Best Trips 2013 -- National Geographic. Uganda Africa's new Frontier

The land mixes savanna, enormous lakes, rain forests, and the glacier-clad Rwenzori Mountains, one of Africa’s tallest ranges. The headwaters of the Nile originate here, then burst through a cleft in the rocks at Murchison Falls. Uganda’s parade of animals is amazingly diverse. Hippos graze along the shores of Lake Edward in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, while lions lounge in the trees of Ishasha, in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The star in Bwindi is the mountain gorilla, a species down to about 720 animals visible in their tiny habitat.

Uganda has tough decisions ahead. Oil lies beneath the Rift Valley, right inside Murchison Falls National Park. Extraction seems inevitable. But tourism dollars could provide an easier coexistence between banana-loving gorillas and banana farmers in Bwindi. —David Swanson

Travel Tips

When to Go: The best times are during the drier seasons, January-March and June-August.

Where to Stay: Embark on guided boat trips, hikes, and safaris from rustic Jacana Safari Lodge on Lake Nyamusingire (Uganda’s largest crater lake) in Queen Elizabeth National Park, or from thatched-roof Mihingo Lodge on the secluded edge of Lake Mburo National Park.

How to Get Around: Public and private transportation options include minibuses, taxis, luxury coaches, rental cars, and inland ferries. Tour operators can arrange travel for day trips, safaris, and complete itineraries.

Where to Eat or Drink: In Kampala, head to Nalongo in suburban Katwe for traditional luwombo: a mixture of meat, vegetables, and (sometimes) peanut butter steamed in banana leaves. Funky Mish Mash in Kololo serves an all-day breakfast in a laid-back art gallery-tree house-café-garden setting.

What to Buy: Local crafts, including mats and baskets handwoven from elephant grass and palm leaves, are sold along roadsides and at outdoor markets. Read more

Uganda to exhibit fresh tourism products at London WTM

 

Uganda will exhibit fresh tourism products at the world travel market (WTM) expo taking place in London, UK.

This was revealed at a press conference where private and public sector representatives including Uganda tourism board, the Ministry  of wildlife and antiquities, Uganda Wildlife Authority, the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and wildlife Trust , civil aviation authority, Sheraton Hotel and twenty tour operators met on Monday to discuss how best to represent the country at the leading global event for the travel industry.

Wildlife and antiquities minister Maria Mutagamba, speaking at the conference at Sheraton Hotel’s lake room about the presentation of Uganda at the WTM that is taking place in Excel Docklands in London, reminded the different exhibitors that they were going as marketers not tourists, and they should be keen to find out what their potential clients’ interests are regarding Uganda. She urged them to uphold good discipline as well as understand and embrace on the element of cooperation and competition. Read More

MTN Kampala marathon organisers anounce date and route

KAMPALA - Organisers of the MTN marathon plan to make this year’s race an occasion worthy of an event marking Uganda’s Independence golden jubilee.

Besides attracting East Africa’s long distance elite, the organisers are doing everything in their means to ensure the event also has a record entry. MoreMTN marathon organisers plot record entry this year

Elephant in South Korean zoo imitates human speech

An elephant in a South Korean zoo (SEOUL, South Korea) is using his trunk to pick up not only food, but also human vocabulary. An international team of scientists confirmed Friday what the Everland Zoo has been saying for years: Their 5.5-ton tusker Koshik has an unusual and possibly unprecedented talent. The 22-year-old Asian elephant can reproduce five Korean words by tucking his trunk inside his mouth to modulate sound, the scientists said in a joint paper published online in Current Biology. They said he may have started imitating human speech because he was lonely.

Koshik can reproduce "annyeong" (hello), "anja" (sit down), "aniya" (no), "nuwo" (lie down) and "joa" (good), the paper says.Read more

Uganda Tourism; A road to community development

Bwindi Community Hospita

 When the first gorilla tracking was done in Uganda in 1993 after the first gorilla group was habituated, Buhoma, a little known place then, and very remote, located deep in Bwindi forest, emerged as one of the most known areas in the world and centre for gorilla tourism. Buhoma and Nkwenda villages are found in Mukono parish in Kayonza Sub County Kanungu District in south western Uganda in the forest (later to be called Bwindi impenetrable national park after it was gazetted in 1991.)

Buhoma has since been elevated to town board status by the Kanungu district local government following several developments that came with gorilla tourism.

On April 1, 1993, the first gorilla tracking was allowed in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park following gazetting of the park on August 13, 1991 by the National Resistance Council.

Several activities followed the gazettement of the park including the habituation of the first primates of the Bubare family led by the deceased Ruhondeza Silver.

Other two groups Habinyanja and Kateregwe were later habituated making the three groups the only habituated then, till 2003. This caused a great development to the area making it an absolutely tourist site.

Several locals were attracted to doing business as craft makers, traditional dancers, transporters, and agriculturalists for food supply to the expanding businesses.

With the aid of a Peace Corp Volunteer, John Dubois, who led a team to habituate the first gorillas, the communities in Mukono parish’s 12 villages were brought together and started up a camping site with modern lodges later known as Buhoma Community Rest Camp, the first tourist camp at Buhoma.

Since 1993, 12 other camps and local lodges and hotels have been set up with the growing hospitality industry. They include Gorilla Forest Camp, Buhoma Lodge, Buhoma Community Rest Camp, Bwindi View Lodge, Lake Kitandara and Silver Back Lodge.

Others are Volcanoes Lodge, Engagi Lodge, Mahogany Springs Lodge, Bwindi Guest Home, Gorilla Friends Lodge and Jungle View lodge.

At Buhoma, everything changes if you are used to the Ugandan way of life. The dollar is the currency used, bandas (semi permanent tents) is where you sleep, English is the main language and you subscribe to the norm of silence and no interruption.

The whole camping area and local community around, described as the business centre by Uganda Wildlife Authority (Uwa), is silent and you would not know that more than 2,000 people stay in the area.

At the entry, UWA police check every person entering. They escort you to access your destination if you have come with one of the camps’ vehicles.

Outside the gate, business is booming. Mr Peter Twebaze, a manager at Buhoma Community Rest Camp who for the last 17 years has been working in Buhoma tour camps says life at Bwindi changes every day because of tourism.

“Ever since I got here, every day has been different; this is because we have tourists coming in daily. It was so remote at the beginning that one would not think of staying here for three nights,” Mr Twebaze says.