Best time for Uganda Primates and wildlife Safari in Uganda : Uganda like all the other African countries, experience both the wet and the dry seasons. For anyone planning a Uganda Safari, you are recommended to visit the country any time of the year because the weather change is normally not that severe like in other countries. Uganda’s Climatic changes are influenced by the fact that it lies along the Equator and the existence of Lake Victoria and so if the question is when is the best time to Visit Uganda, then it is likely that any time of the year is perfect time for anyone to visit his great nation.
The Uganda weather temperatures range between 24- 28°C and in the night, thus it is often cooler. If you are visiting Uganda for a primate’s experience like gorilla trekking safari, you may take into a few issues into consideration when choosing when to come so you can meet the easiest gorilla trekking conditions. Despite the fact that gorilla tracking is an all year round tourism activity, there is always the best time that you can choose to visit.
When you visit Uganda for a Primates safari, plan to travel in the dry seasons. Primates including gorilla and chimpanzees can be visited anytime of the year however, to enjoy your trekking experience, you are recommended to travel in the dry season because the experience is much better. The trails are less slippery and limited rains although trekking happens in rainforests that receive rains anything throughout the year. Kibale national park, Bwindi Impenetrable national park and Mgahinga national park are the only national park in Uganda to sight the primates.
When you visit Uganda’s savannah national parks (Murchison falls national park, Queen Elizabeth national park, Kidepo national park and Lake Mburo national park), the main purpose is to go for game viewing since it’s the main activity done in these parks so no one should ever miss out on this. Game viewing is very interesting with lots of animals seen in these savannah parks especially towards the end of every dry season, which normally comes around February and March, also from June or early September. Around that time, there are usually lots of animals tend to concentrate around the water sources making it really easy to see them and in big numbers.
Wildlife safari might not exactly fun during the rainy season which start from the month of March-May and comes back October to November. During the rainy season, the roads become almost impassable and the animals have dispersed making wildlife viewing a little bit hard. However when it comes to gorilla tracking, the tracking paths are not slippery therefore in better conditions but you have to search for longer hours because gorillas tend move to further locations hunting for food. During the wet seasons however, tracking routes may be slippery and impassable but the gorilla can find food everywhere which means they don’t have to go far to search for food, most of the groups move to the lower slopes since food is readily available and temperature are mild therefore, you don’t have to hike fur. The closer they can get food, the easier it is for you to find them during the trek.
Bird watching is normally at it’s peak during the months of November and April. During these months, most of the migrant bird species have come in, lots of migrant birds can be spotted in the different park, which means, a very keen bird watcher will be able to see much more species than what you would actually see during the other months.
A Safari in Uganda is also perfect during April, May and November because these are the low seasons in the tourism business therefore there are very few people coming in for tourism purpose. This means lodges and the parks are less crowded, you will have humble time, peace and quiet if you visited during this time. Beside the peace and quiet, during the low season, the permits and lodge especially the luxury one cut their prices thus an added benefit.
In this case, it is just proper to say that Uganda is an all year round tourism destination because for each season, there is an advantage and a disadvantage and none seems seem to out weight that other. The decision as to when to visit Uganda should be made depending on how ready one is to travel because regardless of what time you visit, you will have the same experience and it will be a memorable one.
