Uganda

A dense montane rainforest on Uganda's southwestern border holding roughly half the world's remaining mountain gorilla population — around 500 individuals in 19 habituated families. Bwindi's gorilla trekking is considered the finest in the world: the forest is older and denser than Rwanda's Volcanoes Park, and the experience of encountering a family in these ancient trees is incomparable.

The highest density of primates in Africa and the finest chimpanzee tracking experience in the world, Kibale's 795 square kilometres of lowland tropical forest support 13 primate species including red-tailed monkeys, L'Hoest's monkeys, and the nocturnal potto. A full-day chimpanzee habituation experience — spending the whole day with a group being habituated to human presence — is available to a maximum of four people.

Uganda's largest national park, Murchison is bisected by the Nile River, which forces its entire volume — 300 cubic metres per second — through a seven-metre gap in the rock to create the most powerful waterfall in the world. Boat safaris on the Nile bring you within metres of enormous crocodiles, hippos, and the falls themselves thundering above.

Straddling the equator between the Rwenzori Mountains and Lake Edward, Queen Elizabeth National Park offers exceptional diversity — elephants on savanna, hippos in the Kazinga Channel, and the famous tree-climbing lions of the Ishasha sector, which have developed the unique habit of resting in large fig trees. Boat cruises on the Kazinga Channel are among Uganda's finest wildlife experiences.

The fabled 'Mountains of the Moon' described by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, the Rwenzoris are Africa's highest mountain range after Kilimanjaro and Kenya, with peaks permanently capped with glaciers on the equator. The cloud-forest and afro-alpine zones en route to the glaciers harbour extraordinary endemic plant life including giant lobelias and groundsels found nowhere else on earth.

Often called the most beautiful lake in Africa, Bunyonyi sits at 1,962 metres in southwestern Uganda, its deep emerald water studded with 29 islands and surrounded by steep terraced hillsides. The lake is bilharzia-free — a rarity in Uganda — making it perfect for kayaking and swimming, and the small islands hold communities whose way of life has remained largely unchanged for generations.