Uganda’s Hidden Wild: A 5-day Journey into Africa’s Alpine Backcountry

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:20]Thousands of metres above the hot and humid  jungles of East Africa are the Rwenzori glaciers.

[00:00:40]It wasn't until I picked up a magazine at  an airport about a decade ago that I even knew Africa had glaciers, let alone equatorial  ones, where snow and ice feel almost impossible.

[00:01:04]While the glaciers are quite  cool, I really made the trip to these mountains because it's home to one  of the strangest alpine landscapes on Earth.

[00:01:25]Above 4,000 metres lies an ancient world of giant  prehistoric plants, endless bogs, and icy peaks.

[00:01:35]In this video, we'll spend 5 days hiking through  the vegetation zones of the Rwenzori Mountains.

[00:01:42]From dense tropical jungle to bare rock high  above the clouds, this should give you a sense of what it's actually like to trek through  one of Africa's most surreal mountain ranges.

[00:03:06]The first vegetation zone of the Rwenzori  Mountains is the evergreen forest. This ecosystem is common throughout the region and  hosts countless flowers and an explosion of butterflies. It's not exactly peaceful here.  The noise of the cicadas can be deafening.

[00:03:33]We saw black and white colobus monkeys  playing in the trees along with curious blue monkeys and speedy squirrels  running up and down the limbs.

[00:03:49]Which monkey is this one? It's  the blue monkey. It's the blue.

[00:03:57]Against the green forest backdrop, we  witnessed bright flashes of crimson erupting through the canopy whenever turacos took  flight. There are chimpanzees in these forests, too. And while I wasn't so lucky  this time, I did stumble upon some in a nearby forest and was shocked at  just how loud they are in real life.

[00:04:48]The ant colonies in the Rwenzoris were  unbelievable. You could sometimes see millions and millions of them covering  the ground as far as the eye can see.

[00:05:13]In terms of reptiles, I managed to find a lone  chameleon. Although it's the colourful horned chameleons that I have my sights set on seeing.  Fungi exploded from every fallen branch while giant ferns, tangled vines, and strange tropical  fruits crowded every patch of the forest floor.

[00:05:59]We've now arrived at the first camp  on this hike. It's called Sine Camp.

[00:06:05]And it's amazing how well these structures  are put together. All of the materials you see had to be carried up the mountain. And  that will be the case for the next 5 days.

[00:06:22]Just got some dorm-style accommodation.  I'm the only person in here tonight.

[00:06:33]Good morning, folks. We have now made  it into a new environmental zone. So, it's the bamboo zone. The bamboo  zone. We're in the bamboo zone.

[00:07:01]We have an old man down here. The  tree whisperer. Or maybe Santa Claus?

[00:07:26]The bamboo is now getting a bit thicker,  and we're heading into the mist.

[00:07:34]Any panoramic views were now gone with  mist covering over trees draped in bearded moss. This gave the forest an enchanted  feel. You almost expect to find a fairy sitting on a toadstool somewhere. And hidden  amongst all of this enchantment was evidence of an apex predator with an almost  mythical presence in these mountains.

[00:08:03]What have we got here? I've got the poo of  the Rwenzori leopard. Wow. So, they are near our camp. Yeah. But we just don't see them.  They're seeing us. Maybe they're seeing us, but for them, they are nocturnals,  so they are hunting during the night.

[00:08:57]This bit here is super cool. It feels  a bit more like a landscaped garden than anything. And we have a  nice pink orchid over there.

[00:09:17]The bamboo forest slowly gave way to a ghost  forest of giant heather trees. Their twisted branches were sometimes buried beneath moss  so thick and soft that it seemed impossible the branches could support the weight. Old  ladders and bridges made traversing the terrain that little bit easier, and their state of  disrepair only made the forest feel more magical.

[00:09:46]Some hanging plants even resembled underwater  coral reefs more than anything terrestrial.

[00:10:18]The Rwenzoris are known locally as the rain  makers, and they have a well-earned reputation for being relentlessly wet. With permanent  soil moisture and ancient peat underneath, the mountains support some botanical wonders.  The giant lobelia can exceed a metre in diameter, and its overlapping strap-shaped leaves  are arranged with mathematical precision, helping the plant survive nightly freezes at  these elevations. These plants are sometimes called living thermoses because water trapped  within the rosette can remain unfrozen long after temperatures drop below zero. And when  flowering, the lobelia sends giant spikes 3 or 4 metres into the air, forming dense towers of  alien-looking flowers emerging through the mist.

[00:11:54]The valley opened up, and the clouds lifted just  enough to reveal rocky towers rising around us.

[00:12:02]It was the first time the landscape truly  felt grandiose, and it wouldn't be the last.

[00:12:38]So, now we are climbing up to Mutinda  Peak, which is almost 4,000 metres high, and we're on a much smaller trail  that isn't really frequented by hikers and all of the porters.  So, it's much more overgrown.

[00:13:19]This hiking trail is so steep. It's almost  like a ladder. In fact, here's a ladder!

[00:13:46]Ah, we must be getting close now. Yeah, very  close. Wow, it was easier than I thought, but it was still very steep. It  was like a ladder half the time.

[00:14:03]Wow. Thank you for being strong.  Yeah. Yeah. The first mountain peak.

[00:14:29]These mist-covered mountains are actually  thought to be the legendary Mountains of the Moon, described more than 1,500  years ago by the astronomer Ptolemy, who believed they were the source of the Nile.  While they may no longer be considered Nile's furthest or largest source, they  are almost certainly its highest.

[00:15:08]We made it to Mutinda Camp. Yeah, Mutinda Camp.  3,600 metres. Yeah. Almost. Almost. Nice.

[00:15:23]Good morning, folks. Got my hot coffee here.  It's the morning of day three of hiking in the Rwenzoris. And you can see just behind this  is the peak that I climbed last night. But it's unbelievably clear today. Yesterday  I couldn't see any of these mountains.

[00:15:40]They were all covered in clouds.  But this morning it is beautiful.

[00:16:28]At these high altitudes, the boardwalks are  extensive. On a crisp, clear morning like this, with sunbirds darting between frost-covered  lobelia flowers, these boardwalks must be one of the most spectacular trekking  experiences anywhere in Africa.

[00:17:08]So to climb Mutinda Peak, we had to go up this little gap here.  Looks so much steeper than yesterday.

[00:17:59]Clouds typically build mid-morning,  so we were back in the misty, enchanted forests once again.  But this wouldn't be for long.

[00:18:17]Yeah, we join another zone called the  Afro Alpine zone, or the moorland zone, which has short vegetation. Most of it is  tussock grasses and everlasting flowers, which favour the red forest duikers to eat.

[00:19:02]These bog bridges protect the  underlying peat from damage, helping to preserve the sensitive  ecosystem. On the sections without them, I actually felt quite guilty stepping on plants  that could take an entire decade to rejuvenate.

[00:19:40]I'm going the hard way.

[00:20:01]Do you think I should go this way? No,  no. It's a bit deep. You think I will be stuck there forever? Yes. Okay.  You'll be put inside there. Okay.

[00:20:38]This is the police. You went through the mud  way too fast, so I'm going to have to give you a speeding ticket. Okay. Yeah. You will be  paying the fine at the bottom of that mountain.

[00:21:02]Today is a hard day. We've just  been walking in the mud and over the tussocks for a couple of hours now.  And you have to concentrate so hard on each of your steps because if you miss  the tussocks, you end up in mud that's like 20 cm deep. And that's so much harder  work than jumping from tussock to tussock.

[00:21:28]And we're over 4,000 metres, so there's not  that much oxygen, and it's really slow going.

[00:21:39]Over 4,000 metres. That's quite  high. And they have a rescue pad for you guys when you're too tired. You too. No, I don't need it. I think the porters will  come up and they will rescue me. Okay.

[00:22:39]Our earliest start came on day four when we set  off to summit Weismann's Peak. The temperature hovered around freezing with frost coating the  ground and the sound of crunching footsteps echoing through the valley. As the sun rose, the  lakes below turned glassy and perfectly still, reflecting the alpine peaks towering  above them with mirror precision.

[00:23:51]The endless mud finally disappeared,  and the trail became a scramble over giant boulders and fractured rocks. Lobelias  and groundsels filled narrow ravines perched atop moss-covered boulders that had likely  crashed into the ravine millions of years ago.

[00:24:42]At this altitude, every step felt noticeably  harder. The reduced oxygen slowed everything down, and the route occasionally vanished amongst  the rocks entirely. But every time the clouds briefly opened, the view down to the lakes  below was enough to keep pulling me upwards.

[00:25:07]The transition from the final struggling  groundsels to bare rock and ice is abrupt.

[00:25:14]It's a biological frontier of sorts, the point  beyond which no shrub or tree can survive.

[00:25:39]So, where are we? We are now on the  top of Luigi di Savoia Mountain, and we have Weismann's Peak as one of the  peaks on Luigi di Savoia Mountain. Wow.

[00:25:52]Over 4,600 metres. Yeah. 4,620 metres above the  level. Wow. Thanks for being strong. Yeah. Thank you. I think we made it here fast. Yeah. Good  time. Your speed was amazing. Thank you. Yeah.

[00:26:18]Weismann's Peak didn't quite have  the glacial views I was hoping for, but I occasionally caught them reflecting  faint light back through the clouds. Like glaciers almost everywhere on Earth, the ice  atop the Rwenzoris is disappearing rapidly.

[00:26:35]These photographs show how dramatically a  glacier on Mount Stanley has retreated over the last century. But even more alarming is how  much the West Stanley glacier has vanished in just the last 10 years alone. If you want to see  Africa's last glaciers for yourself, you genuinely need to come soon. Many scientists believe they  could disappear entirely within the next decade.

[00:27:36]The descent from Weismann's Peak follows  a distinctly worn rock pathway past small ponds and larger lakes. The cliffs  surrounding the valley almost look geometric at times before the trail  disappeared once again into deep rock ravines that funnel water from the  highest lakes down to the flatlands.

[00:28:49]Whenever the valleys opened up, the scenery became  almost absurdly dramatic. Jagged cliffs with water flowing down them rose above the lakes,  and giant plants filled the valley floor.

[00:29:04]At times, it felt less like hiking through Africa and more like wandering through  the set of a science fiction film.

[00:29:28]The mountain goat. The red forest  duiker. He's even wearing red.

[00:30:23]We made it. We made it. Welcome to  Kiharo. Beautiful sign. Well done, guys. Well done, too. 3,400 metres. So, much  much lower. We're going to sleep well today.

[00:30:36]You'll sleep like a baby. And also, maybe it  won't be so cold. Yeah. It's not that cold.

[00:31:44]The final day started off incredibly muddy, but  by now I was getting used to finding the firmest places to put my feet. My skills in the mud are  nothing compared to my guides, who knew the trail so well they could find all the rocks, logs,  and grasses completely submerged underwater.

[00:32:17]Perhaps it was because we were moving fast. Or  maybe it was because we'd already spent a lot of time in the lower vegetation zones. But the  valley we descended didn't feel as magical as just days earlier. There were still flashes of  brilliance, and the cascading waterfalls were spectacular at times, but in place of trees, dense  3-metre-high bushes have now taken over parts of the national park, choking out almost everything  beneath them. This was much more prevalent in this valley than in the one we climbed. Still,  it felt great to see the myriad of birds, monkeys, butterflies, and flowers reappear as  we moved down through the vegetation zones.

[00:33:57]Most hikers know about Mount Kilimanjaro, and  some know about Mount Kenya. But very few know that the Rwenzori mountains are also snowcapped,  equatorial, greater than 5,000 metres tall, and far wilder. The Rwenzoris remain relatively  untouched because they're difficult, wet, remote, and logistically complicated. But those exact  challenges are also what make the experience feel so special. Ultimately, all of it feels worthwhile  for the chance to walk through landscapes this unique and to witness Africa's last remaining  glaciers before they disappear forever.