TRAVELLER REVIEW

MIKE UNWIN

Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, editor of Travel Zambia Magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern

Africa Wildlife.

WHAT TRAVEL EXPERTS THINK ABOUT UGANDA

The best way to know what to expect of a destination is to seek what the experts say. Here are three travel experts who have visited Uganda several times and what they think about it.

ARIADNE VAN ZANDBERGEN

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife

photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines. There is no denying that a gorilla trek in the steep, damp forests of Bwindi National Park is one of the world’s great wildlife experiences – as is the equally thrilling chimp trekking at Kibale. However, this focus on the two great apes does not do justice to the breadth of Uganda’s appeal. Yes, the country may not offer quite the same sense of scale and spectacle as some of its larger neighbours. Small and heavily populated, it has fewer tracts of undisturbed wilderness. Yet, for its size, it is arguably the most biodiverse destination in Africa – a fact largely explained by its straddling of two very different biomes: the equatorial rainforests of the Congo Basin and the tropical savannahs of East Africa. A safari here offers both plains game and forest dwellers. Add to this the semi-arid country of the north, and you can end up with an amazing haul of species.”

Uganda’s biggest attraction is mountain gorilla tracking. Seeing these gentle giants has been one of my best wildlife experiences ever. Aside from gorillas, the forests of Uganda are a good place to see a wide variety of primates including the charismatic chimpanzees. Many pop over to Uganda for a quick gorilla visit after their Kenya or Tanzania safari, but Uganda is a worthwhile savannah safari destination in its own right. Both Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls national parks offer good sightings of lions, elephants, buffalo and other savannah wildlife. The Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is a great place to see White Rhino on foot. One of my highlights is the boat trip on the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls, where the water forces its way through the narrow gap in the Rift Valley escarpment. With more than 1,000 bird species, Uganda is a fantastic birding destination – even nonbirders will enjoy seeing specials like the prehistoric-looking Shoebill.”

STUART BUTLER

Stuart is a travel writer and author of

numerous Lonely Planet guidebooks, including some about Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. It’s been said by famous people (Sir Winston Churchill for one) that Uganda is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa. As far as I am concerned, it’s one of the most beautiful countries in the world and I don’t just mean physically. The people, who are always smiling, are as beautiful and welcoming as the landscape. Uganda is fairly small, which means that within only 5 or 6 hours of landing at Entebbe International Airport, one can easily be in a rainforest tracking habituated chimps, watching a lion prowl a golden savannah-scape in the national parks, or put-puttering over the waters of Lake Victoria to the idyllic Ssese Islands. It’s geographically and climatically diverse; you can shiver through the snowfields of the Rwenzoris, more romantically known as the Mountains of the Moon, one day, and drive across an arid semi-desert landscape in the northeast the next. It’s friendly, safe and ethnically diverse.”