It was in August 2024, when we had a memorable cultural trip in Uganda with one of my friends. This trip took us ‘off the beaten’ tracks of Uganda’s hidden sites and people. We started with the adventure safari in the Jinja and Mbale areas of Eastern Uganda.
We saw a lot of attractions like River Nile and this river offers some of the best adrenaline rush activities and later we hiked to watch the Sipi falls and abseiling experiences. After these exhilarating experiences, we embarked on the cultural aspects of the tour.
We also visited the Karamoja region and the guide told us that this region was previously not visited much due to the armed Karamojong.
The Karamojong are entitled to keeping cattle and growing a few crops when the weather allows them. They have a rich cultural heritage living in closed homesteads known as manyatta’s and visitors associates with them to see how they live and carry on their daily chores.
On arrival at the airport, we were picked up by Emma a guide in Nature Adventure Africa Safaris and he briefed us on how the trip was going to be conducted and later drove us to Namirembe guest house where we had our dinner and sleepovers.
Our next morning, we were transferred to Jinja via Sezibwa falls and Mabira Forest. Jinja is the adventure capital of Uganda and by extension East Africa. If you are thinking adrenaline rush then this is the perfect place for you.
During the stopover at Sezibwa falls, we got an opportunity to participate in a number of exciting safari activities such as rock climbing. Climbing rocks is a fun and exciting sport but it demands participants to be in good physical and mental shape in order for them to have a positive experience. We also participated in a cultural tour experience.
During the cultural experience, we were led by an experienced local guide who took us to different areas such as around the falls, where we visited shrines for the traditional doctors where the local people come for worship and perform cultural rituals, the traditional healer who removes curses from people, visited primary schools, sugarcane and tea plantations and a number of other locations.
We learnt about some of the historic cultural practices of the local people and also got information regarding their ancient gods. We later continued to Mabira Forest for zip lining. Proceeded to Jinga for dinner and sleepovers at Jinja Nile Resort.
The 3rd day, we rafted at the Nile. The Nile is the longest river in the world with its source in Jinja off Lake Victoria ending up in the Red Sea. We spent the day on River Nile rafting with the sun kissing our skins.
We first had a short training with one the rafting leaders before we started the rafting adventure. During this rafting adventure, we hit the rapids and flipped over. We experienced grade 5 rafting with 4 rapids before lunch and another 4 after lunch. Returned to the resort for dinner and sleepovers.
The following day after having breakfast, we were transferred to Sipi falls via Mbale. Mbale has several mountains surrounding the towns.
Our first stopover was at Wanale hill where we had great views of Mbale town and beautiful waterfalls and caves, spent some good time hiking this beautiful hill with several stops to catch the beautiful views. Some part of the trail goes through gardens of the people.
We had our lunch in Mbale town and later proceeded to Sipi falls area where we had an overnight while exploring this amazing destination of the Bamasaba people. Our dinner was served at Mbale Resort Hotel.
This morning was for hiking the sipi falls. The Sipi falls are 3 waterfalls in eastern Uganda coming out of different areas of Mt Elgon. They are beautiful waterfalls and were named as the most romantic waterfalls by the guide book known as Lonely Planet. We spent the morning hiking up all the 3 waterfalls and we also had some swimming in the pools below the water falls.
In the afternoon, we visited a home for a coffee experience with the award-winning coffee which is by far the best Arabica coffee. We had interaction with the farmers and they taught us on how they plant, harvest and process coffee. Our dinner was served at Sipi River Lodge and that where we spent our whole night.
After breakfast, we transferred to Pian Upe game reserve in eastern Uganda. It is one of the best places to see Cheetahs in Uganda. The main activity we had here it was a game drive in the untouched reserve with some areas safe for a walking safari. We also had a hike to Mt Kadam. It is located in the Karamoja area and this gave us an opportunity of visiting one of the Karamajong homesteads for an experience with them. We had our sleepover and dinner at Sipi Valley Resort.
The following day was started with a game drive in Pian Upe game reserve. During the game drive, we mostly spotted cheetahs and are the only ones that can be easily seen in this reserve.
Our guide told us there are other animals that can be seen in this reserve on a lucky day and they include; big herds of roan antelopes and water bucks, Bohor and Mountain Ree buck, Duikers, Dik-dik, hyenas, jackals, Common Elands, Cape buffalo, Uganda Kobs, Olive baboons, Vervet, Patas Monkeys among others.
In the afternoon we visited one of the Karamajong family to learn more about their life and we engaged in their home daily activities.
After having some beautiful experience in Pian Upe, we transferred to Moroto town to continue with our cultural experience with the Karamajong people. The drive to Moroto had great views of beautiful scenery in this part of Uganda.
We had some stopovers along the way to have a look at the beautiful landscapes of this area. On arrival in Moroto, we checked-in at Mount Moroto Hotel for our late lunch and we spent the remaining hours at relaxation in the hotel.
The following morning, we had some cultural experiences with the Karamajong people. We visited the Karamajong manyatta taking part in different activities surrounding the cows and lifestyle of the Karamajong. We learnt about the different rites of passage from child birth to adulthood. After spending some time with the Karamajong people, we proceeded to Mount Moroto for a hike with our picnic lunch. Mt Moroto is inhabited by the Tepeth tribe who originally inhabited the Karamoja plains but left for Mountains when the Karimajong raided them. After the hike, we returned to the hotel for dinner and sleepovers.
On the 10th day after having a heavy breakfast, we transferred to Kidepo Valley National Park. The park is well known for its rich game, uniqueness and virgin culture. We had several stopovers for pictures along the way and we enjoyed our picnic lunch in the plains of Karamoja. Dinner and overnight stay at Kidepo savannah lodge.
The 11th day was for enjoying a game drive in the Kidepo Valley National Park. Kidepo valley national park is the true wilderness of Africa with the largest herd of Cape Buffaloes found anywhere in Africa. It has amazing scenery of rock kopjes and mountains within the park.
The game drive took us to Narus valley which access to water all year round as opposed to Kidepo valley which is seasonal. Some of the wildlife we spotted include Cheetahs, leopards, lions, Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Water bucks, Bush bucks, Elands, Uganda Kobs and an array of bird life such as Dark chanting goshawk, Kori bustard, Little bee-eater, Ostriches, Red-and-yellow barbet among others. After lunch, we had a culture walk and this enabled us to explore the virgin culture of the Karamajong. Later returned our accommodation facility for dinner and sleepovers.
The 12th day we enjoyed a hike at Mt Morungole. Hiking into the Morungole Mountains reveals the semi-arid valleys where Ik villages sprout like mushrooms. This remote community of subsistence farmers has kept to their traditional way of life, only traveling to the lowlands to trade grain. On a hike, we spotted a collection of fauna including ostriches, hartebeest, giraffes among others. We interacted with the IK people and narrated to us on how they carry out their day-to-day activities. We had our picnic lunch before we went back to the lodge for dinner and sleepovers.
In the morning, we embarked on our journey to Murchison Falls National Park via Kitgum-Gulu Road. We had our lunch in Gulu city and later proceeded with our journey to Murchison Falls National Park. On arrival in the park, we checked-in at Sambiya Lodge for relaxation as well as waiting for dinner.
After having breakfast, we went for an early morning game drive on the northern bank. With the help of the guide, we spotted elephant, lion, Roth child’s giraffe, cape buffalo, waterbuck, hartebeest, bush buck among other animals. On finishing the game drive, we returned to the lodge for lunch. After lunch, we went for a boat safari upstream the calm Victoria Nile to the base of the falls stopping just tens of meters from the ‘Devil’s Cauldron’. We spotted the hippos, crocodiles, water-buck, elephant and Uganda Kob. We also had an opportunity to view many bird species like goliath heron, Egyptian goose, pelican bee-eater, kingfisher, hornbill, cormorant and the rare shoebill stork. Later returned to the lodge for dinner and sleepovers.
On our last day of the trip, we had breakfast, checked-out at the lodge and met our driver to transfer to Kampala. We had stopover at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for rhino trekking and then after we had our lunch and proceeded to the Entebbe International Airport to catch up with our evening flight back home and this was the end of trip to East and Northern Uganda. Thanks to Nature Adventure Africa Safaris for the good customer care.
