Uganda

An extraordinary geography, in the heart of the Great Lakes region, home to the mythical sources of the River Nile, a generous land where primitive pygmy Twa people settled and a crossroads for Bantu and Nilotic peoples, home to the ancient Kingdom of Buganda and to Arab and European dominations, Uganda, dominated by the imposing peak of the Ruwenzori, is a concentration of naturalistic riches and a mosaic of cultures, which probably needs no introduction.

A land of honey and fertile plateaus, cotton, banana, coffee and cocoa plantations, high grasslands and semi-arid savannahs in the north, interspersed with small areas of equatorial forests in the south and secondary forests of lianas and bamboo, Uganda is home to a particularly rich biodiversity and fauna, which have rightly made this destination popular with nature lovers. “The Pearl of Africa” is home to no fewer than 10 national parks, including the UNESCO-protected Ruwenzori Mountains Park and the intricate Bwindi Park. Among the vegetation of these numerous reserves, the silent mountain gorillas of Bwindi and Mgahinga, on the border with Rwanda, with their extremely fragile balance and strictly controlled by the government protection agencies, or the herds of elephants and giraffes that constantly move between the savannahs and grasslands, make their way through the vegetation, but it is also possible to admire the ability of the “arboreal” lions of Ishasha who have developed the curious ability of climbing trees. How exciting are the rapids of the Nile and the imposing waterfalls of Murchinson, the myriad of birds and crowned cranes of Semuliki or the chimpanzees and funny guereza colobuses of Kibale! How impressive are the boundless waters of Lake Victoria with its mystical archipelago of Ssese islands, or the vertiginous peaks of the Ruwenzori glaciers and the peaks of Mount Elgon!

These outstanding naturalistic adventures and forest treks are complemented by the proverbial hospitality of peoples who have left past conflicts behind and have contributed, through their ancestral traditions and cultural identities, to the development of one of the safest destinations in Central Africa, where the name of Amin Dada or “Operation Entebbe” are only a distant memory. Don’t miss a visit to the semi-nomadic Nilotic tribes of Karamoja, whose customs are among the most representative of the pastoral cultures of the northern savannahs, and a dive into the history of Buganda, among the royal tombs of Kasubi, not far from the 7 hills of Kampala, which house the remains of the kings (kabaka), in characteristic traditional domed structures of straw and wood, now on the UNESCO list.