"Misty mysterious Rwenzoris " a Ruwenzori National Park Travel Page by NEILHALLIDYA

The Rwenzori Mountains are the largest mountain range in Africa.

Situated on the edge of the Rift Valley they border Congo and Uganda with the highest peak, Stanley, rising to over 5000 metres.

The mountain range contains impressively diverse landscape from bamboo forest to rainforest to high altitude bog to the largest glaciers on the African continent.

The national park receives relatively few visitors (about 450 last year) and is African wilderness at its wildest and best.

Ptolemy mentioned the snow capped "Mountains of the Moon" and suggested them to be the source of the Nile. It is believed that he was referring to the Rwenzoris.

These mountains were the last major range in Africa to be explored by westerners and, such is the ranges inaccessibility, large tracts of it remain unexplored.

I spent 12 days trekking and climbing in the range. This was very very hard work but the most enjoyable, and satisfying, thing I`ve done for a long time.

People tend to get carried away with comparisons but this is a truly unique and exotic location. Truly like something from Lord of The Rings with its giant flora, strange animals, energy saping bogs, precipitious rock faces, eerie ever-changing cloud formations and strange equitorial glaciers.

The region is famous for its rainfall so much so that you trek through bogs in Wellington boots. The area experiences two dry seasons but this is relative - you can expect rain at any time of year. I visited in the early dry season (Feb) and had a couple of days of rain but, apart from that, periods of sunshine every day.

This is a fairly remote adventure travel destination and, relatively little additional information exists.

I used the following resources to help plan my trip:-

Internet:-

Uganda Wildlife Authority

KE Adventure Travel

Jagged Globe

Books:-

Lonely Planet, Trekking in East Africa.

H.W.Tillman, Snow on the Equator