Uganda - Road Less Travelled

Travel to Uganda with a sense of adventure and you will be rewarded with spectacular scenery, friendly people, enthralling bird life and very few other tourists competing for the same magnificent sights.

If at times you find service with a smile lacking, it is simply due to lack of practice as tourists have been noticeably absent from Uganda for many years - until recently that is. A stable government, rapidly improving infrastructure, sound environmental policies and a willingness to learn from past mistakes are just some reasons why Uganda's tourist industry is set to flourish.

The Government owned Uganda Hotels have begun their privatisation policy and prime sites have been snapped up by astute holiday companies. The stunningly situated Paara Lodge, high on the banks of the Victoria Nile has been renovated to top international standards at five star prices.

At the moment though, there are still many which are shabby and run down with beds that sag and hot water which is not hot, or worse - no water at all. Remember your sense of adventure and your sense of humour and do not let these little things put you off.

Bottom-Numbing Roads

Be prepared too for bumpy red-dirt roads and bottom-numbing journeys of several hours at speeds of no more than 40 kph if you are in the north and west of the country. Murchison Falls National Park in the north-west (previously called the Kabalega Falls National Park) must not be left out of your itinerary.

Accessible from the capital city Kampala on tarmac roads in six hours, but from any other direction the dreaded dirt roads will leave you covered in a robe of fine red dust or if you foolishly attempt it during the west season, will find you firmly stuck in orange treacle.

Spectacular for its power not its size, Murchison Falls is the point at which the whole of the Victoria Nile funnels furiously through a gap just 21 feet wide into the deservedly named 'Boiling Pot'. Then at the height of its anger, it explodes through another 21-foot gap tumbling 120 feet in a thunderous foaming torrent.

A little way downstream at Paraa where the lodge stands majestic, 'The Shoebill' river-boat will take you on one of the most stunning boat rides in the world. Blink and you wake up in a Tarzan movie with monstrously huge Nile crocodiles imitating rocks and sunbathing with gaping toothy grins.

Literally thousands of pink-eared hippos of varying sizes bob up and down like bathtime toys occasionally terrifying you with a sudden mock charge. Buffalo wade nonchalantly through the prolific floating water-ice plants fringing the river-bank and a herd of over a hundred elephants cool themselves, playing dead on their sides in a shallow creek or grazing silently on the lush grasses.

Bizarre Birds

I have never seen so much diversity of wildlife in one hour and I did not know whether to stare at a white-fronted fish eagle on the right riverbank, to watch a shy water buck on the other or to follow a darting kingfisher until it caught its fish.

Bird spotters will be overwhelmed especially if they are lucky enough to see the bizarre looking and very rare shoebill (or whale-headed) stork which stood alone in the reeds looking wierd. It was four feet high with a head like a wobbly wooden mallet and a timid pouting expression.

A similar boat trip, but without such overwhelming abundance can be taken further south on the Kasinga Channel connecting Lake Edward with Lake Albert in the Queen Elizabeth National Park. The trip can be booked in advance (which is probably not necessary) or in person from the Mweya Lodge - a beautiful hotel perched high on the peninsula overlooking the Kasinga Channel.

It is one of the better hotels you will encounter in rural Uganda and it is a delight to sit on the elevated grassed terrace watching the striking African sunset, while warthogs crop the lawn and hippo grunt just the other side of the hedge.