Impressions of Uganda
Fascinating and beautiful as Uganda is, one must recognise that there are places in the area where wildlife is even more abundant and diverse. But Uganda is absolutely unique for the experience it offers to track gorillas, massive and yet so serene in appearance, as they remain undisturbed, dignified and continue to go through the motions of their daily family life while you are looking on from a mere 8m distance. It takes experienced guides with machetes, mud-proof boots and a fairly good physical condition to get to those superb and human-like creatures, but then, when you finally spot a silver-back through the dense rainforest vegetation, … that is how Columbus must have felt on the day he got to Hispaniola.
Before visiting the place of your choice:
Close to the Rwandan border, Lake Bunyonyi is actually a flooded valley, a geological cleavage which is part of the Great Rift. The lake is consequently the second deepest of the African continent, at 1500 metres. The gentle location of Lake Bunyonyi 's in the middle of rolling hills has somehow an idyllic aspect, even in the grey weather of this region where rain and rain forest are all but exceptional. Idyllic? That is, until we think of the Akampene Island, or Punishment Island, where unmarried and pregnant maidens were exiled with no means of survival, dying with hunger and thirst, disgraced and expelled from society. Traditions are not always idyllic, nice and cute, they can also unveil how vicious human beings can be.
