Semuliki National Park

Semuliki National Park sits in the floor of the Albertine Rift Valley in Bundibugyo District, western Uganda, wedged between the Rwenzori Mountains and Lake Albert on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. At just 220 square kilometres, it protects Uganda’s only true lowland tropical rainforest — an extension of the vast Ituri Forest of the Congo Basin, and one of Africa’s oldest forests, believed to have survived the last Ice Age.

That Congo-basin character gives Semuliki a wildlife list found nowhere else in East Africa: over 440 recorded bird species, eight primate species including chimpanzees and the Central African red colobus, and forest specialists such as pygmy antelope and forest buffalo. At its heart lie the Sempaya hot springs, twin geothermal pools sacred to the local Bamba people, where the water erupts hot enough to boil an egg.

What to Expect

Most visits are built around a day or two at Sempaya: a boardwalk walk to the hot springs, a forest or birding walk along the Kirumia or Red Monkey trails, and an early-morning primate walk. The park sits roughly 300 kilometres from Kampala, five to six hours by road via Fort Portal, and pairs naturally with a Rwenzori or Kibale itinerary.