6 Days Western Uganda Heritage: Tanda Pits, Nakayima Tree, Kibiro and Tooro

Day-by-day itinerary

1. Day1
   

   Kampala to Mubende via the Tanda Pits

   Our guide picks you up in Kampala after breakfast and drives west on the Mityana road. At Tanda, about 70 km from the city, a field of roughly 240 deep circular pits pocks the hillside. In Buganda tradition these are the holes Walumbe, the bringer of death, dug as he hid from his brother Kayikuuzi, who was sent to catch him; it is said this is how death stayed in the world. The site is still an active shrine of the Lubaale faith, with two reed-fenced shrines, and the keepers show you the spears, shields and calabashes left by worshippers. A short walk away is Nambi’s Rock, linked to Nambi, wife of Kintu, the first man of Buganda. Continue west to Mubende, about 150 km from Kampala in all. In the late afternoon, climb about 15 minutes up Mubende Hill to the Nakayima Tree, a huge buttressed tree said to be more than 600 years old and named after Nakayima, a spirit-princess of the Bachwezi. People still come here to ask for health and children. Dinner and overnight at a hotel in Mubende.

   • Tanda Pits and Nakayima Tree
   • Hotel in Mubende
   • Lunch, dinner
2. Day2
   

   Munsa Earthworks and Mparo Royal Tombs

   After breakfast, drive north to Kakumiro and the Munsa earthworks, about 3 km from the trading centre. A system of deep ditches here surrounds a hill with a rock shelter, and the place is linked to Kateboha, a legendary Muchwezi king; the hole through one rock is called his beer pot. Archaeologists have dug here and found pottery and other remains of a settlement far older than the kingdoms met by the first European visitors, and the site is still used as a shrine. Continue to Hoima, the seat of the Bunyoro-Kitara kingdom, which once held sway over much of western Uganda. In the afternoon, visit the Mparo Tombs, a few kilometres from town, where Omukama Kabalega is buried. Kabalega led Bunyoro’s long resistance to British rule in the 1890s, was exiled to the Seychelles and died in 1923 on his way home. The tomb house holds his spears, drums and personal objects, and the guides are often relatives of the royal family. Dinner and overnight in Hoima at Hoima Resort Hotel or similar.

   • Munsa earthworks and Mparo Tombs
   • Hoima Resort Hotel or similar
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
3. Day3

   Kibiro Salt Village and Hot Springs on Lake Albert

   Today you go down into the Albertine Rift. From Hoima, the road crosses farmland to the edge of the escarpment, then drops steeply to the shore of Lake Albert; the drive takes about one hour, and the last stretch is a steep walk down. At the bottom lies Kibiro, a fishing and salt-making village squeezed between the cliffs and the water. Women here still make salt the old way: they spread soil from the salt flats, soak it with hot spring water, filter the brine and boil it down over fires. Archaeologists have traced salt-making at Kibiro back several hundred years, and Kibiro salt was traded across the kingdoms of the region. Nearby, the hot springs reach close to boiling, and villagers cook eggs and green bananas in the water to show visitors. Look for the old grinding groove in a boulder above the springs. Lake Albert is about 160 km long and forms part of the border with DR Congo, whose blue mountains rise on the far shore. Climb back up the escarpment in the afternoon. Dinner and overnight in Hoima.

   • Kibiro salt village and hot springs
   • Hoima hotel
   • Breakfast, picnic lunch, dinner
4. Day4
   

   Hoima to Fort Portal and the Tooro Palace

   After breakfast, drive south to Fort Portal, about four hours through tea estates and green hills, with the Rwenzori Mountains appearing on the horizon as you get closer. Fort Portal is the capital of the Tooro kingdom, which broke away from Bunyoro in about 1830 under Prince Kaboyo. The town takes its name from Fort Gerry, the British post built here in 1893, and it is one of the most pleasant towns in Uganda, cool and green at about 1,500 m. In the afternoon, climb Kabarole Hill to the Tooro royal palace, rebuilt in 2001. The grounds give one of the best views over the town, the tea fields and the Rwenzori range, whose highest peak reaches 5,109 m. Our guide explains the story of King Oyo, who was crowned at the age of three in 1995, and the role the kingdom still plays in local life. Check into your lodge in the crater lakes area south of town in the late afternoon. Dinner and overnight at Kibale Forest Camp, Isunga Lodge or similar.

   • Tooro palace
   • Kibale Forest Camp, Isunga Lodge or similar
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
5. Day5
   

   Amabere Caves and the Crater Lakes

   This morning visit the Amabere ga Nyinamwiru caves near Nyakasura, about 8 km from Fort Portal. Stalactites hanging from the cave roof drip a milky water, and legend says they are the breasts of Nyinamwiru, daughter of King Bukuku, cut off when she refused the husband her father chose; her son was Ndahura, the first of the Bachwezi kings. A waterfall pours over the cave mouth, and a short trail leads up to a viewpoint over the crater lakes. In the afternoon, walk with a local guide in the Ndali-Kasenda crater field, where more than 50 crater lakes fill old volcanic craters south of Fort Portal. The Top of the World viewpoint looks over three crater lakes at once and, on a clear day, the Rwenzoris. The walk passes banana and tea gardens, and you may see black-and-white colobus monkeys in the forest patches on the crater rims. Kibale National Park, with its 1,500 or so chimpanzees, lies just to the east if you want to add a chimpanzee trek. Dinner and overnight at your lodge.

   • Amabere caves and crater lakes walk
   • Lodge near Fort Portal
   • Breakfast, lunch, dinner
6. Day6
   

   Fort Portal to Kampala

   After breakfast, start the drive back to Kampala, about 300 km and roughly five to six hours on a good tarmac road through Kyenjojo and Mubende. The route crosses the old Kitara heartland you have been travelling through all week, and our guide can stop at Mubende for a last look at the hill of the Nakayima Tree. Lunch is taken on the way. In Mityana, the road passes close to Lake Wamala, linked in legend to Wamala, the last of the Bachwezi kings, who is said to have vanished into its waters. You reach Kampala in the late afternoon, in time for a hotel transfer or the drive on to Entebbe International Airport, about another hour away. If you have a spare day in Kampala, our 3-day Kampala and Buganda heritage tour covers the Kasubi Tombs, the Uganda Museum and the Namugongo shrine, which makes a natural finish to a week spent in the old kingdoms of western Uganda. End of the tour.

   • Drive to Kampala
   • Breakfast, lunch