The Pearl of Africa — mountain gorillas in the mist, the thundering Nile, and some of the continent’s richest, wildest forests.
Gorilla country — ancient rainforest, Rift Valley savanna and the glacial peaks of the Rwenzori.
On the edge of the Rift Valley in southwestern Uganda, Bwindi’s mist-covered hills hold one of Uganda’s oldest and most biodiverse rainforests, dating back over 25,000 years. It shelters an estimated 320 mountain gorillas — roughly half the world’s population — alongside 350 bird species, 120 mammals and almost 400 plant species.
Known as the “Mountains of the Moon” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rwenzori lie on the Uganda–Congo border. Their equatorial snow peaks include Africa’s third-highest point, with moorland, bamboo and moist montane forest below — home to 70 mammal and 217 bird species, including 19 Albertine Rift endemics.
Uganda’s most-visited park, established in 1954 and named after Queen Elizabeth II. Its savanna, humid forest, lakes and wetlands make it ideal habitat for classic big game and ten primate species including chimpanzees, plus over 600 bird species.
On the remote western side of the Rwenzori, Semuliki is the easternmost extension of the Congo Basin’s great Ituri Forest — one of Africa’s oldest and most biodiverse, and one of the few to survive the last ice age. Hot springs bubble up here, evidence of forces that have shaped the Rift Valley for 14 million years.
A compact gem conveniently close to the highway between Kampala and the western parks. It’s the smallest of Uganda’s savanna parks, underlain by Precambrian rock over 500 million years old, and home to 350 bird species plus zebra, eland, buffalo, leopard, hippo and hyena.
Uganda’s biggest, wildest parks — the Nile in full flood, and a remote valley on the South Sudan border.
Uganda’s largest national park, at roughly 3,840 km², named for the point where the Nile forces itself through a narrow gorge before thundering over the falls. It hosts 76 mammal species and 451 bird species.
In rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda’s borders with South Sudan and Kenya, some 700 km from Kampala. Gazetted in 1962, this remote park has a profusion of big game, with over 77 mammal species and around 475 bird species.
Primate-rich rainforest, the legendary source of the Nile, and East Africa’s largest volcanic base.
A 766 km² expanse of moist evergreen rainforest in southern Uganda, one of the last places in East Africa to hold both lowland and montane forest. It’s home to 70 mammal species — most famously 13 primate species including chimpanzees — and over 375 bird species.
There is something magical about the Nile, the world’s longest river. Its source, alluded to hazily by Ptolemy, was one of the great geographical mysteries of the Victorian age. Downriver from Jinja today, it offers superb white-water rafting and game fishing.
At 4,000 km², Mount Elgon has the largest volcanic base in the world — the oldest and largest solitary volcano in East Africa, 80 km across and rising over 3,000 m above the plains. It shelters over 300 bird species, including the endangered lammergeier, plus small antelope, forest monkeys, elephant and buffalo.
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