Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park – no. 1 for mountain gorilla trekking, no. 1 in Africa for birding too!
We pay a lot of lip service to ‘protecting the rainforest’ and here it is: a magical, mystical misty place. The first time I visited Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, I felt a strong emotional pull. My first sight of Bwindi’s rainforest made me want to cry.
View of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest as we ascended from Ivy River up to Nkuringo. Click on the image to read my blog about crossing the forest from Buhoma to Nkuringo – it was an amazing experience!
The forest’s wildlife also includes chimpanzees, forest elephants, duikers, Red-tailed monkeys and hundreds of mammals. Forest butterflies are particularly beautiful.
Enkima – my totem the Red tailed monkey – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Click on the image to read my blog “Eye to eye with my totem”
The African Bird Club has ranked Bwindi Impenetrable Forest the number one site for birding in Africa.
According to Keith Betton, Chairman of the African Bird Club:“No fewer than 23 of Uganda’s 24 Albertine Rift endemic species are found here including globally threatened species such as African Green Broadbill Pseudocalyptomena graueri and Shelley’s Crimsonwing Cryptospiza shelleyi, plus others such as Kivu Ground-Thrush Zoothera (piaggiae) tanganjicae, Oberlaender’s Ground-Thrush Zoothera oberlaenderi, Dwarf Honeyguide Indicator pumilio, Lagden’s Bush-Shrike Malacanotus lagdeni and Chapin’s Flycatcher Muscicapa lendu.”
Welcome to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. Bwindi hiking. Photo David Tumusiime
While you’re in Bwindi, take time to go on a village walk. “The Batwa Experience” gives you an insight into the traditional way of life of the Batwa (‘pygmy’) people who lived in the forest for 60,000 years. The Batwa’s ancient forest lifestyle is unique and the community fragile.
