It’s famous for its gorilla and chimpanzee safaris, but there’s a lot more to exploring Uganda, says Jamie Ball
A gorilla at Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge in Uganda
I’m in a Ugandan rainforest, surrounded by a community of 18 stunning chimpanzees. They pass our tour group, one by one, following their power-strutting alpha male. I feel like Tarzan, minus the loincloth, coming home to his tribe after too many years aping humans. I can’t keep my eyes off them. The chimps, however, don’t quite share the sentiment.
To reach these primates, we’ve trekked into the Kyambura Gorge, a deep, 11km-long sunken streak of tropical rainforest etched through tree-dotted grasslands in Kyambura Wildlife Reserve. We ignored fresh lion tracks along the tight, winding path, eventually reaching this near-200-metre-wide patch of rainforest – a place where pods of cantankerous hippos dwell in dark waters, and elephants and buffalo descend to drink.