Day 1: Arrival at Entebbe International Airport
Upon arrival at Entebbe airport, you will meet & greet by your driver guide and transfer to accommodation which is about 7 minutes away. Entebbe is a small town on a peninsular of Lake Victoria with a population of about 10,000 people and is the beach capital of Uganda. Dinner and overnight stay at Lake Victoria View Guest House. Breakfast included.
Day 2: Drive to Kasese
Leave the guest house after breakfast and proceed do some shopping before heading on to Kasese via Masaka and Mbarara. Stop at the Equator to take photos, lunch will be had somewhere convenient. After lunch, continue with the drive to the rift Valley through Queen Elizabeth National Park on to Kasese town. Pass by Rwenzori Mountaineering Services offices before heading to your accommodation. Dinner and overnight stay at Hotel Margherita. All meals included.
Day 3: Drive to the Hike Starting Point
After an early breakfast, drive to the park’s offices at Nyakalengija in time to rent equipment and be availed with guides and potters. Hiking starts from the park Headquarters 5,400ft (1,646m), passing by homesteads, gardens and what we call Elephant grass. It takes about 40min to get to the park boundary but if you drive up to where the road ends, it takes about 20min. You will then walk along Mubuku River, passing through recent landslide areas which you have to negotiate carefully, as it involves climbing over rocks and bluff, before getting to Mahoma River in about two and a half hours. After crossing this river there will be a steep climb through open bracken fern and Podorcarpus forest up to Nyabitaba hut 8,700ft (2,652m). It takes an average hiker about 5-7hrs from Nyakalengija to Nyabitaba, and you will have gained 4,000ft (1,200m) in elevation. It may take longer for slow hikers and so insist on starting early. Dinner and overnight stay at Nyabitaba hut near Rwenzori Mountain. All meals included.
Day 4: Hiking Day
From Nyabitaba Hut the trail leads westward for a kilometer, then drops steeply to Kurt Shaffer Bridge, crossing below the confluence of the Bujuku and Mubuku rivers. By turning right to the bridge, you begin to climb the central circuit anti-clockwise. After crossing Kurt Shaffer Bridge the muddy, slippery trail climbs steadily up through bamboo forest. After one and a half-hour you get to an area of slippery boulder hopping that some hikers consider the most difficult and dangerous footing of the circuit. After five hours from Nyabitaba, you get to a hut at Nyamuleju and its accompanying rock shelter. If you started late or know that there is another group ahead of you at the next hut, you can spend the night here. On a rare clear day Mts. Stanley and Speke can be seen from the top of the rock near the hut. Dinner and overnight stay at Nyamuleju hut. All meals included.
Day 5: Hiking Day
Head on crossing the Bujuku River and enter the lower Bigo bog, where your first real experience of jumping from tussock to another on grassy bogs begins. The trail is muddy and follows the left (Southern) edge of lower Bigo bog until eventually it reaches the round metal “unipot” the Bigo hut and its rock shelter. In the last half of this bog, a boardwalk has been constructed to prevent hikers from further damaging the bog and makes walking easier. A beautiful narrow stream at the upper end of this bog makes a good lunch break. An hour and a half beyond the upper bog, and after climbing through drier ground and crisscrossing the river, you reach Lake Bujuku. The southern end of the lake is in a majestic setting, with Mt. Baker to the South, Mt. Stanley to the West, and Mt. Speke to the North. Dinner and overnight stay at Bujuku hut. All meals included.
Day 6: Hiking Day
From Bujuku Hut take the newer trail which raise and falls twice before finally climbing steeply through magical moss draped Groundsel vegetation 14,345ft (4,372m) to Scott Elliott pass. At the steepest section is a short strong ladder after which a right-hand branch will lead to Elena Hut 14,700ft (4,430m). This is a steep, rocky trail which when wet or icy can be slippery. Continue to the left-over Scott Elliot entering an alpine zone of sparse low vegetation and stark rough boulders more familiar to high altitude climbers from northern latitudes like you. If the weather is bad here the conditions for “hypothermia” are ideal here. Dinner and overnight at Budget camping. All meals included.
Day 7: Hiking to the Peak and Descending
An early start is advisable to avoid overheating on the steep but lovely hour-long climb from Lake Kitandara, which is 14,050ft (4,282m) to the Fresh field pass. On clear days if you look west you are looking into DRC and north, Margherita and its glaciers still dominate the horizon. Fresh field is a long flat traverse through beautiful high alpine mossy glades (and more mud) for half an hour, the trail begins the circuit’s long two-day descent. Mist or rain can make tracing the trail difficult, and the first one kilometer here can be very slippery. Rock Shelters at Bujongolo and Kabamba are optional overnight stopover but it is best to push on through the seemingly endless mud to newly constructed Guy Yeoman Hut 10,700ft (3,261m). Some hikers make the Kitandara-Guy Yeoman trip in 5hrs, but because of stopping to enjoy the pass, bad weather and the slow conditions in the last two hours of deep mud can make this a much longer day, which some visitors consider
as difficult as day two. Dinner and overnight at Budget camping. All meals included.
Day 8: Descending
Start your journey back quite early, so as to get to Nyabitaba Hut before dark. In any case the pass from Guy Yeoman is quite difficult in some parts. Helping one another and descending very slowly facing the slop instead of facing outward should practiced more so when you approach Kichunchu where the trail parallels and twice crosses the Mubuku River mostly in deep mud, until the last few kilometres of good dry terrain. Good hikers make Guy Yeoman – Nyabitaba in 5 hours. Should you decide to continue to Nyakalengija it is another 2-3hrs and this depends on the condition of your knees and your desire to reach a comfortable bed and bath! If you happen to make it down to Nyakalengija, I’ll pick you up and spend the night at Hotel Margherita. All meals included.
Day 9: Descending to Park Headquarters
Descend to the Park Headquarters. This takes 2-3 hours, meet your driver/guide have lunch at leisure then drive on to Entebbe town. We will make stop overs if we see anything interesting on the way or for any photographic opportunities hence getting to Entebbe in the late evening. Dinner and overnight at the camp near Entebbe. All meals included.
Day 10: Departure
Have breakfast at leisure and if time allows tour Entebbe town if you wish or go to one of the beaches and relax. This marks the last day of your hike please make sure you double check your rooms so that you do not leave any valuables. Later we will head to the airport for your journey back home.
