Uganda is the “Pearl of Africa” and western Uganda is the mother of wildlife. Easily the most beautiful part of the country, it’s a lush region of lakes, islands and mountains. And whether you’re here for adventure or despite, the south west has got you covered in spades.

The western is Uganda’s top wildlife watching region and one of the world’s best places to sport primates. There of course the mountain gorillas living on the steep slopes of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. Kibale Forest National Park has what’s often described as the greatest variety of primates on the planet, and this is just one of the places you can track a habituated troop of chimpanzees as they groove through the treetops.

The famous tree climbing lions steal the show at Queen Elizabeth National Park, but the area’s second largest and most diverse park is also full of big wildlife and is one place certain to satisfy your safari urge. Murchison Falls National Park remains the regions’ saving grace.

The best all round protected area in the country for wildlife and attractions, Murchison has large populations of lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants, giraffes, hippo and chimpanzees plus its namesake waterfall is world-class. Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary is also a popular stopover to see white rhinos. And lastly drop into Semliki National Park with its hot springs and central African wildlife.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

This beautiful park is home to almost half of the world’s surviving mountain gorillas, the World Heritage listed Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The park is set over 331 sq. km of improbably steep mountain rain forest, the park is home to an estimated 459 gorillas, undoubtedly Uganda’s biggest tourist draw card.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is one of Africa’s ancient habitats, since it thrived right through the last Ice Age 12,000 to 18000 years ago when most of Africa’s other forests disappeared. The also contains 120 species of mammals more than any of Uganda’s other national parks, though sightings are less common due to the dense forest.

Bwindi has many activities offered to tourist but the main one is tracking mountain gorillas. This activity ranks among the absolute highlights of African travel and the exhilaration attached to first setting eyes on a wild mountain gorilla is difficult to describe.

On the day of gorilla tracking in Bwindi Forest, trackers must report at UWA headquarters with a passport or photocopy thereof to hand at the relevant trailhead at 08.00 and will be given a short briefing about what to expect before they depart into the forest.

It is no longer the case that permits specify which gorilla group you will track. At trailheads servicing more than one habituated group, however, the rangers usually do their best to allocate older or relatively unfit-looking trackers to whichever group they expect to be easiest to reach on the day, so if you need special consideration, best get there a bit early.

Take advantage when the guides offer you a walking staff before the walk; this will be invaluable to help you keep your balance on steep hillsides.

Once on the trail, don’t be afraid to ask to stop for a few minutes whenever you feel tired, or to ask the guides to create a makeshift walking stick from a branch. Please you are advised to drink plenty of water, and do carry some snacks. The good news is that in 99% of cases, whatever exhaustion you might feel on the way up will vanish with the Adrenalin charge that follows the first sighting of a silver back gorilla.

Exactly how tough varies greatly, and the main determining factor is basically down to luck, specifically how close the gorillas are to the trailhead on the day you trek (1–2 hours is typical, anything from 15 minutes to 6 hours possible).

But once gorillas are located, you are given a maximum of one hour to observe them. But those who sign on for the habituation experience can stay for up to 4 hours. Above all, do bear in mind that gorillas are still wild animals, despite the ‘gentle giant’ reputation.

Bwindi Forest is also one of the finest birding destinations in Uganda, thanks in part to the presence of 23 Albertine Rift Endemics, while other attractions include forest walks in search of smaller primates such as black-and-white Colobus and L’Hoest’s monkey. There are also a few reputable cultural programmers that offer the opportunity to interact with the Batwa Pygmies who were evicted from the forest interior following the gazetting of the national park.

Kibale Forest National Park

Uganda’s premier chimpanzee-tracking destination, Kibale Forest National Park is believed to have the highest density of primates in Africa. It is famous for being one of the best places in the world to track wild chimpanzees, with five groups habituated to human contact. It is home to 13 primate species with rare Red Colobus and L’Hoest’s monkeys the other highlights.

Originally gazetted as a forest reserve in 1932, Kibale was upgraded to national park status, and extended southward to form a contiguous block with the Queen Elizabeth National Park, in 1993. The trailhead for chimp tracking and main center of tourist activity within the park is the Kanyanchu Visitors’ Centre, which lies 35km south of Fort Portal along a newly surfaced road that continues south to Kamwenge and Ibanda.

Chimps aside, Kanyanchu offers some superb forest birding and monkey viewing, with the community-run Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, only 5km away immediately outside the park boundary, being a particular highlight in this respect. Kibale Forest National Park is dominated by rain forest, but this is interspersed with tracts of grassland and swamp.

There’s a morning 8am and afternoon 2pm departure and regular trackers get just one hour with the playful primates, but those on the chimpanzee habituation experience can spend the whole day with them. Other activities include, nature walks, Bigodi wetland sanctuary, Sebitoli walk and bird watching.

At least 60 mammal species are present in Kibale National Park. It is particularly rich in primates, with 13 species recorded, the highest for any Ugandan national park. Kibale Forest is the most important stronghold of Ugandan red Colobus, but it supports eight other diurnal primate species: Vervet, red-tailed, L’Hoest’s and blue monkeys; Uganda mangabey; black-and-white Colobus; olive baboon; and chimpanzee. It also supports four species of nocturnal prosimian including the sloth-like potto.

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Covering 1978 sq km, scenic Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the most popular parks in Uganda. Few reserves in the world can boast such a high biodiversity rating. With landscape including Savannah, bush land, wetlands and lush forests, the park inhabited 96 species of mammals including healthy numbers of hippos, elephants, lions and leopards as well as chimps and hyenas. The remote Ishasha sector, in the far south of the park, is famous for its tree climbing lions.

The best way to get an early feel for Queen Elizabeth National Park is to join the two-hour boat cruise up the Kazinga Channel, which runs between Lake George and Lake Edward. Bird life is fantastic but the whole journey, especially if you go at sunset, is filled with sightings of watering elephants, buffalo, hippos, crocs and various antelope.

Queen Elizabeth National Park is about 2000sq km and some of the outlying country (at greatest distance from the lakes) is extremely wild and barely traveled. It can take some serious 4×4 driving to get to some parts of the park but is worth the mission if you have the opportunity to explore these areas. A definite highlight of the area is a walking safari in Kyambura Gorge where you can see several primate species with undoubtedly the most spectacular being chimpanzees.

Murchison Falls National Park

Flanking the 100km stretch of the Victoria Nile that arcs west from Karuma Bridge towards Lake Albert, the 3,840km² Murchison Falls National Park is the largest protected area in Uganda, and one of the most exciting.

Its centerpiece Murchison Falls is the most electrifying sight of its type in East Africa, with the fast-flowing but wide Nile being transformed into an explosive froth of thunderous white water as it funnels through a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley Escarpment.

This park offers some superb terrestrial and boat-based game viewing, with lion, elephant, hippo, buffalo and Rothschild’s giraffe being particularly common along the north bank of the Nile. The park is the largest component in the greater Murchison Falls Conservation Area (MFCA), which also incorporates the collectively managed 750km² Bugungu and 720km² Karuma wildlife reserves to its south.

From a visitor’s perspective, the most important feature of Bugungu and Karuma is the Kaniyo Pabidi Forest, which harbors a chimpanzee community that’s been habituated for tourists, as well as a number of localized forest birds.

For most birders, however, the star attraction among the 550-plus species recorded in the MFCA is the shoe bill, an elusive and bizarre water bird frequently seen in the delta where the Nile empties into Lake Albert.

The park offers a diverse selection of activities to visitors. Most popular, and best undertaken in the afternoon with the sun in the west, is the atmospheric and all-but-obligatory return boat trip that follows the Nile from Paraa to the base of Murchison Falls.

This is closely followed in the must-do stakes by a morning game drive on the Buligi Circuit, a network of game-viewing tracks traversing the 10km-wide peninsula that separates the Victoria and Albert Niles as they course in and out of Lake Albert.

For those with more time and/or deeper wallets, other highlights include early morning chimpanzee tracking or forest birding at Kaniyo Pabidi, the spectacular top of the fall’s viewpoint and associated honeymoon track on the south side of the river, the boat trip downriver from Paraa to the bird-rich Lake Albert Delta, and the oft-neglected game-viewing road running northeast of Paraa towards Wankwar Gate.

Semliki National Park

Gazetted in 1993, Semliki National Park is previously known as Bwamba Forest, a name that often crops up in old ornithological literature. It protects a practically un-spoilt 220km² tract of rain forest bounded to the northwest by the Semliki River as it runs along the Congolese border into Lake Albert, and to the southeast by the surfaced main road connecting Fort Portal to Bundibugyo.

The tropical lowland forest of Semliki, set at an average altitude of 700m, forms an ecological continuum with the Ituri Forest, which extends eastward for more than 500km to the Congo River, and it supports a wealth of wildlife unknown from elsewhere in East Africa, including more than 35 bird species. Despite this, the relative remoteness of the park means it is seldom visited, even by ornithological tours.

Over 435 bird species have been recorded in Semliki National Park. The checklist includes a full 35 Guinea–Congo Forest biome bird species unknown from elsewhere in East Africa. Furthermore, another 12 species with an extremely limited distribution in East Africa are reasonably likely to be seen by visitors spending a few days in Semliki National Park.

Activities include the Hot Springs, most people come here to see Semliki’s boiling Sulphur hot springs. The female hot spring is where women from the Bamaga clan would make sacrifices to the gods before bathing naked in the natural springs. Your guide can demonstrate the water’s temperatures by boiling an egg available from the information center each at 500Ush.

A half-hour’s walk from the female spring, the male hot spring is where the men carried out their sacrificial rituals. It is accessed via a muddy forest trail with plenty of primates and birdlife along the way.

It leads to verdant clearing of swamp where a boardwalk passes through sweeping grass and squawking frogs to the hot spring located in a 12m pool. Other activities include the walking trails, Toro – Semliki wildlife reserve for tracking chimps, wildlife drives, nature walks among others. Therefore, to best explore all Uganda parks is traveling with 4×4 rooftop tent jeep and camping all year round and contact us for easy arrangement of your self-drive holiday and camping.