It was a Monday morning that I and my colleagues suggested to visit Kibale National Park in Uganda. We used the shortest route passing via Mityana, Mubende and finally to Fort Portal. It took us 6 – 7 hours’ drive to reach the destination. It was a 6 days and 5 nights trip planned and organized with the help of Green World Safaris due to the good services offered by the company for example good English speaking drivers who guided us from the time we left Kampala until we came back, good vehicles that have free leg room. On our day of arrival, we had a check in at ST Joseph’s in Fort portal for lunch and later a relaxation at the lodge. The following day we visited the Nyakasura cakes locally known as the ‘Amabere ga Nyinamwiru’. It is a place that has a number of tourism attractions and activities for example the falls, forest, caves and different bird species. What was more interesting was climbing the hills in Nyakasura in order to view different crater lakes. It was an interesting activity though tiresome to the extent that some of my colleagues called for help since it was there first time to climb such stiff hills. Really Uganda is a pearl of Africa, it has many hidden crater lakes in Fort Portal. Kibale Forest is the best place to track and see chimp.
On the third day we had a city tour where we were able to visit the king’s palace, Fort town is very good and clean, it also helps a tourist to view the ranges of mountain Rwenzori. It is very easy for a visitor to get food because restaurants are found everywhere in the town. The next day, we work up every early and had morning breakfast and set off to kibale forest for chimp habituation. On reaching the park, we were welcomed by other guides found at the park and we were given enough briefings on how we should behave while in the park with the chimps. We had a dinner and overnight at the primate lodge in the park.
On the fifth day, we had to participate in other activities like nature walk. There are about 60 mammal species found in Kibale Forest thus offering primate viewing. Some primates found in Kibale include vervet, red-tailed, red colobus, Olive baboon, and chimpanzee. 335 bird species have been recorded in this park including four species not found in any other national park for example Nahan’s francolin, Cassin’s spine tail, blue-headed bee-eater and masked apalis. Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary is the best bird watching place to spot various bird species. Tourists interested in both forest and swamp walks can at least see around six primate species. The park has a number of accommodation facilities than what we had expected.
Finally, we visited Bigodi wetland Sanctuary which is probably good for monkey viewing and one of birding trails in the country. This small sanctuary protects the Magombe swamp which is next to Bigodi trading center. One of the birds found in the swamp is the great blue turaco and other regular birds include grey-throated, yellow-billed, grey parrot. Butterflies are abundant in the swamp and it is a home to sitatunga antelope.
There are unguided walks where tourists are forbidden to walk along forest paths without a guide but are free to walk elsewhere without a guide. This marked the end of our trip as we reached Kampala late in the evening.