Mountains of the moon: climbing Uganda’s highest peak

 

The remote Rwenzori mountains, on the Uganda / DRC border, offer treks through varied and stunning landscapes, and Africa’s third-highest summit, with none of the crowds found at Kilimanjaro

 

Claudius Ptolemy, the Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer and father of geography, called the Rwenzori range the Mountains of the Moon, and I think he got it about right. Starlight beamed down on the convex glaciers surrounding our camp near Uganda’s western border, causing them to glow like resting lunar crescents.

Climbers sleep in static tents or wooden huts, spacious enough for bunkbeds

 

So why do so few people come trekking here? Australian, John Hunwick, 69, who runs Rwenzori Trekking Services, first came in 1991. “I saw so much promise and wanted to open up the trails, but then the Rwenzoris were overrun by Congolese rebels,” he said.

 

In around 1996, as retaliation for Uganda supporting breakaway nation South Sudan, the North Sudanese helped Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels in Congo to launch attacks from the Rwenzoris aimed at destabilizing Uganda . “It certainly wasn’t safe to trek then,” Hunwick said. Uganda drove the ADF back into Congo in around 2001 but they continued to launch sporadic forays.

 

Hunwick assured me the Rwenzoris have been safe and tranquil since 2009, and his outfit has opened trails and camps all the way to Mount Stanley’s highest spike, Margherita Peak. The FCO advice on visiting western Uganda has softened in recent years: it reports no incidents involving visitors but warns travellers to be vigilant of political demonstrations.

 

Hunwick’s treks range from a day or two to full-on seven- or eight-day expeditions to summit Margherita. But even those just dipping a toe inside the national park will be awed.

 

During two breathless first days we moved through tropical forests of gargantuan fig trees that chattered with blue monkeys into the bamboo zone at 2,800 metres, with percussive accompaniment from stems rattling in the crosswinds. The ascent is steep and trekkers need a degree of stamina-based fitness training to cope with the rapid gains in altitude. A head for heights is preferable for the summit push, but no technical climbing skills are required.

 

The mossy heather zone above 3,500 metres was surreal: Unesco calls it “Africa’s botanical big game”. Its supersized heather trees looked like Dartmoor on steroids, and lobelias the size of Mexican cacti were all draped with lichen beards more Gandalf than hipster. In these higher zones we found scat from a rarely seen feline, the Rwenzori leopard, and marvelled at the iridescent colours of endemic sunbirds probing flowers with their curved bills.