Why Visit Uganda?

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In 1907 Winston Churchill dubbed Uganda the ‘Pearl of Africa.’ A hundred years later, I discovered he was right. Uganda encompasses any African experience a traveler may ever dream to say they created a memory of. Mountains, lakes, rain-forests, bustling cities, friendly people, white water rafting, and the highest concentration of primates on the Earth makes Uganda a traveling paradise. Here are 5 reasons why I consider a safari in Uganda.

BWINIDI: HOME OF THE GORILLAS

Bwindi Gorilla trekking. In local language Bwindi means impenetrable, take on the mission to find the gorillas and you’ll discover it’s aptly named. The journey to Bwindi is a destination in itself, an 8 hour, 97km pickup trek through steep mountainous passes. It’s a journey worth penetrating as trekking through the thick vegetation to spend an hour with these gentle giants of the forest is a memory that will last with you forever. Camping at the edge of the dense jungle adds to the surreal experience. Steam eerily rises from the jungle floor and keeps you awake with visions of gorillas, either the animal or renegade kind, emerging as a night time visitor from the forest. How could one ever forget the first sight of the gorilla family deep within the walls of Bwindi. The gigantic silverback, in an effort to assert his authority, runs directly toward you teeth bared and with a scream that turns your blood to ice and renders you immobile with terror. Once jungle roles have been established, he allows you to sit close and watch for an hour as his family interact, play and curiously watch you back.

JINJA: SOURCE OF THE NILE AND ‘THE BAD PLACE’

Jinja is at the source of the Nile River and home to one of the world’s best commercial white water rafting experiences. Most people going to Africa are intent on rafting the Zambezi, overlooking the exhilarate power of the Nile rapids. Our guides, having rafted both rivers, said they were on a very comparable fear factor level, however there was no place in the world that compared with ‘The Bad Place.’ The Bad Place is the final Grade 5 rapid on the Nile run, and the place where I lost my stomach to my legs and thought for sure my life was seriously coming to a close. It’s a deadly churning wall of white water, sitting on the edge of a grade 6 run, which you must adeptly circumnavigate to arrive at the bad place. Your reward- a guaranteed high-flying flip out into the raging river, swirling out at the end with an ultra cool Ugandan experience.

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