An unforgettable adventure

Nyinambuga Crater Lake, which is featured on the 20000 Ugandan shilling note. There are over 50 crater lakes in Uganda.
I've just returned from an incredible two-week trip with a wonderful group of 12 intrepid travellers to Uganda, one of my favourite destinations. We saw six of the country's 12 parks, trekked to see chimps, gorillas (twice) and golden monkeys. We laughed, we sweated, we slipped down and up steep jungle hillsides, we drank litres of Nile lager, we were filthy a lot of the time... But we came home enriched and filled with gratitude. To look a mountain gorilla in the eye is a life highlight. There are only about 1000 left. If you haven't been yet, put this experience high up on your bucket list right now!

Golden monkey feeding on bamboo in Mgahinga Gorilla National Park. You can do a golden monkey trekking experience on the (steep) slopes of one of the three extinct volcanoes in the park, which form part of the Virunga Mountains.

A Nile crocodile – a frequent sight in many parts of Uganda.

Early morning near the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park, which is also a World Heritage Site, declared in 1994. It covers an area of 330 square kilometres, and is home to about 500 mountain gorillas, approximately half the population left in the world.

Local dancers greet gorilla trekkers at one of the four gates into Bwindi.

A mountain gorilla feeding in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park. They are mostly vegetarian.

Uganda's climate and landscape are varied; it's hot and tropical in parts and cool due to high altitudes in others.

Getting ready for a golden monkey trekking experience in Mbahinga National Park. All the trekking experiences, whether they're to see gorillas, chimps or golden monkeys, are well organised. You'll be accompanied by trained rangers and trackers every step of the way.

The Murchison Falls on the Nile River – a truly impressive waterfall, where the river narrows and plunges forcefully over a 43-metre drop.

A white-breasted cormorant dries its wings from a perch in Lake Bunyonyi, which at 900 metres, is Uganda's deepest lake.

A topi surveys his territory from atop a termite mount in Lake Mburo National Park.

Motorbikes are the main method of transport in Uganda, and you seeing them carrying all sorts of things!

A pod of hippos relaxing in the waters of the Nile, the world's longest river, which rises from Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda.

Sunset in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda's largest national park.

Saint Mary's Cathedral Rubaga in Uganda's capital of Kampala, often known as the "Rubaga Cathedral", is the oldest Catholic cathedral in Uganda and dates back to 1925. Most people in Uganda are Christian, though it is known for its religious tolerance, and many other religions are practised.