Safari in Uganda: Reisetermin für reisen in Uganda

Bei dieser Panorama der Uganda safari steht es Ihnen eine Chance Privatabreise als auch Intertionalenabreise zu machen.

Destination Jungle Tour und Safari bietet Sie eine photographic- Safari, die einen Ausflug von c.a  9 Tage und 8 Dabei werden die Nationalparks  des nordwesten ugandas  nordosten-zentral – und südwesten Ugandas besichtigt.

Naechte zusammenfasst

Uganda besteht Überwiegend aus Feuchtsavanne .Etwa im Zentrum des Landes liegt ein weit verzweigtes  Sumpf und Seengebiet ,das zum Oberlauf des Nil gehört.

Der Norden und nordosten Ugandas wird bestimmt von Trockensavanne.Im Nordwesten befindet sich der Murchison Falls National Park,der grösste Park Ugandas mit vielerlei Tierbestände,Vogelarten und eine schöne Savannenlandschaft.

Der Park  ermöglicht eine außergewöhnliche Fotografischesafari.Der etwa 50 bis 100m breite Nil im Westen grenzt der Park  am  Albertsee und der Victoria-Nil bildet bei der Mündung in den See ein kleines ,sehr vogelreiches  Delta .Möglicherweise haben Sie einen schönen Blick über den Nil.Flussaufwärts können Sie eine Bootsfahrt auf dem Victoria-Nil schaffen.Innerhalb  des Nordensektor des Parks  kommen  unterschiedliche Tierbestaende vor,zB  Büffeln ,Elefante,Löwen usw.

Hinzu gibt es die Atem raubende Landschaft des Nil und des Albertainischen Garabenbruchs.Diese bietet eine außergewöhnliche Aussicht an die Hochebene des Zentralafrikanischen Grabens.

Panorama der Uganda safari bietet euch das Trekking von Menschenaffen. Das primatreiche Land  Uganda beherbergt eine Vielzahl  Affe,Meerkatze,Schimpansen bis hin zu  den habituierten Berggorillas,die an Menschen gewohnt sind.

Die Gorillas Befinden  sich in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, im Südwesten Uganda.Neben den etwa 360   teil an die Panorama der Uganda safari, Sie werden es nicht bereuen.

Berggorillas kommen weitere Primatenarten vor; Guerezas, Anubis-Paviane, Diadem, Weissnasen und Vollbartenmeerkatzen. Diese Schöne Geschöpfe, die sind die Letzten ihrer Art! Berggorillas! Kommen Sie bitte und nehmen Sie

KARAMOJA CULTURAL TOUR

Destination Jungle has brought you closer to the culture and budding wildlife of North Eastern Uganda and the Kidepo Valley National Park all in just 10 days 

http://www.safaritoeastafrica.com/index.php/uganda-kidepo-7-days.html. This is an exclusive cultural tour and the first of its kind here in the tropics and Uganda in particular. It is an eco – Tousism / sustainability program boasting the livelihood of the communities of North Eastern Uganda.

Come and witness the exciting indigenous culture and lifestyle of North Eastern Uganda while traversing the Karamaja plateaux and the bizarre but breathtaking geography of the Bokora corridor where you embrace Pian Upe, the largest reserve in Northen Uganda. This reserve stretches upwards into the Matheniko Valley where the Dodoth and Jie communities are concentrated. In this corridor further north, a relatively small population of wildlife still thrives regardless of the prevailing climate change. 

You will most likely spot a good number of wildlife that may include the dik-dik, Hyenas and buffaloes and few Ostriches as you continue up towards the famous Kidepo Valley National Park. On this cultural tour, visit the remaining nomadic of Karamoja whose lifestyle is alas changing slowly to residential agriculturalists.  

Meet with the rather shy but strikingly hardworking inhabitants down of Mt Moroto- the "Tepez and Ik communities". As you shall find on this cultural tour, their lifestyle defines the typical culture of the Karamajong of Kidepo valley although the greater population stays in excluded parts and communities further north.

Also, get first hand knowledge of the lifestyle of the "Jie and Dodoth communities of the Matheniko valley", people whose cultural is relatively similar to that of the Tepez and Ik save for their striking bodily marks. As part of the their custom, entertainment for their visitors is largely pronounced. Most exciting in this community is their traditional dance also traditionally called "Edonja". 

Pastarolism has since time immemorial been the jewel of the North, and so on this tour, we try to dig deep into the history of Pastoralism for the "Dodoth and Jie communities"and what love they attached to their livestock. You shall find with interest that the neighbouring community, the ”Ik and Tepez” prefers to supplement their livestock with sorghum and millet growing. 

We like Elephants, Not Ivory

Elephant poaching in Africa is on the increase as more and more Elephants loose there lives to reckless poaching activities all in the name of seeking Ivory. It is quite absurd that these endangered species which are part of the big 5 in Uganda are helpless because of the actions of these barbaric poachers.

 It should be noted that Uganda presently has an average of only 5000 Elephants left which is a very sharp decline from the population that inhabited the tropics of Uganda in the 1960s which was an estimate of over 20,000 species. if the trend runs and no serious intervention, we could find the population to decline to 1000 or even less in the coming years.

Earlier in the week, according to The Daily Monitor (a local tabloid) on the Friday 18th October 2013, there was confirmation of a major blood ivory seizure by law enforcement officials in Kampala when over 800 pieces were found concealed in a container ready for shipment to China., This is quite sad for the safety of these animals according to the statical data of poaching in Uganda and Africa.  Presently Uganda itself has relatively low poaching numbers of the elephants which could shoot up if not managed at this stage.

We like Elephants, Not Ivory

We love Elephants, Not Ivory

 Jungle is taking this anti-Ivory campaign seriously and we are proud to be part of African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) http://www.awf.org/news/conservation-partners-announce-80m-clinton-global-initiative-commitment-action-partnership-save in the fight against Elephant poaching in Africa and Uganda specifically. You can join this campaign by visiting our Facebook page and liking our campaign, "We like Elephants not Ivory here toohttps://www.facebook.com/destinationjungle

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR TRACKING GORILLAS THIS NOVEMBER

I for one would not miss this great chance to take part in yet another sensational breath-taking moment tracking the giant mountain gorillas in the magnificent Bwindi Impenetrable forest. No breath-taking moment supersedes this very humbling event when one encounters a giant silver back that is up to 3 times the size of man but yet so gentle and peaceful. Book and take part in this 3 days program with Destination Jungle@ http://www.safaritoeastafrica.com/index.php/uganda/bwindi-gorilla-3-days.html is a great opportunity that will leave you with a wealth of memories in yet a short time. You may be apart of our scheduled group departure this November at a discounted rate to brace yourself for a life changing event. I have known gorillas to be extremely shy but you better brace yourself for what you will see. The soft, calm eyes that will penetrate deep into yours indeed tell a story of longing and love. You may not be prepared for what you find in the forest (well the trek is quite tedious and long), all this adds up to the experience in the forest. This is a quick reminder though to carry along with you a steady pair of broken-in jungle boots. please check out our link to prepare you for this experience in any case @http://www.safaritoeastafrica.com/index.php/gorilla-trekking.html.

Low Land gorilla trekking in Kahuzi Biega National Park in Congo: What a thrilling experience! And the place is very safe

We will never forget our encounter with these gentle low land gorillas. On 28^th June 2013 I went with Paolo Neri and Patrizia Amadelli (from Modena, Italy) for the trekking of low-land gorillas in Kahuzi Biega National Park. We spent the night before at a beautiful lodge in the surrounding of Bukavu town, Coco Lodge. The service was excellent, the place superb and you start feeling the presence of the nearby gorillas, as many information are displayed in the lodge itself.

In the morning, after a short transfer by vehicle, we arrived at the Head Quarter of the National Park. With a surprise, we were the only visitors taking the activity. It is very unfortunate that the international image of Congo is so bad, that even safe places like Bukavu and Kahuzi Biega National Park are suffering loss of tourism because of the general image of the Eastern Congo situation of unrest.

We went with the rangers to a family of 37 gorillas, Chimanuka. The rangers were the most professional; they even gave us masks to cover our mouth so that we better respect the habitat and the gorillas.  It took us less than 45 minutes to meet and greet the friendly gorillas. 

As soon as we arrived to the point they were, the whole family was there watching us as we watched them, the babies in most cases came closer to us, some wanting to touch our cameras because they were very curious. We watched them feed, play and clap hands (interesting). When our guide clapped his hands, the small babies and the juveniles also clapped and it was such a thrilling adventure for us.

This trekking was the most exciting; you really feel the real adventure, the real remote tropical forest, in its full powerful presence. It is just incredible that travelers miss out this trekking because they fear to enter the border of Congo. As long as you have acquired a valid visa from an Embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo, you will only see how in Bukavu and Kahuzi Biega everything is safe and well organized. Not only that: tourism will help conservation; we need to support tourism in Congo because this is how the gorillas will be always being protected.

Check out our itinerary for the trekking of Low land gorillas or you can take the long program the Eden of Africa Safari. Thank you to Paolo Neri to give us the permission to use his beautiful and amazing photographs for our gallery.

Allen Natukunda

Musambwa Tourism Project

The Minister for tourism Mrs. Maria Mutagamba launched a 10-year general management plan for Musambwa Island tourism programme in Rakai district. The Musambwa Island lies in Lake Victoria and as of now, is a major breeding ground for birds that migrate from Europe and other parts of Africa. The island is recognized internationally as an Important Bird Area (IBA) which was designated by Ramsar Convention and bird life international.

The management plan for this Island was formulated under the cultural values and Conservation project implemented by Fauna and Flora International (FFI) and Rakai District Local Government. While at the ceremony, the Minister warned the public to stop killing birds since they have now become a key tourist attraction in Uganda’s Tourism industry today. In her speech, she pointed out that the Musambwa Island has potential to fetch huge sums of money especially from foreign tourists because of its unique strong cultural values and rare bird species.

At the Island, among the cultural values includes prohibiting of sexual intercourse while women are also not allowed to become residents on the islands. In addition to this also, harming any living organism on the Island is not accepted according to the Musambwa Chairman Conservation Committee Mr. Enock Ntale.

Culture and leisure tourism should be promoted on the Island and this will boost the local revenue collections for the district.  It will also create job opportunities especially from the Musambwa Island project through the tour guide initiatives and cultural community performances from local groups.

More to this, the government will also soon identify at least two homes per sub-county to operate as tourism stay homes for those tourists interested in cultural adventures to know more about a true Ugandan Culture and people’s ways of living.

We have a special package for the Uganda Cultural tour in the north with the Karamajongs region which gives you a clear view of a true Karamajong ways of life. We can as well promote the same objective in Rakai district and other parts of the country.

Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate Cultural week

From 14^th to 21^st May 2013, Uganda will join the rest of the world to mark and celebrate the cultural week. The theme for this year is “Creative Industries; a Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation”. Therefore, the country will put more emphasis on creative industries for employment and wealth creation.

During the cultural week, emphasis will also be put on tree planting, but with a view of enhancing culture. Trees like Mutuba are advised to be planted since it’s the one which is used to make Backcloth a back bone of Uganda’s culture.

According to the state Minister for elderly and disabled Sulaiman Madada while addressing the members of the Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) programme in Kibaale district, the creative industry is taking shape in Uganda so there is need to emphasize it. He also added that Uganda’s education system is purely academic and this must change if we are to have meaningful development.

According to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), each country must prioritize two tangible cultural products, which are backcloth and trumpet music. In order for the next generation to have culture, Ugandans are all obliged to promote and preserve culture because if you do not preserve it now, no one will do it for the next generation.

Bitukura Gorilla Family welcomes a New Baby

On April 29^th 2013 it was announced by the Uganda Wildlife Authority that Bitukura gorilla group welcomed a new baby.  The number of this family increased more by one after a new birth was registered. Ruhara who is an adult female Gorilla gave birth to a baby much to the delight of the entire Bitukura family and Gorilla friends. The family size is now regaining after some defections which were witnessed last year. Rukara, who was also a silverback left the group and joined Kyaguliro family which is for research purposes and has not yet returned.

It was observed that the infants and juveniles of the group were struggling to feel the new infant who was strongly guarded and monitored by the dominant Silverback Ndahura. The mother was seen dedicating the most of the time to this new infant while breast feeding and grooming the infant. Generally the family is happy and has been seen happy going about their usual daily routines with no worries.

Despite the loss of three members last year who defected to other gorilla families, the family looks happily and closer to one another. One of the trackers who located the newly born infant Gorilla contends that the family often nests at Bugarama where the Silver Back Ndahura has lately established his home range.

We highly recommend this family to our clients too because of the large numbers of gorilla individuals the family has. As of now, the family has 15 individuals and our Uganda Safaris include a 3days Gorilla Safari to Bwindi National Park where you will find these endangered primates and be able to track Bitukura Gorilla family or any other family in the Park.

New Gorilla Family named Busingye soon to open for Tourism

The Southern sector of Rushaga in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park originally had only one Gorilla family which is Nshongi. However, as of recent, the sector has undergone a lot of transformation since the effectiveness of Gorilla tourism in the Park. Nshongi at the time of its habituation had the world’s largest mountain gorilla numbers but since its break up, three more families have been habituated including Mishaya and Bweza who split on 1^st August 2012.

In the same sector, another gorilla group was habituated which is Kahungye has also witnessed yet another breakaway hence creating the new family called Busingye. This is now good news since many Gorilla permits will be available for sale for Gorilla Safaris and tours in Bwindi. The Gorilla family is led by a dominant silverback Busingye who fights constantly in the wild for female adults. Busingye Gorilla group split from Kahungye family on 4^th June 2012 and as of now the Rushaga sector has 5 gorilla groups including: Mishaya, Kahungye, Nshongi, Bweza and Busingye.

The strong Busingye silver back has however from time to time showed how capable he is to tilt the power balance in the south which has a crowded home range of its habituated gorillas that keep over lapping one another. Whenever he interacts with a wild family which is not yet habituated, he mercilessly grabs a female from that group for himself and joins the family.

According to the Area Conservation Manager BMCA Mr. Pontius Ezuma, Uganda Wildlife Authority has got more space available for tourists who intend to do gorilla tracking in the southern sector of the Bwindi Park. He advises that the visitors can now book this family because it is one of the versatile and exciting groups one can visit for a memorable time while in Bwindi’s Impenetrable park for gorilla tourism.

A research from the BMCA Monitoring team which is led by the Research Warden Kato Raymond shows that there are no intentions of the breakaway families to fuse back to their parent families in the future. This is characterized by the fierce battles between mother and breakaway families. The battles are only restricted to dominant silverbacks who are supposed to guard their turf. Due to these battles, each group has not tried to avoid direct interactions with one another for fear f potential loss of members.

Once this group is open to tourism and permits are ready for sale at the Uganda Wildlife Authority, we will let all our customers know and also have an experience with the new family while on their Uganda Gorilla Safaris.

Oldest Woman Tracks Mountain Gorillas in Bwindi National Park-Uganda

Laura Sonnino who was 94 years old from Italy on March 14, 2013 became the oldest person to have tracked mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South western Uganda. She was born on 20/5/1919 and she successfully tracked the Nkuringo Gorilla Family in the south where she viewed the playful great apes.

Laura says she had once tried to track Gorillas in Buhoma in 2002 but failed to see them because of the difficult terrain. Tracking Gorillas has been her main dream and this time she had everything arranged in advance for her tracking to be a success. To do this, she hired 12 strong porters who carried her on a stretcher to and from the Gorillas location at an extra fee of 300 US dollars. It was a real record since by 11.30 am she was already back from tracking. The last recorded oldest person to have tracked the much sought after gorillas was 82. All congratulations go to Laura for that feat, courage and love for these endangered species.

                                                           

Uganda named 5th best tourism exhibitor in Africa

Uganda the Pearl of Africa emerged the 5th best exhibitor in Africa at the annual ITB Berlin 2013 Travel and Tourism Exhibition, a world leading travel trade show in Germany. According to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Ms Mutagamba, the country was working on a programme to extend its tourism beyond nature to include culture and medicine. The theme for this year at the Exhibition was “Uganda the Pearl of Africa, your Eco-Tourism Destination”.  According to the minister, Uganda’s attraction, based on inquiries, were Gorillas in Bwindi Forest, the climate in Kibaale District and wildlife in Kidepo and Queen Elizabeth National Parks.

At the Exhibition, one of the exciting attractions was the Ndere cultural dancers who are said to have pulled crowds from different angles.

As a country, we have to improve on certain things like cleanliness and the road network. It looks like we have left cleaning our country to God and yet when tourists come, they want to see and visit clean places,” Ms Mutagamba said.

lTB Berlin exhibition is an annual event which takes place in March in Germany. In 2011, Uganda received more than a million foreign tourists and the tourism industry is said to be growing at 21 per cent annually and the German market growing at 10 per cent with more than 8,000 Germans having visited the country in 2011. With this, more emphasis is now put on promoting Sustainable tourism in Uganda as well as preserving the traditional Cultures.

Flights to Ngamba Island-Primate tours made easier

Ngamba Island is the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda and recently it signed an agreement with Fly Uganda which is a well known safari company to fly tourist to the Island where the sanctuary is found.

Ms Ajarova and Mr Barners after signing the agreement.

According to Ms. Lilly Ajarova a sanctuary executive director, some tourists get seasick and others do not have that much time like a full day to travel to the Island on the lake where the Sanctuary is located. The journey to the Island takes 45 minutes by speed boat and 90 minutes by traditional motorized boat. It is because of this that they have now decided to make the transport easier by signing an agreement pact with Fly Uganda and which will enable tourists to reach the Island in only 15 minutes.

According to the Sanctuary Executive director, they have carried out different test flights at the sanctuary and the chimpanzees all responded positively by not running but instead gathered near to have a glimpse of the helicopter.

More to this, it will even be much easier to save the lives of the chimpanzees by transporting them by Air to the main land for medical evacuations and further treatment.

In Uganda per vedere l’eclisse totale del 3 novembre 2013

 Se siete amanti del cielo, e vi piacerebbe fare un’esperienza unica del cielo notturno Africano, forse questo è il viaggio che fa per voi. Stiamo raccogliendo le iscrizioni per il programma “Uganda Eclisse Totale Novembre 2013”, organizzato in collaborazione con un’associazione di esperti di viaggi “stellari” ovvero gli amici di Stella Errante di Roma. Con loro si partirà sia da Roma sia da Milano o altri aeroporti il giorno 31 ottobre 2013, per venire in Uganda accompagnati da un esperto astrofilo che vi metterà in grado di gustare l’esperienza dell’eclisse solare ma anche intrattenendovi con esplorazioni notturne del cielo Ugandese. L’eclisse che vedrete in Uganda, per l’esattezza il giorno 3 novembre a partire dalle ore 16.06 ora di Greenwich  è di tipo “ibrido”, ovvero i dischi del sole e della luna saranno quasi coincidenti. L’osservazione avverrà da un luogo individuato nel nord del Parco di Murchison Falls.

Contiamo di fare un gruppetto affiatato di almeno 10 fino a massimo 20 persone. Inoltre incluso nel servizio ci sarà anche l’accompagnamento di una guida in lingua italiana di supporto al gruppo. Il programma si svolgerà non con l’uso di grandi bus, ma con i mezzi di trasporto di Destination Jungle per i safari, ovvero le nostre amate land cruisers 4x4 tettuccio apribile.

Il viaggio, naturalmente, vi consentirà di farvi un’idea della bellezza naturalistica della Rift Valley Albertina, visitando i parchi nazionali del Murchison Falls (che si trova vicino al passaggio dell’eclisse) e il Queen Elizabeth. Non mancheranno poi le esperienze con i primati, ovvero il trekking dei gorilla nella foresta di Bwindi Impenetrabile e il trekking degli scimpanzè nella foresta di Budongo.

Vi invitiamo a leggere bene il programma, che offre sia una opzione breve di 6 giorni (solo la parte dell’eclisse e del parco Murchison Falls), oppure una opzione lunga di 10 giorni. Per prenotare, potete contattare sia Destination Jungle sia Stella Errante a Roma, ovvero il sig. Marzio il cui telefono è: +39 06 8840504 e la mail: marzio@civaturs.com .

Vi aspettiamo in Uganda, by Costantino Tessarin 

Baby Elephant saved in Murchison Falls National Park

Elephant Struggling to Stand

On the 12^th of February 2013, our three clients, the guide and I saved a young elephant which had been trapped in a wire snare and was in deep pain in Murchison Falls National park. We had woken up early for the morning game drive and everything had been going on so well till we met a young elephant which had been sitting and not feeding. 

A big snare in the Elephant

One of our clients, Carlos Gereda asked me if I thought it was sick/dead or may be dying at that moment. The driver guide Kiganda Ismail told him that it could just be resting. However, out of curiosity the other clients, Daniella and Manuel insisted and said it was very strange for an elephant to just sit down while the others were feeding. It is at this moment that we drove closer to the elephant which could barely stand up because of the pain it was in. As we moved closer to him, he eventually struggled and stood up and at this point, we saw what had caused everything. A big wire snare around the head and it had already cut it (see picture). We all burst in tears and right away started making calls for UWA to come in and save the elephant. What we expected was a place of peace for these animals has eventually turned into a war zone because the following day after the sad and horrible scene, UWA managed to collect 285 wire snares along the delta as we were informed by Patrick Agaba from Uganda Conservation Foundation. Also from the head office of UWA in Kampala Mr. Raymond Engena was so kind sending an apology for what happened and saying that UWA is trying to improve on the situation of poaching. On the following days he also told us that the UWA veterinary Mr. Enyel managed to remove the snare from the baby elephant and the animal is expected to recover from this accident. Fortunately this elephant was saved! By Allen Natukunda

 

UWA Ranger guides with snares collected from the Park

Mighty River Nile Makes It to the 7 Wonders of Africa

On 11^th February Monday this week in Arusha at the Mt. Meru Hotel, the award ceremony for the 7 natural wonders of Africa, chosen from the 12 accepted nominations took places and saw the mighty River Nile, which starts its journey to the Mediterranean Sea at the ‘Source of the Nile’ in Jinja elected as Uganda’s only winner. The State Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquiries Hon. Agnes Akiror Egunyu was present at the function to receive the honors for and on behalf of the Pearl of Africa- Uganda.

Besides the Mighty River Nile, other 11 attractions nominated were the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Peak of Furnace on La Reunion, Mt. Kenya, the Okavanago Delta, the Aldabra Atoll, the Avenue of Baobabs, the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea Reef, Tsuma Rock and Tsingi de Bemaraha.

The hosting Nation Tanzania saw all the three nominations returned as winners and these were the Serengeti National Park, Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro Crater.

 Other attractions which made it into the winning rank were the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Red Sea Reef in Egypt and the Sahara Desert which touches 10 countries.

East Africa being named as among the top 7 natural ‘wonders’ in Africa, it is thought to give a significant boost visa vis destination interest in the main markets for tourists coming to Eastern Africa including Uganda and Tanzania.