SHINING A LIGHT ON UGANDA

Hidden valleys, isolated rural communities and wildlife goodnews-stories. We go beyond Uganda’s gorillas to find that this recovering African country is far more diverse than you may think

- Sarah Marshall

When nomadic pastoralists reached the vast grasslands stretching from the foothills of the Napore Mountains, they stopped dead in their tracks. Exhausted by their long, arduous and dusty journey from Ethiopia, these Karamojong (tired elders) could move no further.

Tiredness, though, probably wasn’t the only factor determining their decision to settle here in the 17th century. Flanked by a battalion of commanding peaks at a crossroads between South Sudan, Kenya and north-eastern Uganda, Kidepo Valley is both arrestingly beautiful and overwhelming in scope. Driving through plains dotted with precious shea trees, past dry riverbeds shaded by scruffy palms and into a slalom of soaring slopes, it’s hard to place on a map. One of Uganda’s many hidden faces, Kidepo inwardly gazes into its own little world.

A country of wildly varying climates and altitudes, most of Uganda remains a mystery. Historically, gorillas have taken the limelight, with most travellers heading to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in the southwest to track one of the 22 habituated troops as an extension of an East African safari.

But things are changing. Pot-holed roads have been paved with tarmac, and in 2019, national carrier Ugandan Airlines resumed operations after a 19-year hiatus with plans to launch a direct flight to the UK – the first in six years – later in 2021. Intrigued by whispers of isolated tribes and reports of lost species coming back from the brink, I would spend 14 days exploring a section of the continent where red earth burns and rainforests glisten just as intensely as ‘the pearl of Africa’ that Winston Churchill encountered 100 years ago.