Lake Bunyonyi: An Island-dotted charming crater Lake.

By Edward Nankunda.
Uganda Safaris and Tours.

A drive to the Southwestern part of Uganda can be quite eye-catching. Vast stretches of plantations, modern country homes, Mount Muhabura, a smooth highway and an enormous expanse of green all combine to provide beautiful scenery as one travels to this part of the country.

Known as the Switzerland of Africa, Kigezi highlands are a leading holiday destination. One of the beautiful holiday stops is Lake Bunyonyi, lying between Kisoro and Kabale districts in Southwestern Uganda. It is the second deepest lake in Africa with a depth of 900 meters in some places. This picturesque lake, decked with beautiful green islands, hills and valleys is a haven for a number of foreign and domestic tourists.

Getting To Bunyonyi.

From Kampala, there are a number of regular buses to Kabale. Once at the Kisenyi bus terminal, the bus touts will swam a traveler, dart for your bag and literally drag you to their buses. Depending on your bargaining power, the journey will cost you between Shs 25,000 to Shs 35,000.

Once on the road, the beautiful scenery provides a soothing effect; you easily forget the trouble you went through. From Kabale, there is a short distance to Lake Bunyonyi via Rutinda by bodaboda or using a hired vehicle. The trip costs between Shs 50,000 and Shs 100,000. The journey to the shore of the lake from the town is eight kilometers. It is an up and down expedition on a dirt road and all you see are trees, terraces, hills and swamp cover. One minute you are uphill looking down a steep slope and the next you are making descent, the different heights making the trip even more exciting.

On getting the first glimpse of the lake with its fairytale dark and charming calm, the journey to the shores continues downhill, leading to a number of exotic resorts and camping sites. Another uphill climb leads you to Lake Bunyonyi Overland Resort.

Activities on the Lake:

Besides camping, most guests love going for motorboat rides or canoeing to get a good view of the surrounding area. The prices vary depending on the time you are going to spend on the lake. With 29 islands on Lake Bunyonyi, guests can go island hopping.

Guests can also go swimming and bird watching. Lake Bunyonyi (which means, a place of many little birds) surrounded by steep sided, heavily cultivated mountainous scenery, has also attracted 200 species of birds that flap their wings endlessly. The lake is a great place to see colonies of weavers, as well as bigger birds such as, herons, egrets, the grey crowned crane, the crested crane among many others.

The Batwa, an indigenous tribe of the area can also be visited to learn about their culture and lifestyle. Lake Bunyonyi is a swimmers paradise, a bird-watchers dream come true and a great place to be outdoors.

Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich Shows Olympic Spirit in Tokyo.

By Edward Nankunda.

Uganda Safaris


Ethiopians Endeshaw Negesse and Birhane Dibaba kicked off the 2015 Abbott World Marathon Majors season by both winning their first majors in Tokyo.
On the men’s side the leading contenders stayed together until 35k, when defending champ Dickson Chumba made his move. Soon it was a two man race between Chumba and Negesse, but Negesse had more in the tank and pulled away from Chumba the final 3km, as Olympic champ Stephen Kiprotich rallied back to pass Chumba for second just before the line. Tariku Bekele dropped out in his debut as he was off the pace by 20km.

Celebrating River Nile in Style

By: Bruce Amp

Kayakers gather to show off how they maximize the river’s waves and rapids, as well as appreciate the Nile.

Last week, kayakers from around the world participated in the annual Nile River Festival, which took place over four days outside Jinja. This was the 10^th year the community river festival has been held. Hundreds of spectators attended the festival to watch kayakers take on the challenging rapids and share in the appreciation of the river. The festival, organized by Kayak the Nile, in Association with the Nile River Explorers and Visit Jinja, include four stages. After each days’ competition, spectators and competitors headed to the Nile River Explorers and the Hairy Lemon for live music, food, drinks and huge party.

Two – time Nile River festival Champion and co-owner of Kayak the Nile, Sam Ward said: “the festival brings together an eclectic mix of people from the nearby villages, Kampala, all over Uganda and the world, celebrating the river as the kayaking and non-kayaking community comes together.”

For Zachary Clemence, his first time attending the festival was “an amazing event. There are hundreds of people out here by the river enjoying the beautiful day, watching world-class kayakers paddle, Couldn’t get much better than that.”

Jessie Stone, a sponsored kayaker, who found soft power Education in Jinja, has completed almost every year since the festival begun said: “considering all the fear mongering about Ebola in Africa and how tourism in general has been down, it is really nice to see that so many people have showed up to support the festival and come out and watch it,”

DAY 1 – BIG AIR RAMP

The competition kicked off on January 22, with the Big Air Ramp. Competitors slit down the 14-metre ramp, completing tricks both in and out of kayaks to impress the crowd. Yusuf Basalirwa came in first, followed by the youngest competitor at the festival, 11-years old Craig Dahl who came second. Jackson Two, a river Guide for Nile River Explorers came in third out of the 17 participants.

DAY 2 – EXTREAM ENDURANCE RACE

The second day of the festival was the Extreme Endurance Race in which the 30 competitors raced the length of a marathon from the Bujagali Dam the Nile Special Rapid. For safety purposes, racers competed in pairs and were required to arrive at the finish line together.

Musa Mutamba and Jackson Two came in first, kayaking the marathon in an impressive two hour and 32 minutes. The two begun training together three months before the festival in order to win the race for the third year in a row. David Luhiho and Nasser Nasser Balimugulira placed second and Sam Ward and Shaggy Setkate were third.

DAY 3 – BIG AIR COMPETITION

The most exciting and challenging events were scheduled over the weekend. On Saturday, the Big Air Competition took place at Nile Special wave. River waves are similar to those found in the ocean, but do not move, making it possible for kayaker to surf these features and throw a variety of spins, flips and twists in the air and they surf. The competitors’ best three moves were counted and judged based on the difficulty of the move and how well it was executed, with extra points for combinations and flair. Sam and Emily Ward placed first in the men and women’s freestyle competition. Bren Orton placed second followed by Stephen Wright in third.

DAY 4: HENDRI COETEZEE MEMORIAL, ITANDA FALLS EXTREME RACE

This was the final day of the competition. Itanda falls is a class V rapid and one of the most difficult. Ward described the extreme race as “one of the hairiest and scariest races in the world.” It is named in memory of Hendri Coetzee, a legendary exploratory kayaker in Africa who lived in Jinja and led the first full descent of the Nile.

Paddlers raced each other in pairs; with the fastest five competitors moving onto the final round was purely judged by style, where paddlers were fee to do whenever they felt was most impressive, including surfs of huge hydraulics with remarkable tricks. Sadat Kawawa placed first and was followed by David Luhiho and Musa Mutamba.

Sadat Kawawa, who is also a member of the the Uganda Freestyle Team who has run the difficult Itanda rapid nearly every week for the past 3 years. “Every single time am on top of that rapid, my heart always shakes, but you have to do it. Once you do it, it is big fun,” Kawawa said.

Thomas white, a photographer living in Kampala, has attended the Nile River Festival for the past three years and learned to Kayak on the Nile. “I have really enjoyed watching all the amazing kayakers with their impressive skills and I am working up to may be entering next year.”

American Model Arrives to boost tourism

US super Model Marlina Moreno tourched down at Entebbe Airport aboard Emirates Airlines for her 21-day visit to Uganda where she is expected to climb Mt. Rwenzori on January 17. The Los-Angeles based super model and TV host, touched down at about 3: 00pm. From Entebbe international Airport, she was taken to her hotel and latter had fun at the Uganda Wildlife EducationCenter (UWEC) in Entebbe. Clad in boots, skinny jean pants and a light weather top, the 5.6 model was taken through the history and purpose of the center before being guided into the park – first to Charles, the three years and eight-months old elephant. But the most interesting scene was was at the giraffe’s base. The former national football league cheerleader and model for Nike, Samsung, Canin, Virgin Atlantic and Siemens fed and kissed one of the giraffes.

“I have dreamt of coming to Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa” for the last one and half years. Nature conservation is my thing. I love the flora and fauna. And is great coming to such a country with this abundan nature,” said Moreno.
“It is not my first time in Africa. I have been to South Africa. But it is my first time mountaineering. So I am looking forward to the experience,” said the avid traveller, who is expected to document her travel experience in Uganda on her various social media outlets for her over 50 million followers on social media.

“I am going to the source of the Nile. Do bungee jumping , then do Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for the Mountain Gorillas. It is going to be one marvelous experience ,” she said. John Ssempebwa, the deputy executive  director of the Uganda Tourism Board, said the move was among the many that the Government is deliberately taking to market Uganda. “Some of her followers will read her experiences and also want to come to Uganda. And this is good for the tourism country. Coutries which do not have half the beauty and nature that Uganda has have many visitors. We need to market our country,” he said.

At a press conference earier this month, Ssempebwa revealed that over 4,500 sightseers were expected to climb the mountain with the supermodel.  The function will start with the climbing of the mountain and conclude with a party at the base of the mountain in Kasese district, he said.

Moreno, who boasts over 50 million followers on social media, will, at the end of her visit, profile her experience and produce a documentary to be carried on her travel platforms: Examiner.com, Huffingtonpost.com, and whenInManila.

New airline to end monopoly on Nairobi- Entebbe route

East African Safari Air, a private charter airline based in Nairobi, is poised to test the dominance of Kenya Airways (KQ) on the Entebbe – Nairobi route.
The airline, which trades as Fly – SAX, launched its operations in the country on Monday. It will ply the Nairobi – Entebbe route, seen as one of the most expensive short routes in the world. 
“We lured this new airline in order to break KQ’s monopoly. There is no way one can bring down the fares if one has no competition,” said Dr Stephen Chebrot, the State Minister for Transport at the launch.

He said the entry of Fly – SAX into Uganda’s aviation market is in line with Uganda Civil Aviation Authority’s (UCAA) liberalisation policy of enhancing competition and improving service delivery. 
The new airline will operate two scheduled flights daily, on the Entebbe – Nairobi route, according to Mrs Claire Misire, the country manager. The maiden flight is due on January 9. A return ticket costs $318 (about Shs892,000). 

Meanwhile, RwandAir, Rwanda’s national carrier, is also set to commence operations on the Nairobi Entebbe route. According to an advert published in the media, the airline will start operating direct flights to Nairobi on January 10th and a ticket will cost $250 (about Shs700,000). 
Officials from the airline were not available for a comment by press time.
Following the grounding of Air Uganda mid last year, UCAA granted Rwandair fifth freedom rights to operate flights to Nairobi. However, the absence of a green light from the Kenyan authorities has been holding it back. 
Mr Ignie Igunduura, the public affairs manager at UCAA, said the arrival of new players on the 45-minute route is partly a result of the recent signing of a pact among Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan on the management of the Northern Corridor Air Space bloc. 
“It is a joint effort aimed at bringing down the fares in the regional airspace. The competition on the route will also lead to better services and more options to travellers,” he said.
The Entebbe-Nairobi route has in past proved difficult for some airlines to fly, as earlier efforts by Africa One, East African Airways and VictoriaInternational Airways among others ended unsuccessfully.

Africa Airline performance Outlook for 2015
According to the International Air Transport Association’s 2015 outlook for the global airline industry, Africa is the weakest region in the past two years. 
Profits are barely positive ($200 million in 2015 which is an improvement on the break-even performance in 2014), and represent just $2.51 per passenger. 
Breakeven load factors (percentage of seats filled at a particular yield versus the airlines operating costs) are relatively low, as yields are a little higher than average while costs are lower. However, few airlines in the region are able to achieve adequate load factors, which are the lowest among the regions by almost five percentage points. Performance is improving, but slowly.

Players
The new airline has increased the number of scheduled international air operators in the Ugandan airspace to 19. 
Last year three new air operators - Fastjet, Fly Dubai and Etihad – Cargo – joined the Ugandan airspace. 
Etihad Airways is also set to launch passenger services to Entebbe on May 1 this year using a two-class Airbus A320 aircraft with 16 Business Class seats and 120 Economy Class seats.

By Bruce Amp

Dreaming of a Wild Christmas

The festive season is an ideal time to tour Uganda’s best spots for wildlife viewing. With cut-price offers from safari companies, we show you where to get memorable experience.

It is a great thing that holidays with in the Pearl of Africa have become fashionable. We do need to plunge some of our hard-earned money into indigenous ventures, of which there are plenty these days.
Thankfully, there are also various incentives that make domestic tourism irresistible when one has the time. With the festive season upon us, some people will be off from work until sometime in January. This vacation means families can do many things together. It is a fine time to include a tour of national Parks or wild sanctuary to the holiday activities.

One of these motivating reasons to take a tour of the wild this festive season is the fact Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), in partnership with Tambula Safaris and Routs to Africa have offered tour packages at subsidized rates. For between sh230,000 and sh250,000 per head one can take a weekend tours up to January 11, 2015. This includes transport, accommodation; meals park entrance fees, tour guide services and activities on the respective itineraries. This price is up to three times lower than the usual cost each person incurs on a solo expedition. Inquiries can be made with UTB of Tambula at Equatorial Mall. In the mean time, let us show you what is to be seen in the wild.

PRIMATE GALORE

Primates are among the favorite animals to watch, as they are so much like humans in many ways. Their behavior is often intriguing and displays their interagency. Chimpanzees and gorillas are among those you have to get out of your way to find, at places like. Monkeys and other smaller apes are easier to meet as they are not shy and in fact can be very bold where they are familiar with humans. They can harass people for food in some places like Uganda Wildlife Education Center (UWEC) and source of the Nile in Jinja. Though many people find this part of the fun, do take necessary care especially with children.

Kibale National Park with over 13 primate species and BwindiImpenetrable Forest are the best for Chimp and Gorilla Tracking respectively. Other Primates are found there too, but they can be found at UWEC, the source of the Nile and not forgetting naughty baboons in lesser forests like Busitema near Busia District and Mabira.

Chimpanzees communicate to each other through a complex system of voice and facial expressions. When excited they use loud calls called pant-hoots. Obey instructions from the guides or caretakers where there are primates to avoid agitating them unnecessarily. They can turn aggressive especially where they believe their families are in danger.

WILD WESTERN UGANDA

Going west, one is sure to see a lot of mesmerizing wildlife. From the ambling Zebras, and hippos at lake Mburo National Park, to elephants, buffaloes and hundreds of antelope species in Queen Elizabeth National Park.  The Jewel in Queen’s Crown is to be found on Ishasha sector where over 40 Tree Climbing Lions remain a favorite curiosity. With their blackish manes, they are not hard to differeciate from other lions. Game drives offer a good chance to view a variety of wildlife across the vast plains of the park.

NORTHERN CONNECTION

 On this route, the star of the Nile will be at Murchison Falls National Park where nature is a director and all sorts of prized wildlife are the main actors with a myriad bird playing supporting roles, as well as supplying the music score. This clean Eden is bordered by the river Nile and provides game viewing both on land and on water. Boart launches are a favorite activity to do here. Beholding the breathtaking Murchison Falls (once known as Kabalega falls) is another awesome experience.

PRIVATE PARKS

Away from the National game parks, there are some smaller and often privately managed animal sanctuaries that can provide similar treat for those seeking a Christmas experience with the wild. Between Kampala, Wakiso and Entebbe, you can find places to see reptiles, small game and birds, at close range.
The government owned UWEC is the front runner of these, but there are others like Kavumba animal Sanctuary, Snake Park and Reptile Village, Rhino Sanctuary in Kiboga and Camp Crocs in Mpigi, off Masaka Road, offer up-close experiences  with Rhinos and Crocodiles, respectively. Find details and directions from local guides

By Bruce Amp

Uganda Whips Spain in Tourism Polls

President Yoweri Museveni’s off-the-cut remark that Uganda is a better tourism destination than Spain caused a storm and inadvertently brought the country international media attention. It echoed the statement some time ago, made by Spain’s president, Mariano Rajoy, that Spain is not Uganda, which riled Ugandans who reacted strongly on the Internet. This time, Ugandans got their revenge when international media outlets picked up on Museveni’s statement. The UK based Gurdian Online put up a poll for readers to vote one of the two countries.

In truth, Spain receives many more tourists than Uganda, and so it was expected that Spain would walk away with an easy win on the Internet battle. Surprisingly, Ugandans took to the polls to settle the score and scooped 79% votes, flooring Spain which emerged with a miserable 21%. Over 2.5M people worldwide voted.

Some commentators advanced good reasons to visit Uganda and beautiful pictures of the country were featured. Hopefully, Uganda has had other victories in tourism contests before. Early this year, the country was chosen to host winners of the Orbitz Rewards Programs a US based online travel agency that runs an online competition. The winners take an all-expense-paid trip to any outstanding travel destination.

Meanwhile, the president of Uganda Tour OperatorsAssociation, Barbra Adoso noted that the world Encyclopedia of Travel has picked on Uganda to host nine Russian travelers who will be in the country starting December 9 to explore its attractions in 21 days.