Do you fancy a safari in Uganda? Then be sure not to miss the Bwindi Impenetrable National Parks, Murchison Falls National Park, Queen Elizabeth National Park or Kidepo Valley National Park nestled in the north eastern trip of the country.
Our family of 4 booked a round trip with 4×4 Car Hire Uganda together with two close friends, so we had a private tour with six. Our friends visited Uganda before, also with 4×4 Car Hire Uganda, so Maike arranged another round trip: From Jinja, to Sipi, Moroto, Kidepo, Murchison falls, Queen Elizabeth, Bwindi Forest and back to Entebbe. We had to have patience: the trip was postponed 2 years, due to the Covid lock downs. This was no problem with 4×4 Car Hire Uganda, since we had a private visit of a school project the week before our tour, we were picked up by our guide/driver Caleb at our hotel in Kampala.
The car was a huge four-wheel drive safari car, where we fitted in all six. Emma was a skilled and safe driver. One day we had to drive a very wet and muddy slippery road, and he managed to get us through safely. Emma could tell us really much about the country and its history, culture and the different people inhabiting Uganda. He drove us around spotting game really skillfully, with a very sharp eye, and visibly enjoying it himself. 4×4 Car Hire Uganda can be happy to employ good dedicated guides like Emma.
Uganda is a beautiful country to see, experience and photograph. Winston Churchill, the former British leader who famously toured it in 1907 as a widely traveled young British minister was so impressed, he wrote a book on it. He called it the ‘Pearl of Africa’ to encourage others to come enjoy it. Some of the treasures on offer are the country’s highlights and just a hop from the airport.
When it comes to mountain gorillas, they are the largest of the great apes and share 97% of their biological make up with humans. Gorillas used to inhabit a swathe of land that cut right across central Africa, but the last remaining eastern mountain gorillas’ number just over 1063, divided between two 459 plus population in the forests of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and on the slopes of the Virunga Volcanoes, encompassing Uganda’s Mgahinga Gorilla National Park.
Trekking to see the fabled mountain gorillas is something everyone should get to experience at least once in their lifetime. Gorilla permits are certainly not cheap ($700) and the hour you get to spend with these gentle giants whizzes by in a flash, but the experience will linger for a lifetime. When a family of gorillas permits you to enter their safety zone and their guardian silverback allows your group of eight privileged tourists to sit quietly in their presence, it’s the ultimate honor.
Be prepared for some steep, muddy climbs on indiscernible tracks that frequently demand machetes to hack a way through the vines, thorns and shrubs. Bwindi currently has 12 groups fully habituated for tracking, with only eight visitors allowed to visit a group on any one day. A very different encounter – the Gorilla Habituation Experience – has recently started involving the Bikingi group that isn’t fully habituated: they’re used to their trackers but not to seeing different people every day. It’s an exciting alternative – instead of just one hour, we had four hours starting from when we reached their previous night’s nests.
Aside from the chance to chill with our distant relatives, Bwindi also offers a whole host of picturesque forest walks and half-day birding safaris.
We visited see are tree climbing lions of Ishasha. Lions are one of the most sought- after safari species. The shaggy mane of the male, blonde or brunette, in its natural environment is unforgettable. In Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda, the lions offer an added spectacle they climb trees. The prides of around 15 individuals adhere to strict social structures. They communally raise cub which are often born around the same time but lionesses are responsible for 90% of the hunting. They hunt in coordinated groups which allow them to purse larger species like buffalo and giraffes.
We did a game drive at the queen’s pavilion and katwe and on the northern bank of the impressive Kazinga Channel we did a boat cruise. Many guests enjoy the pleasurable two hour luxury 20 seater boat cruise along the channel from the Mweya peninsula. It offers splendid views, including the Rwenzori Mountain.
We visit Uganda’s largest national park Murchison Falls which features on most safari itineraries because of its mix of beauty and wildlife. Four of the Big Five are here (only rhinos are absent, but they can be seen at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary on the drive from Kampala) and lions and leopards’ sightings are pretty common.
There are two things every visitor should do at the park. First is taking a boat trip up the Nile River. You will travel past plentiful hippos, crocodiles, and buffaloes stopping near the base of the park’s awesome namesake waterfall. But you can only really appreciate the power of the falls from the top, and going there is the other must-do. The mighty river explodes through a tiny gap in the rock and drops 45 meters down a narrow gorge. It’s far from one of the world’s biggest waterfalls, but it’s definitely one of the most impressive.
With sprawling savannah and soaring mountains, Kidepo Valley National Park might be the most picturesque park in all Africa. Sharing borders with South Sudan and Kenya’s Northern Frontier District, it is Uganda’s most remote and least-explored park. Apoka Lodge is one of Uganda’s finest accommodation options and, although game-driving from here can be unforgettable, you have a good chance of spectacular sightings without even stepping off your veranda.
Kidepo was once the playground of Idi Amin, and the haunting ruins of a lodge that could just as easily have been designed as a massive bunker is currently (although slowly) being converted into a lodge.
Kidepo Valley was the traditional hunting territory of the mysterious Ik tribe, one of Africa’s most culturally-intact communities. The 3-hour trek up to the Ik villages high on the slopes of Morungole Mountain offers an unforgettable opportunity to make friends among the charming people who were (inexplicably) portrayed as the world’s nastiest people in the 1973 best-seller The Mountain People by Colin Turnbull.
