Bwindi Impenetrable National Park
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, is a home to 326 gorillas, almost a half of the world’s population of mountain gorillas. Looking deep into the expressive brown eyes of the gentle giants is surely the most exciting wildlife encounter that Africa has to offer. This national park has 90 mammal species including 11 primates, and the prominent black and white colobus, with its lovely flowing white tail. The forest birding ranks best in Uganda with 23 highly localized Albertine Rift endemic present.Besides Gorilla Tracking, there are other activities like buhoma village tourist walk, Cultural performances, guided forest walks, one popular trail leads to a pretty waterfall and others focus on birding and monkey viewing.
Murchison Falls National Park derives it name from the Murchison Falls where the mighty River Nile explodes through a narrow gorge and flows down to become a placid river whose banks are thronged with hippos, crocodiles, waterbucks and buffaloes. The vegetation is characterized by savannah, riverine forest and woodland. Wildlife includes lions, leopards, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, hartebeests, oribis, Uganda Kobs, chimpanzees and many bird species including the rare shoebill.
Activities include regular launch trips to the base of the falls which offers excellent game-viewing and bird watching, Boat trips to Lake delta provide the best chance in Africa of sighting shoebills, Chimp tracking at Rabongo and Budongo forests. There is also excellent opportunity for fishing targeting the large Nile Perch which is over 100 Kilos!!!. Game drives are also avaible.
This wonderful national park which is described as “Uganda’s great rift valley” by Andrew Roberts is the second largest and its almost 1,978 sq. km . Queen Elizabeth National Park is bordered in the West by Lake Edward and in the North by the Rwenzori mountains, and is divided in two sectors, the North and the South. This fertile equatorial area has a very nice scenery comprised of volcanic craters, grassy plains and tropical forest and two lakes connected by a channel overlooked by a high peninsula. The beauty remains though, with sprawling cacti, savannah, forests, rivers and lakes.
Mgahinga Gorilla National Park
The national park protects the Ugandan portion of the Virungas, a chain of six extinct and three sporadically active volcanoes which follows the borders with Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The primary aim of providing sanctuary to the rare mountain gorilla, some 300 of which live in the Virungas that why Mgahinga was proclaimed. Gorilla tracking remains the most popular activity here though it is dependent on the seasonal movements of the habituated groups.
Covered in extensive acacia woodland, Mburo has different fauna compared to other parks. Lake Mburo is the best place in the country to see the gigantic eland antelope, as well as zebra, topi, impala, and several acacia-associated birds. The five lakes within the park attracts hippos, crocodiles and a variety of water birds, while fringing swamps hide secretive papyrus specialists such as the sitatunga antelope and red, black and yellow papyrus gonalek.
Situated within the remote Semliki Valley, site of the Sempaya Hot Springs and named for the river which forms the Congolese border, Semliki National Park protects an extension of the Congo’s vast Ituri Rainforest, and is of particular interest to birders with 40 essentially Congolese species found nowhere else in Uganda.
The most accessible of Uganda’s major rainforest. Kibale is home to a remarkable 13 primate species, including the localized red colobus and L’Hoest’s monkey. Kibale’s major attraction, however, is the opportunity to track habituated chimps, these delightful apes, more closely related to man than to any other living creature, are tremendous fun to watch as they squabble and play in fruiting trees.
Elgon is a 4,321 high extinct volcano which in prehistoric times stood taller than Kilimanjaro does today. Although the mountain straddles the Kenya border, its loftiest peak, Wagagai, lies within Uganda and is best ascended from the Ugandan side. Elgon is an important watershed, and its slops support a rich variety of altitudinal vegetation zones ranging from montane forest to high open moorland studded with the other worldly giant lobelia and groundsel plants.
Isolated from the Ugandan mainstream by the harsh plains north of Mount Elgon, Kidepo is one of Africa’s last great wilderness areas, a tract of rugged savannah dominated by the 2,750m mount Morungole and transected by the Kidepo and Narus Rivers. Perennial water makes Kidepo an oasis in the semi-desert, reflected in its 86 mammal species,28 of which are nowhere else in Uganda and almost 500 birds.
Rwenzori Mountains National Park
The 120 km Rwenzori chain is regarded to be the legendary snow capped “Mountains of the Moon”, described by Prolemy in AD150. Reaching an elevation of 5,109m, it is also Africa’s tallest mountain range, exceeded in altitude only by the free standing Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro. The distinctive glacial peaks are visible for miles around, but the slops above 1,600m are the preserve of hikers, who rate the Rwenzoris to be the most challenging of all the African mountains.