If you want to go fast, travel alone, but if you want the best safari, travel with 4×4 Car Hire Uganda. Uganda is a vibrant, welcoming and peaceful setting for wildlife lovers. So, traveling at you pace with a car rental 4×4 is the best experience of a lifetime. The word is getting out about Uganda. If you haven’t got it on your list of East African safari destinations, I suggest you add it quickly.
Uganda does not have the reputation for the variety or density of wildlife, especially the large mammals, as its more famous neighbors (Kenya and Tanzania). However, watching wildlife is a unique experience in a welcoming and stunningly beautiful country.
We spent 21 days 4×4 Uganda holiday with 4×4 rooftop tent jeep visiting Uganda’s attraction which made us want to visit again after our trip we just finished in November 2022. What you do find in Uganda is a variety of spectacular landscapes, from thick forests studded with giant ironwood and mahogany trees to open, rolling Savannah backed with the silhouettes of jagged mountains – habitats which provide all manner of exciting wildlife moments on safari.
Variety is key on a Uganda safari. Each park in the country offers a very different experience and set of activities. The country is immensely beautiful, with many scenic highlights and landmarks such as Murchison Falls on the Nile River in Murchison Falls National Park, the volcanoes of the Virunga Mountains in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, true rain forest in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, and a string of Rift Valley lakes in Queen Elizabeth National Park and chimps in Kibale Forest National Park.
At the top of the list, we visited the critically endangered, gentle mountain gorillas. Uganda is one of the few countries in Africa where you can see mountain gorillas in the wild, lolling about deep in jungle forests. It’s surely one of the most special and unique wildlife watching opportunities on the continent.
Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park was no challenge for Allen’s sickle. She found us easier paths than we expected and we spent an amazing hour in among the Nshongi family of gorillas. Allen is rare (as a female guide) and is the most amazing, professional, informed, kind, funny and altogether lovely guide.
We also visited Kibale National Park. Four hours with the “habituated” chimps – an enchanting walk-through forest (not as impenetrable as Bwindi, but perhaps harder work for us, as we followed to and from).
The noise of a large community of chimps organizing their lunch is out of this world, and once again our guide was knowledgeable and found us everything we might have wished for (babies – sweet; sleepy old men – familiar to some of us; feeding frenzies in the figs – thrilling; sex in the bushes – hard to imagine she was satisfied; young ones coming to pay respects to their elders – less familiar to some of us).
The Big Five are harder to find, although that said there are no shortage of buffalo and elephant in numerous parks, lions are around (I’ve had good sightings in several Ugandan parks) and if you’re lucky, leopards. There are however few opportunities to see rhino.
Move away from the forests to the Savannah reserves of Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Parks, however, and you’ll also find healthy populations of elephant and buffalo, plus plentiful antelope – including hartebeest, topi and the local special, Uganda Kob. Large predators, including lion, leopard and spotted hyena, occur in small numbers but are regularly seen in key locations, while Kidepo’s open grasslands in the north are also home to cheetah.
On protected waterways, hippos and crocodiles are very abundant, while Lake Mburo National Park has zebra, Murchison Falls has Rothschild’s giraffe, and little-known species such as giant forest hog and potto can also be seen, if you know where to look.
Uganda is small, no larger than the UK, which means with 4×4 car Hire Uganda, you can take in most of its key destinations on a single safari. The national parks are well set-up for visitors, the welcome famously friendly and the standard of guiding generally excellent. Journeys on the country’s rough roads can be arduous, admittedly, and can take longer than any map might suggest. But the rewards make it well worth your while.
The Big Five are harder to find, although that said there are no shortage of buffalo and elephant in numerous parks, lions are around (I’ve had good sightings in several Ugandan parks) and if you’re lucky, leopards. There are however few opportunities to see rhino.
We watched the mighty Nile plunge over the Murchison Falls, and then next day motored up the river to see the bottom of the Falls – and so many fish eagles and hosts of other beautiful birds.
And of course, hippos, so dull after the hundred and third and crocodiles waiting for their opportunity in the mud. Some people watched from the bank, while we drank cool beers and chatted to the boat team about politics and the interesting characters on board who seemed to be trying to make a fashion statement for their Instagram account.
Go and do it! It may seem an expensive holiday, but you will only regret missing out on something truly remarkable.
