Uganda - The Pearl of Africa

Uganda is a land of contrasts. In half a day you can drive from mist-shrouded volcanic mountains to hot hazy savannah, dappled with wildlife. Serene undulating hills of tea plantations, lush but ordered, give way to tangled jungle and rainforest
with the musical accompaniment of chaotic, cacophonous birdlife.
Uganda is alive with these contrasts: The tiniest sunbirds, iridescent in the morning light; the massive lumbering yet silent elephant, disappearing like a vapour behind the trees; the chimpanzees crashing about the forest canopy; the lugubrious gorilla, chewing thoughtfully in the bamboo thicket.

There’s the Nile, twisting its way north like a shimmering ribbon, through arid semi-desert scattered about with rocky kopjes. Snow-capped peaks, tropical, sandy, freshwater beaches, and smiling faces everywhere. It’s all here, a feast for all the senses.
This is Uganda the way it should be!

Uganda – The Pearl of Africa!

It is a tough challenge to describe Uganda in a few short paragraphs. Despite the small size of the country, the diversity of landscape, topography, people, wildlife, birdlife and plant life is mind-boggling. If we had to distil the essence of Uganda down to one word, we might say ’Fecund’. This was used by Winston Churchill all those years ago…but fecund is hardly a word we hear much anymore.

Lush? Luxuriant? Abundant? Diverse? They all work. This beautiful country we call home is right at the heart of Africa; at the crossroads of East and West, North and South. We have rich, misty primordial forests. Hot, vast grasslands with impossibly big skies. Glacier-peaked mountain ranges and palm-fringed tropical islands with sandy beaches. Tumultuous, roiling rivers, placid sparkling lakes and endless miles of papyrus wetlands.

Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” and nowhere is this more true than this lovely gem of a country.

Uganda has many ‘parts’, many easily identifiable landmarks: the Equator, the River Nile, Lake Victoria, the Rwenzori Mountains, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the eastern most edge of the Central African Rainforest, the Western Rift Valley, the peak of Mount Elgon (the largest volcanic base in the world). National Parks, Game Reserves, Forest Reserves. It has incredible birdlife (even the most die-hard non-birder can’t fail to be impressed) and a tremendous array of wildlife. Our unique position on the continent means we have both savannah species typical of East Africa (lion, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, zebra, warthog etc), and forest species more typical of Central Africa
(forest elephant, red river hog, chimpanzee, mountain gorilla, forest buffalo).

Wrap all this up with the rich cultural history and heritage of more than 50 tribes – both Nilotic and Bantu – who live here and warmly welcome visitors, the ‘whole’ is great indeed. Regardless of what we say, regardless of the words we choose, our clients’ reactions are often the same: “I never knew it was so beautiful” The message is clear. The only way to get a real feel for what Uganda is like, you need to come and see it yourself. So come and let us show you our Africa, our Uganda.