Uganda travel advice

Jackson Araali, from our supplier Primate World Safaris:
“My favourite part is actually the culture. In the southwest, they have tribal chiefdoms and not kingdoms, so we visit those. Sometimes they have what they call ‘community libraries’ where they keep artifacts which they can show you about their culture, their tradition, their norms. You find people exhibiting their cultural dancing and things like that – so you have an overview of these cultures. In the central region we focus on visiting the kabaka kingdom – the kabaka is the parliament of the central region. And in the west, we always have a stop off at the kingdom of Toro, which is one of the biggest in Uganda. On the way to Kidepo, in the far north, you go through the Karamojong community. It’s one of the minority communities, and very rich in tradition. They have tried to preserve their culture, they still stay in their homesteads and they have their livelihood there, many of them are cattle keepers. They drink the cattle’s milk, their blood – that’s their lifestyle.”

Jackson Araali, from our supplier Primate World Safaris: “Many people focus on going chimpanzee tracking, going gorilla tracking, but when we go into such forests, like Bwindi and Kibale, you can go birding, and if you spend enough time there you can discover so many reptiles – snakes and chameleons, the things that people don’t really talk about. There are forest animals, elephants, buffalo – almost everything. So we are trying to not go to Bwindi for only gorillas. We are taking people for birding, doing the community walks, seeing the scenery and so many things. I actually give about three days to that region alone in my trips.”

Often Konzoro is a tour leader with our supplier, Exodus, leading tours in Uganda and Kenya: “When I do my pre-departure meeting I always tell the clients – if you see anything please do ask me, don’t tell me when we get to the campsite, better to tell me when on the spot when we can talk about it or learn about it.

Mostly I’m in the back of the truck with the clients, and when the clients see something on the way they ask me and we can talk about it in the truck. We can also talk at the campsite when we sit down just after dinner. When we are driving along and we pass the villages, I tell them about the villages, about the roundhouses from a long, long time ago. These are the moments I enjoy.”