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"The Pearl of Africa"
Uganda is a comparative newcomer to today’s international tourism scene, a factor which has benefited both the country’s natural environment and the tourism experience it offers. It has avoided the trip of courting the mass market and instead is following the path of eco-tourism.
This ensures that any growth in visitor numbers is sustainable and that development is not detrimental to Uganda’s wilderness attractions. This careful husbandry of its resources means that visitors are still able to observe, albeit under strictly controlled conditions, families of chimpanzee and mountain gorilla in the wild, whose sadly depleted population make them such a rare sight in Africa.
Uganda boasts some of the most stunning scenery on the continent, from its shimmering lakes, lofty mountains, mysterious forests and game-parks teeming with wildlife. New national parks are being established, while the private sector is opening up new safari lodges and camps, sympathetically built to blend in with surrounding scenery.
The traditional hospitality of the Uganda people is another important drawcard. The attractions of Uganda were identified by Sir Winston Churchill, in his book "My African Journey." Uganda is truly the Pearl of Africa.
› Bwindi National Park
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The Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is a magnificent green swathe of dense rainforest, so ancient it survived the last ice age. Bwindi National Park covers 330 sq km of this rainforest and spans altitudes of 1,100 metres to 2,400 metres - a dramatic landscape of steep hills, narrow gorges and streams tumbling down waterfalls.
Aproclaimed World Heritage site, Bwindi is one of the most biologically diverse areas on earth. Its unique, precious flora sustains roughly half of the world's population of mountain gorillas - believed to number just 600. There's also a substantial chimpanzee population and Bwindi is the only forest in Africa in which these two apes live together.
Apart from gorilla tracking, there are a number of other hikes and trails within the park. As you travel along, accompanied by an experienced guide, you will learn about the animals, birds, butterflies, trees and plants in the forest. This is a great way to pass the time while you wait for your pre-arranged date with a gorilla
A Bwindi safari will take you to see the gorillas in a beautiful location. There are three groups of habituated gorillas in Bwindi that can be visited on a gorilla track. |
› Entebbe
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| Entebbe is a city in Uganda with a population of approximately 90,500. It is located on the shore of Lake Victoria near the capital city of Kampala. "Entebbe", in the local Luganda language, means a "seat", and was probably named that because it was the place where a Baganda chief sat to adjudicate legal cases. It first became a British colonial administrative and commercial centre in 1893 when Sir Gerald Portal, a colonial Commissioner, used it as a base. Port Bell went on to become Kampala's harbour. Although no ships land there now, there is still a jetty, which was used by Lake Victoria ferries. The entrance to the national zoo is located near to the jetty, though foreign visitors have noted the seeming incongruity of wild monkeys sitting in the trees over the zoo's paths. The extensive National Botanical Gardens, laid out in 1898, are also in Entebbe. |
› Kampala
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Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. With a population of 1,208,544 (2002), it is the largest urban settlement in Uganda.
It is located in the district of Kampala at 0:19:00N 32:35:00E (0.31667, 32.58333) with an elevation of 3,900ft (1,189 m) above sea level. |
› Mgahinga National Park
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| Mgahinga is Uganda's smallest national park.It was established to protect the mountain gorillas of the Ugandan sector of the Virunga Volcanoes that straddle Rwanda and the DRC. Of the 600 mountain gorillas left in the world, 300 are found in the Virunga Volcanoes, whilst the other 300 are in the nearby Bwindi National Park. Although it is only 35 sq km, its volcanic landscapes are breathtaking and it harbours a wealth of animals and birds. No mountain gorillas live in Mgahinga permanently, but several troops move freely between the park and those in Rwanda and the Congo. Mgahinga is a dense tropical rainforest on the lower slopes of the volcanoes where the vegetation includes bamboo and lots of lichens and mosses: delicacies to a mountain gorilla. There is only one group of mountain gorillas in Mgahinga that is habituated to humans. Known as the Nyakagezi group, these gorillas can be visited on a gorilla track. An Mgahinga Safari will take you to the richly forested Virunga Volcanoes for an audience with a mountain gorilla |
› Murchison Falls
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Murchison Falls, also known as Kabalega Falls and Kabarega Falls, is a waterfall on the Nile.
It breaks the Victoria Nile, which flows across northern Uganda from Lake Victoria to Lake Kyoga and then to the north end of Lake Albert in the western branch of the East African Rift. |
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