Beyond pristine sand beaches and colonial villa, this island is home to one of the most impressive underwater waterfall in the world.

It is really just an optical illusion (as explained in detail in this article), and it can be seen during the day (so avoid sunrise and sunset) only by the air, and it located off La Morne beach, in the south-west point of the island.

You can only see it from the air, so you can either book a flight (I’ve used Lagoon flights, the only one I know in the area), an helicopter tour or using a drone, like you can see from the video I shot here:

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There are however several opportunities to see great wildlife in the country, so you can keep yourself busy for at least 7-8 days of trip in Uganda (if you consider 2-3 days for Gorilla tracking)

Kibale Forest National Park

Without leaving the primates family, an exceptional experience is seeing che chimpanzees, that are actually our closest cousins.

The main chimp tracking in the country is done in the Kibale Forest National Park, that is also where I strongly recommend you to book. Main reasons are the easiness of trekking, concentration of families and closeness to them. There are other tracking in Uganda (such as in Queen Elizabeth National Park), but nowhere else you will get such an high probability to see chimpanzees like in Kibale Forest.

You could either choose to do a chimpanzee tracking experience (the shorter one, around one hour with them) or a chimpanzee habituation, where you can spend around half a day with them. Obviously I recommend you the latter.

Keep in mind that chimpanzee families in the habituation experience (as the word suggest) has to be habituated yes to human presence, so it might be harder to see them up close, like it happened with my group.

But no worries since the guides are there to make the best experience for you: after spending few hours watching a chimp family really up in the trees, we moved to a more habituated one (where other groups doing the tracking were staying), and we got to see them really, really close.

I don’t usually recommend specific accommodations, but I have to make an exception for Isunga Lodge, a beautiful lodge placed on a hill, overlooking a mesmerizing valley. But more than the beauty of the place, the cleanliness, the good food is the outstanding service provided by the owners and the staff. By the way, I shot this photos from the lounge:

The second best spot for wildlife is the Queen Elizabeth National Park, the main and biggest national park in Uganda, that can be divided in two different parts: Ishasha sector and Kazinga Channel.

Queen Elizabeth NP: Ishasha Sector

There is one and very good reason to come to the far-west side of Queen Elizabeth National Park: the tree climbing lions.

This population of lions has the habit to climb up fig trees to escape the extreme heat on the ground, especially during midday hours (from 11am to 3pm).

They are not the only ones in the world, but surely the most famous ones!

You have to remember anyway that the number of lions is actually very low and sometimes the cross the border to Congo, so you have to be lucky.

If they are within the park, is very easy to spot them, just look for fig trees, within the branches.

You can spend 1-2 days here looking and shooting lions, but beware that the concentration of wildlife in the area is actually pretty low: we just saw some impalas, buffalos and hear hippos near the river. So don’t spend more than 1-2 days around here.

Queen Elizabeth NP Kazinga Channel

Kazinga channel is a 40 km stream of water that connects Lake Georgia and Lake Victoria, and home to an amazing concentration of safari wildlife, that is why is the top 1 spot for wildlife spotting and photography.

My recommendation is to do 1 or 2 boat tours, 1 during midday (where the thirsty animals come to drink water) and 1 in the sunset-early morning, to get a better light for photography.

There are the official national park safari boat, that departure near the mweya safari lodge (the most expensive lodge in the area), and the community boat tours, organized by local villagers. These are a good addition to the experience, plus you will help the local communities (you can book them through here).

Queen Elizabeth National Park game drives

Around the Kazinga Channel, there are many tracks for game drives. As wildlife, you can expect to see herbivores (like gazelles and antelopes), elephants (some big herds here), lions (more difficult), leopard (we spotted one, very rare), hyenas, hippos, buffalos.

There are no giraffes and no cheetah.

There is also the possibility to do night game drives, where a ranger comes with you on your vehicle (if you have one, otherwise you can rent it) equipped with a huge torch. It was among the highlight of the experience, especially when we follow a pack of lions beginning the hunt. Don’t miss this experience.

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Kolmanskop is a ghost town at the edge of Namib Desert, in Namibia. At the beginning of XX century, diamonds were found in area, and a prosperous mining town was build by the Germans, at the time in control of the area.

Buildings were lavish, and built in the german style.

After the world wars, the decline in diamonds lead to the abandonment of the town, and the last families left in 1956, leaving the desert reclaiming back all the houses.

Now it is one of the most popular attraction of Namibia, and a paradise for photographers. Wooden houses are invaded by desert sands, creating impossible landscape.

I would put it among the top 3 highlights of Namibia, and unmissable for any photographer.

How to get there?

Kolmanskop is 1 hour from the nearby town of Luderitz, and literally in front of the Luderitz Airport, which has domestic connections with other town of Namibia.

If you wanna drive straight from Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, consider it would take at least 9 hours, driving straight with no stops within. I personally drove from Windhoek to Keetmanshoop, and it took 5 hours on the gravel B1 road, with no stops at all.

From Keetmanshoop to Kolmanskop is another 3 hours and a half, and near the ghost town the gravel road is invaded by desert sands, forcing you to slow down and being extra careful.

You cannot drive at night in Namibia, and I tell you this from a quite experienced driver whom drove all around the world. The reasons are simple:

1. Car rental insurances will not cover you for driving after sunset.
2. There are not street lights at all
3. After dark, there are a lot of careless truck drivers speeding up in the opposite lane of yours, making the drive VERY challenging.
4. You can encounters wildlife, sheeps or cows crossing without any sign the road.
5. it is the the first country in the world for car accidents.

If you are a good driver, you could stretch the driving after sunset maybe for 1 hour or so, but don’t attempt to drive longer than that. I will write more of this!

Where to get tickets?

You can get regular tickets at the gates. If you want a photography permits, that allows you to enter 1 hour before the other guests, you should buy it in Luderitz, in cash, with this agency

How much time does it take to visit Kolmanskop?

We had to visit Kolmanskop in 1 hour, visiting 90% of the houses, but it was in a super hurry, but due to our schedule we had no choice.

I suggest to spend for regular visitor 2 hours there, and for photographers allow 3-4 hours to take the right time to find nice spots in the houses.

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