Tailormade Holidays in Uganda

It wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to sum this national park up in two words – Mountain Gorillas.

Could there be a single wildlife enthusiast in the world who hasn’t hankered after the experience of tracking habituated gorillas in the lush montane forests of East Africa? Ever since Sir David Attenborough met a playful group of these apes in the forests of Rwanda in 1979, an iconic and moving encounter which was broadcast in the seminal TV series Life on Earth, countless people have wanted to follow in his footsteps. Happily, these days, it can be done with relative ease, and by far the best place in the world to do so is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in Uganda.

It would, though, be unreasonable to sum up this wonderful location, nestled in the far south-west of the country, as the home of just one fantastic animal, and one unforgettable adventure. For there is a great deal more to these forests than the 18 groups of habituated megastars – not least 346 species of birds, an incredible 120 more species of mammals and about 200 colourful butterflies that flit through the glades. It might seem sacrilege to say so, but you can still enjoy an exceptional wildlife bonanza here, even without paying homage to the apes.

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Murchison Falls is Uganda’s oldest and largest national park, covering nearly 4,000 square kilometres. It is named after the dramatic waterfall at its heart where the Nile plunges 40 metres down through a narrow cleft in the rocks. It is one of the best places in Uganda to find big mammals including Elephant, Hippopotamus, Lion, Leopard and the highly endangered Rothschild’s Giraffe. The park is also the only place in Uganda where Shoebills can be found apart from in the Mabamba Swamp. A cruise to the bottom of the falls is one of the best ways to view the wildlife here which includes Nile Crocodile and large pods of Hippo. Abundant birdlife – such as Goliath Heron, Saddle-billed Stork, Black-headed and Long-toed Lapwings, Abyssinian Ground-hornbill, Abyssinian Roller, Silverbird, Red-throated and Blue-breasted Bee-eaters and, after dark, the spectacular Pennant-winged Nightjar – is also one of the highlights of a visit. Away from the Nile, the landscape of Murchison Falls is more akin to the savannah of East Africa than to the lush forested habitats throughout the rest of the country, and a visit to this beautiful park makes a perfect end to any Ugandan holiday.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is a classic east African game reserve which, without doubt, offers Uganda’s best wildlife-viewing. It is also especially scenic and protects a wide variety of habitats that include rolling hills and grasslands, craters and crater lakes, tropical forests, papyrus swamps and extensive lake shore. Herds of Uganda Kob are common here, plus African Elephant, African Buffalo, Rothschild’s Giraffe, Warthog and Spotted Hyena. Lions, too, are frequently seen, and have developed a penchant for tree-climbing, while Leopards are characteristically elusive. For the aficionados, though, it’s perhaps the park’s Giant Forest Hogs or the Chimpanzees of Chamburu Gorge that may be chief amongst the highlights. ‘QE’, as the park is affectionately known, also hosts a wealth of birdlife, with vultures, Tawny and Martial Eagles, Grey-crowned Crane, Little Bee-eater and a good selection of cuckoos, cisticolas, flycatchers, weavers and finches. A boat trip on the Kazinga Channel will delight the photographer, with close-up access to large numbers of Hippos, not to mention such waterbirds as Great White and Pink-backed Pelicans, African Open-billed Stork, African Skimmer, Water Thick-knee, Long-toed Lapwing, Pied Kingfisher and the impressive Saddle-billed Stork.

Kibale Forest is home to an incredible 11 species of primate including Guereza Colobus, Red Colobus, L’Hoest’s Monkey and Grey-cheeked Mangabey. However, it is the wild Chimpanzees which are the main attraction here, and a handful of families have been habituated to human presence and can be tracked with park rangers via a network of excellent and extensive forest trails. On these walks forest Elephants can sometimes be heard, while the birding is superb, if challenging, with species such as Afep Pigeon, Crowned Hornbill, Purple-headed and Chestnut-winged Starlings, Hairy-breasted Barbet and White-headed Wood-hoopoe amongst the rich variety of possibilities. However, for most visitors it is the Chimpanzees that will live longest in the memory!

These wetlands, at the edge of Lake Victoria, are one of the best places in Uganda (and perhaps the whole of Africa) to see Shoebill. These largely solitary birds are distributed from south Sudan to northern Zambia, but it is in Uganda that they are most easily sighted, although nothing is ever guaranteed! Mabamba also offers a large selection of other species for the keen birder including Carruthers’ Cisticola, Blue-breasted Bee-eater, Blue-headed Coucal and Lesser Jacana to name but a few.

Lake Mburo is the smallest of Uganda’s savannah national parks, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in the abundance and variety of wildlife. This is largely due to the great diversity of habitats it protects, from acacia woodland to rocky cliffs, forested gorges, rolling hills and grassy valleys. Lake Mburo itself is the park’s most iconic feature which, in combination with 14 other nearby lakes, forms part of a larger freshwater system linked by a vast wetland fed by the Ruizi River. Up to one fifth of the park is covered by water and so one of the best ways to explore this reserve is by boat! A boat trip onto Lake Mburo offers the opportunity to see the elusive African Finfoot, as well as a variety of papyrus specialists such Papyrus Gonolek and Blue-headed Coucal. The swamps also provide habitat for the shy Sitatunga and Lake Mburo is the only site in Uganda where both Plain’s Zebra and Impala can be found. It is also the only savannah park in the country where walking safaris are permitted, and its position just off the highway makes it an excellent stopover between Entebbe and Uganda’s western wildlife reserves.

Kidepo Valley National Park constitutes an area of 1,442km² of rugged open-tree savannah, situated in a remote corner of north-eastern Uganda, close to the border with South Sudan and Kenya. This is one of the few truly ‘wild’ parks left in sub-Saharan Africa. Kidepo is home to several rare carnivore species that have disappeared from other areas of the country, including Bat-eared Fox, Striped Hyena, Aardwolf, Caracal and Cheetah. The national park is also well represented in ungulates, such as Buffalo, Klipspringer, Jackson’s Hartebeest, Bohor Reedbuck and Rothschild’s Giraffe. The avifauna in Kidepo is plentiful and the park is particularly famous for its birds of prey. Local specialities include Verreaux’s eagle, Egyptian Vulture and Pygmy Falcon.