Gorilla & Volcano Trek

Places To See

Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary

The Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, established to protect the Magombe Swamp, is a haven for birds, with 137 species, plus butterflies and a number of primates. The guided walks through this sanctuary have been developed with the aim of assisting community development projects in the Kibale area, so the project deserves support.

Many of the guides have a good knowledge of bird life in the sanctuary, and are also adept at spotting colobus monkeys and the beautiful blue touraco from a distance. It is often easier to spot colobus monkeys here than in Kibale Forest National Park, as the vegetation is more open.

Three-hour guided walks depart from the visitor centre on demand. The best time to go is early morning or late afternoon.

Sipi Falls

Sipi Falls is a stunner, arguably the most beautiful waterfall in all of Uganda, and it is now much more accessible thanks to one of the best roads in the country linking it to Mbale. The falls are about 55km north of Mbale, in the foothills of Mt Elgon and not far from the town of Kapchorwe.

Not only are the falls spectacular, so too are the views of Mt Elgon above them, and the wide plains of eastern and northern Uganda disappearing into the distance below. There are three levels of falls, but the two upper levels are fairly small compared with the main drop. It is well worth spending a night or two in this peaceful and pretty place.

There are some excellent walks on a network of well-maintained local trails, and beautiful scenery in every direction. It is easy enough just to ramble off on your own, but all the lodges and camp sites in the area offer guided walks.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Also known as the Impenetrable Forest, Bwindi is one of Uganda's most recently created national parks. The park, which covers 331 sq km, encompasses one of the last remaining habitats of the mountain gorilla, and is where almost half - an estimated 330 individuals - of the surviving mountain gorillas in the world live.

A major conservation effort has been going on here for a number of years to protect the gorillas' habitat. Gorillas are not the only animals to have benefited from this project. The park contains about 20 forest elephants, at least 10 species of primate (including chimpanzees, colobus monkeys and baboons), duikers, bushbucks and the rare giant forest hog, as well as a host of bird and insect species. It is one of the richest areas in Africa for flora and fauna.

A visit with the gorillas is an incredible experience but it can be difficult to arrange and the walking is not for strollers. All bookings must be made through the UWA office (041-346287) in Kampala, and only 32 permits per day are available for Bwindi.

The terrain in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is mountainous and heavily forested and you might be walking for up to four hours before you sight the gorillas. Be sure to prepare well and take fast film to get good photos in the shade of the forest.

Pre-Departure Information

When to go?

The best time to visit Uganda is late December to late February, as this time of year is generally dry (though hot). A close second is the June to September period. Don't even think about trekking outside of these dry months.

Travel Visa Overview

Citizens of most countries require visas to enter Uganda. Ugandan visas are available at all major land borders and the international airport at Entebbe. All nationalities require an International Health Certificate showing proof of a yellow fever vaccination within the past 10 years.

Electricity

220V

50Hz

Electrical Plugs

British-style plug with two flat blades and one flat grounding blade

Health Information

HIV/AIDS

HIV (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus) develops into AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), which is a fatal disease. Any exposure to blood, blood products or body fluids may put the individual at risk. The disease is often transmitted through sexual contact or dirty needles - body piercing, acupuncture, tattooing and vaccinations can be potentially as dangerous as intravenous drug use. HIV and AIDS can also be spread via infected blood transfusions, but blood supplies in most reputable hospitals are now screened, so the risk from transfusions is low. If you do need an injection, ask to see the syringe unwrapped in front of you, or take a needle and syringe pack with you. Fear of HIV infection should not preclude treatment for any serious medical conditions.

Most countries have organisations and services for HIV-positive folk and people with AIDS. For a list of organizations divided by country, plus descriptions of their services, see www.aidsmap.com.

Yellow fever

Yellow fever is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. There is an effective vaccine against yellow fever, so if you have been immunised, you can basically rule this disease out. Symptoms of yellow fever range from a mild fever which resolves over a few days to more serious forms with fever, headache, muscle pains, abdominal pain and vomiting. This can progress to bleeding, shock and liver and kidney failure. The liver failure causes jaundice, or yellowing of your skin and the whites of your eyes - hence the name.

There's no specific treatment but you should seek medical help urgently if you think you have yellow fever.

Malaria

This serious and potentially fatal disease is spread by mosquito bites. If you are travelling in endemic areas it is extremely important to avoid mosquito bites and to take tablets to prevent this disease. Symptoms range from fever, chills and sweating, headache, diarrhoea and abdominal pains to a vague feeling of ill-health. Seek medical help immediately if malaria is suspected. Without treatment malaria can rapidly become more serious and can be fatal.

If medical care is not available, malaria tablets can be used for treatment. You should seek medical advice, before you travel, on the right medication and dosage for you.

If you do contract malaria, be sure to be re-tested for malaria once you return home as you can harbour malaria parasites in your body even if you are symptom free.

Travellers are advised to prevent mosquito bites at all times. The main messages are: wear light-coloured clothing; wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts; use mosquito repellents containing the compound DEET on exposed areas (prolonged overuse of DEET may be harmful, especially to children, but its use is considered preferable to being bitten by disease-transmitting mosquitoes); avoid perfumes and aftershave.Use a mosquito net impregnated with mosquito repellent (permethrin) - it may be worth taking your own.

Schistosomiasis (bilharzia)

Also known as bilharzia, this disease is carried in freshwater by tiny worms that enter through the skin and attach themselves to the intestines or bladder. The first symptom may be tingling and sometimes a light rash around the area where the worm entered. Weeks later, a high fever may develop. A general unwell feeling may be the first symptom, or there may be no symptoms. Once the disease is established, abdominal pain and blood in the urine are other signs. The infection often causes no symptoms until the disease is well established (several months to years after exposure), and damage to internal organs is irreversible.

Avoid swimming or bathing in freshwater where bilharzia is present. Even deep water can be infected. If you do get wet, dry off quickly and dry your clothes as well. A blood test is the most reliable test, but it will not show positive until a number of weeks after exposure.

Weather Information

Uganda has a heady tropical climate tempered by altitude, which averages more than 1000m (3281ft). December to February are the hottest months, with the heat lingering around 29°C (84°F) during the day, and cooler temperatures in the mountains. The rainy seasons in the south are from March to May and October to November, the wettest month being April. In the north the wet season is from April to October.

History and Culture

Pre-20th Centure History

Indigenous kingdoms popped up in Uganda in the 14th century. Among them were the Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Busoga. Over the following centuries, the Buganda people created the dominant kingdom. The tribes had plenty of time to work out their hierarchies as there was very little penetration of Uganda from the outside until the 19th century. Despite the fertility of the land and its capacity to grow surplus crops, there were virtually no trading links with the east African coast. Contacts were finally made with Arab traders and European explorers in the mid-19th century - the latter came in search of ivory and slaves.

After the Treaty of Berlin in 1890 defined the various European countries' spheres of influence in Africa, Uganda, Kenya and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba became British protectorates. The colonial administrators introduced coffee and cotton as cash crops and adopted a policy of indirect rule, giving the traditional kingdoms considerable autonomy, but favouring the recruitment of Buganda tribespeople for the civil service. A few thousand Bugandan chiefs received huge estates from the British, on the basis of which they made fortunes. Other tribespeople, unable to get jobs in the colonial administration or make inroads in the Buganda-dominated commercial sector, were forced to seek other ways of gaining influence. The Acholi and Lango, for example, were dominant in the military. Thus were planted the seeds for the intertribal conflicts that were to tear Uganda apart following independence.

Modern History

A loose coalition led Uganda to independence in 1962 promising that the Buganda would have autonomy. It wasn't a particularly advantageous time for Uganda to come to grips with independence. Civil wars were raging in neighbouring southern Sudan, Zaïre (now Congo) and Rwanda, and refugees poured into the country. It also soon became obvious that Obote had no intention of sharing power with the kabaka (the Bugandan king). Obote ordered his army chief of staff, Idi Amin, to storm the kabaka's palace. Obote became president, the Bugandan monarchy was abolished and Idi Amin's star was on the rise. But events soon started to go seriously wrong. Obote rewrote the constitution to consolidate virtually all powers in the presidency. He then began to nationalise, without compensation, 500000000.00 worth of foreign assets. In 1969, Amin was implicated in a financial scandal and he responded to the bad press by staging a coup. Obote fled and so began Uganda's first reign of terror.

The army was empowered to shoot on sight anyone suspected of opposing the regime. Over the next eight years an estimated 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives. Amin's main targets were the Acholi and Lango tribespeople, the professional classes and the country's 70,000-strong Asian community. In 1972 the Asians - many of whom had come from other British colonies to work Uganda's plantations as far back as 1912 - were given 90 days to leave the country with nothing but the clothes they wore.

Meanwhile the economy collapsed, infrastructure crumbled, the country's prolific wildlife was machine-gunned by soldiers for meat, ivory and skins, and the tourism industry evaporated. The stream of refugees across the border became a flood. Inflation hit 1000%, and towards the end the treasury was so bereft of funds that it was unable to pay the soldiers. Faced with a restless army wracked by intertribal fighting, Amin foolishly chose to go to war with Tanzania. The Tanzanians rolled into the heart of Uganda. Amin fled to Libya. The 12,000 or so Tanzanian soldiers who remained in Uganda, supposedly to help with the country's reconstruction and to maintain law and order, turned on the Ugandans.

In 1980 the government was taken over by a military commission, which set a presidential election date for Uganda later that year. Obote returned from exile in Tanzania to an enthusiastic welcome in many parts of the country and swept to victory in a blatantly rigged election. Like Amin, Obote favoured certain tribes. Large numbers of civil servants and army and police commanders belonging to southern tribes were replaced with Obote supporters from the north, and the prisons began filling once more. Reports of atrocities leaked out of the country and several mass graves were discovered. In mid-1985 Obote was overthrown in an army coup led by Tito Okello.

Shortly after Obote became president in 1980, a guerrilla army opposed to his tribally biased government was formed in western Uganda. It was led by Yoweri Museveni, who had lived in exile in Tanzania during Amin's reign. From a group of 27 grew a guerrilla force of about 20,000, many of them orphaned teenagers. In the early days few gave the guerrillas, known as the National Resistance Army (NRA), much of a chance, but by the time Obote was ousted and Okello had taken over, the NRA controlled a large slice of western Uganda. Fighting proceeded in earnest between the NRA and Okello government troops, and by January 1986 it was clear that Okello's days were numbered. The NRA launched an all-out offensive and took the capital.

Despite Museveni's Marxist leanings, he proved to be a pragmatic leader, appointing several arch-conservatives to his cabinet and making an effort to reassure the country's influential Catholic community. Meanwhile, almost 300,000 Ugandan refugees returned from across the Sudanese border. The economy took a turn for the better and aid and investment began returning to the country.

Recent History

Museveni won democratic 'no-party' elections in 1994 and again in 1996 and 2001. In that time key economic reforms were introduced and by the turn of the millennium the economy was experiencing sustained growth, and even a modicum of prosperity.

Even so, Museveni faced a number of challenges in this period, notably in the north, which was plagued by various anti-government rebel factions such as the bizarre Christian group known as the Lords' Resistance Army (LRA), allied with Sudan's Islamic government, and the West Nile Bank Front, led by Idi Amin's former minister.

At the same time, the country's levels of AIDS and HIV infection grew to be among the highest in the world; in some villages the infection rate is as high as one in four. Museveni won another term in 2001, and in 2002 concluded a peace deal with the Ugandan National Rescue Front. The following year Uganda pulled out of the war in Congo (Zaïre) and a government committee recommended a transition to multiparty democracy.

However recently, Museveni has shifted his position on a return to multi-party politics. He also moved to scrap constitutional limits on presidential terms. Museveni himself put in place the two term limit and promptly changed his mind as the end of his tenure drew closer. He was re-elected in 2006, but not before he had his opponent Dr Kizza Besigye muzzled and imprisoned on charges of treason and rape. Meanwhile, there is still the threat of the LRA wreaking violence in the north.