Winston Churchill called Uganda ’
the pearl of Africa’, presumably basing his opinion on the country’s great
natural beauty. From the moment the visitor lands at Entebbe’s international airport, with its
breathtaking equatorial location on the forested shore of island-strewn
Lake Victoria, it is clear that Uganda is no ordinary
safari destination.
Dominated by a century-old
botanical garden alive with the chatter of acrobatic
monkeys and colorful
tropical birds, Entebbe itself is the least obviously urban
of all comparably sized African towns. Just 40km (25 miles) distant, sprawled across seven hills, there is the capital
Kampala. The bright modern feel of this bustling, cosmopolitan city reflects the ongoing economic growth and political stability that has characterized Uganda since 1986. Since the late 1980s, the nation has managed to move on from the abyss of civil war and the economic catastrophe of the Idi Amin days.
Uganda is where the East African
savannah meets the West African
jungle. In this
lush country, one can observe
lions prowling the open plains, track
chimpanzees through the rainforest undergrowth, then navigate tropical channels teeming with
hippos and
crocs before setting off into the misty mountains to stare deep into the eyes of a mountain
gorilla.
GeographyUganda shares borders with Sudan to the north, Kenya to the east, Lake Victoria to the southeast, Tanzania and Rwanda to the south and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the west. Kampala is on the shores of Lake Victoria, and the White Nile flowing out of the lake traverses much of the country. The varied scenery includes tropical forest and tea plantations on the slopes of the snow-capped Ruwenzori Mountains, the arid plains of the Karamoja, the lush, heavily populated Buganda, the rolling savannah of Acholi, Bunyoro, Tororo and Ankole, and the fertile cotton area of Teso.
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