Briggs P. Uganda

Fourth Edition. — Guilford, CT: The Globe Pequot Press Inc., 2003. — 498 p. — The Bradt Travel Guide. — ISBN: 1-84162-072-6.Ten years ago, in the introduction to the first edition of this guide, I wrote that Uganda’s ‘attractions tend towards the low-key’. A couple of hours ago, when for the first time in years I re-read this assertion, my initial reaction was — well — bemusement, unease, even embarrassment.
Meeting the eyes of a mountain gorilla on the bamboo-clumped slopes of the Virungas? Rafting grade five rapids on the Nile? Following a narrow rainforest trail awhirl with the heart-stopping pant-hoot chorusing of chimpanzees? Cruising the Kazinga Channel in the shadow of the Ruwenzoris while elephants drink from the nearby shore? Watching a prehistoric shoebill swoop down on a lungfish in the brooding reed-beds of Mabamba Swamp? The roaring, spraying sensory overload that is standing on the tall rocks above Murchison Falls... Low-key? Goodness me — short of landing on the moon, what exactly would I have classified as a must-do or must-see attraction when I wrote that line?
But as I flicked through that yellowing first edition, all 150 p. of it, my unease slowly dissipated. It had not, I realised, been a reflection of any significant change in my own perceptions during the intervening decade, but rather of the remarkable strides made by Uganda in general, and its tourist industry specifically.
Uganda has changed. And how! When I first visited in 1988, Uganda’s economy, infrastructure and human sprit — every aspect of the country, really — were still tangibly shattered in the aftermath of a 15-year cycle of dictatorship and civil conflict that had claimed an estimated million human lives. Come 1992, when I researched the first edition of this guide, Uganda was visibly on the mend, but, a steady trickle of backpackers aside, its tourist industry remained in the doldrums. Incredible as it seems today, there was no facility to track gorillas within Uganda in 1992, no white-water rafting, no realistic opportunity to get close to chimpanzees, and the likes of Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls national parks were practically void of game. And many other tourist sites that today seem well established either didn’t exist in their present form, were off-limits or unknown to travellers, or were far less accessible than they are now.
Uganda today does not lack for accessible travel highlights. There is the opportunity to trek within metres of one of the world’s last few hundred mountain gorillas, arguably the most exciting wildlife encounter Africa has to offer — though observing chimps in the Kibale or Budongo runs it a damn close second. There is the staggering recovery made by Uganda’s premier savannah reserves, where these days one can be almost certain of encountering lions, elephants and buffaloes, etc. There are the Ruwenzoris and Mount Elgon, where one can explore East Africa’s bizarre montane vegetation without the goal-oriented approach associated with ascents of mounts Kilimanjaro or Kenya. And there is Bujagali Falls, which — with its whitewater rafting, kayaking and recently introduced bungyjump - is rapidly emerging as East Africa’s answer to that more southerly ‘adrenalin capital’ Victoria Falls.