Safari in Uganda

dramatic volcanic Rift Valley scenery

Uganda is an absolute jewel of a country which lies to the north of Lake Victoria in east-central Africa.

The scenery along the western side of the country in particular is awesome, some of the most impressive on the continent, with dramatic volcanic peaks, lush tropical forests, flooded calderas, broad lakes, open savannas and verdant farmlands.

The main reason to visit Uganda is to head into the forests to track gorillas, chimpanzees and a host of other primates.

In between there are lesser opportunities to experience some modest savanna safari, with a number of areas containing decent populations of animals including elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes, zebras and kobs.

There is also some excellent white-water rafting on the River Nile at Jinja.

Because Uganda is relatively little-visited, the safari infrastructure here is very under-developed. On the upside, visitors can really feel like real pioneers in some areas. But you will most likely need to be forgiving of shortcomings of conservation and general infrastructure. The lodges are generally much less comfortable and reliable than in most safari countries.

The seasonality in Uganda is rather complicated and unusual. The majority of key areas are relatively strong year round, but three main safari areas have very different seasons.

The one stand-out time of year when good conditions coincide in almost all the various locations is Dec-Feb.

In this section we will mainly focus on conditions in the gorilla and chimp areas, then add notes about the various safari areas as we go.

Getting around

Up to around 2015 getting around Uganda was something of a mission. The only real option was to travel by guided overland safari, which might sound great, but the reality was that most of the hard miles were on relatively uninteresting main roads rather than interesting safari areas. It was both tiresome, time consuming and, for smaller groups, surprisingly expensive.

Fortunately there is now a reliable schedule of light aircraft flights connecting the main safari areas, operating out of the hub airport at Entebbe and visiting Bwindi Forest, QENP, Kibale Forest, Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley.

However we are big fans of overland safari when done in the right areas, so we now maintain a fleet of safari vehicles out in the Western Rift Valley, which enables us to connect by road between Bwindi Forest, QE and Kibale Forest, as an optional inset to a flying safari.

a unique mix of climate zones