final event in an 80km stretch of rapids. The mighty cascade drains the last of
the river’s energy, transforming it into a broad, placid stream that flows quietly
across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert. This stretch of the river provides one
of Uganda’s most remarkable wildlife spectacles. Regular visitors to the riverbanks
include elephants, giraffes and buffaloes; while hippos, Nile crocodiles and water
birds including the world’s most accessible wild population of the rare shoebill
stork, saddle bill stock, Goliath heron, whistling Duck other species Black billed
barbet, Bar-breasted fire finch and Black-lored babbler, Fawn-breasted waxbill and
many more. In the southeast, Budongo Forest is home to chimpanzees and other
rainforest creatures.
Special activities include launch trips to the base of the falls, Boat trips to the Lake
Albert delta, Chimpanzee tracking at Budongo Forest en-route from Masindi plus
regular game viewing drives.
Notable visitors to the park include Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest
Hemingway and several British royals.

Totally off the beaten track with breathtaking scenery and fuming 130ºC hot-
springs, this rich mosaic of grassland savannah, tropical lowland forest, bamboo
forest and wetland habitats is endowed with a correspondingly diverse fauna.
While the Uganda kob is the most common large mammal, there are also forest
elephants, giraffe, chimpanzees, buffalo, leopard, sitatunga, pigmy hippos,
crocodile, chimps, even the more localized De Brazza’s monkey, and antelopes.
But the main attraction in Semuliki remains birding over her well established
birding trails that loop around the hot springs at Sempaya. The over 400 species of
birds recorded include many West African forest types like White Crested, Red
Dwarf, Black Dwarf and Wattled Casque Hornbills as well as the shoebill stork on
lake albert, Red Rumped Tinker Bird and the Palm Greenbul (a localized

endemic). The park remains of special interest to ornithologists for some 40
essentially Congolese species found nowhere else in Uganda.

Stretching for 120 km over an area of 998 km² on Uganda’s border with the DR
Congo, the range consists of six massifs separated by deep gorges (Mt Stanley –
5,109m, Speke – 4,890m, Baker – 4,843m, Emin 4,798m, Gessi – 4,715m and Luigi
di Savoia – 4,627m). They are believed to be the legendary snow-capped
‘Mountains of the Moon’ described by Ptolemy in AD 150. Whilst a variety of
large mammals inhabit the lower slopes, the Ruwenzori’s are far more notable for
their majestic scenery. Their distinctive, mist-shrouded glacial peaks, visible for
miles around, and varied vegetation provide a stunning backdrop to this
magnificent mountain range.
A standard 7 days/6 nights loop taking in all vegetation zones and the glacial peaks
is tough but rewarding hike. The high peaks should be attempted only by
experienced mountaineers. But the slopes above 1,600m are the preserve of hikers,
who rate them the most challenging of all African mountains.

Standing at 4,321m and believed to have, in prehistoric times, stood taller than
Kilimanjaro does today, it is an important watershed with its slopes supporting a
rich variety of altitudinal vegetation from montane forest to high open moorland
studded with other-worldly giant lobelia and groundsels.
Often-neglected yet a relatively undemanding climb, Mt. Elgon’s spectacular
scenery remains the principal attraction for hikers but there is also a variety of
forest monkeys and small antelopes in addition to elephant and buffalo and over
300 birds species making it so ideal for bird watching. Other attractions include
ancient cave paintings close to the trailhead at Budadiri and spectacular caves and
hot springs within the crater.