Fort Portal and crater lakes

Our friends told us they wanted to go to spend a weekend out of Kampala. They were planning to visit a

very pretty hyper-green part of Uganda. They have a car. And they asked us if we wanted to come along. There was nothing to think about. And so a week and a bit ago we were heading with them west, towards Fort Portal and the crater lakes region.

Fort Portal, about 5 hour drive from Kampala (on mostly paved road with few potholes) is one of the pleasantest cities I’ve seen in Uganda. Clean and well looked-after, it even has painted curbs and a slight feel of a Swiss mountain town – or at least that’s what it felt like to me after more than 9 months of seeing what could be described (nastily but accurately) as dirty dusty potholed cities full of rubbish. Fort Portal was apparently named after a British fort constructed at the end of 19th century, which in turn got its name after a British Special Commissioner to Uganda Gerald Portal, an important figure in establishing the (British) Uganda Protectorate. 

Anyway, we stayed about 15 km from the Fort Portal, camping in a “farm” hidden between plantain fields, with a huge spectacular garden, and a camel. 

The area around Fort Portal is incredibly green, and everything seems to sprout and grow uncontrollably all by itself. We already passed through this part of Uganda during our trip in July, though at that time we were heading north and stopped only quickly to see some of the tea plantations which surround the city. 

But this time we had a bit more opportunity to explore the area. First we decided to check out the foothills of the mountains - and not just any mountains, but the mythical Mountains of the Moon.

Mountains of the Moon were described by Ptolemaios in AD 150 as the source of the Nile, and it is precisely the Rwenzori mountains on the border between Uganda and the DRC (the Democratic Republic of Congo) which are identified as these legendary Mountains of the Moon. Rwenzoris are the tallest mountain range in Africa with the continent’s third highest peak, and unlike the majority of peaks in East Africa (and unlike Africa’s two highest peaks Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya), the Rwenzoris are not of volcanic origin - they are predominantly composed of granite which rose directly from the Rift Valley floor.

Whereas the southern part of the Rwenzoris has peaks of over 5000m, capped with permanent snow and glaciers (which you can hike but you need 8-10 days); the northern part is lower, green and hilly – and that is where we headed. 

We didn’t have time to do any proper hikes, but at least we took a walk up the foothill of the mountains to see the views of the valley and Fort Portal. 

The whole valley is covered in plantains (bananas and their cousins) – in fact, Uganda is one of the world’s top plantain producers, and you can find dozens of banana and plantain variety all over the country (though plantains are indigenous to Southeast Asia, from where they were brought to this part of the world probably around 14th-15th century). Yes - all these are banana (and related) trees!

And because being white normally equals to being a superstar (or an alien), we were constantly accompanied during our walk by the squeals of “bye muzungu!” by all the local children. 

But it was not only the mountains (or hills) that we were after. The Rwenzoris stretch north-west of Fort Portal, but the area south-east of the city is of volcanic origin – and as a reminder of the enormous volcanic forces that shaped the Rift Valley, many crater lakes are scattered throughout the landscape. 

All green with soft hills and lakes hiding in between them, this part of Uganda is really magnificent. We were lucky (in a way), because on our second day here it rained in the morning, but in the afternoon the clouds lifted up, and offered us views of the crater lakes region which was truly spectacular. 

At moments I felt like in the Shire from The Lord of the Rings! 

If you ever visit this area, and visiting the Rwenzoris, crater lakes and tea plantations is not enough for you, you can also try chimpanzee tracking in the nearby Kibale Forest. We already did chimp tracking in Budongo Forest further north back in April, and we didn’t have that much time during this trip, but if you are into animals (and primates in particular), it's worth trying. 

But talking about animals, though this wasn’t an animal-viewing trip, on the last morning before we left we had an encounter – with a camel. This one lives in the farm where we were staying, roaming freely around the garden and eating everything it can find. Just as we were walking to have our breakfast, we saw it in the middle of the path. 

It undoubtedly looked strange among those green vivid plants – in fact it was brought from Karamoja, a much more arid region in the north-east of Uganda. 

A very social camel it was - it really wanted to make friends! :-)