Mountain Rwenzori holds the highest peak in Uganda known as Margarita. The word ‘Rwenzori’ roughly translates as ‘Rainmaker’, which clearly illustrates the importance of the mountains in Central Africa.
Uganda has numerous hills and mountains where hiking takes place. Each of the mountains offers different experiences depending on the nature in terms of height, smoothness or ruggedness and the surrounding. Furthermore, each mountain or hills have more than one trail and each of the trails gives varying experiences too. Some highlands are gentle sloping while others are steep, the wildlife and experience at each of them is different. It is interesting to hike on the Rwenzori mountain, the Virunga volcanoes, Mt. Elgon, Morungole mountains and other short hikes like hiking to the top of the falls in Murchison falls national park and to the Sipi falls where you are rewarded with sights of the most beautiful landscapes. Nature walks on the hills of Fort Portal take you to crater lakes with historical beliefs attached to them.
In Uganda tourists have a range of activities to enjoy, For example, gorilla trekking, chimp trekking, golden monkey tracking, game drives, canoeing, launch cruise, white water rafting, community visits, spot fishing, nature walks, hiking and so many others.
Mountain Rwenzori – The hiking Trail
Rwenzori Mountain has one of the most exciting and challenging mountain ranges to trek in the world. 996 square kilometres of great vegetation, lakes, rocky outcrops, cliffs, high glaciers and snow-capped peaks make this mountain unique.
The mountain is ranked the 4th highest in Africa, the highest point Mount Stanley’s Margherita Peak is 5,109 meters. The fluctuating weather conditions, startlingly diverse vegetation, remoteness, viewpoints and low visitor numbers combine to thrill adventurous trekkers looking for a very special experience.
The Rwenzori Mountains national park were gazetted in 1991, recognized as a World Heritage Site in 1994 and a Ramsaar site in 2008. These classifications testify to the mountains’ international scientific importance.
The atmosphere is wet; the mountains receive over 3 meters of rainfall a year. This makes the lower slopes lush with vegetation and the higher reaches covered in snow and ice. Although the glaciers have retreated massively over the last hundred years due to climate change, climbers in the wet season months will still have to navigate ice walls and significant snowfall to reach the peaks.
HIKING TRAILS
Rwenzori hiking routes can be customized for private groups to provide more opportunity to familiarize with the altitude or to simply enjoy the peace, privacy and beauty of the stunning Rwenzori mountain ranges.
Currently, the Rwenzori has 2 trekking circuits to enable climbers to the peaks that is to say; the Central Circuit out of Nyakalengija and the Southern Circuit out of Kilembe. However; we recommend our guests to take the southern circuit because it provides remarkable experiences accompanied by outstanding landscapes, sights and sounds of the wilderness.
Two trekking circuits provide access to the Rwenzori peaks: the Central Circuit out of Nyakalengija and the Southern Circuit out of Kilembe. While the Southern Circuit was the route first followed (largely) by Professor Scott Elliott in 1895, it is the central circuit, pioneered by Luigi di Savoia in 1906, that for many years provided the only access to the mountains.