With your back to Delhi Garden Hotel, head left along the main road for 5 to 10 minutes until you come to Mountains of the Moon Hotel, at which point you need to take the left turning and follow that road for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you will come to a junction with a right turning. You will know you’re at the correct junction because the right turning will change from tarmac to dirt and there will be signs pointing down that road to ‘Kahumuza Primary & Nursery School’ and ‘Kyakaigo Christian Church’. Very quickly on this road you will come to a small road that continues straight on and a major turning that swings left. Take the main road heading left and stick on this road for about an hour and a half.
You will get progressively more rural as you walk along this road. The people are very friendly and the scenery very pleasant, and you are never very far away from a village or a boda boda. Towards the end of the hour and a half you will go through Harugongo Market – which may look like a series of empty wooden shacks if the Monday market is not on. Continue down this road until it terminates at a T-junction.
At the T-junction, take the right turning and walk for another half an hour until you see a sign pointing left to Raphael Catholic Church. Take this turning and walk down it for another good half an hour. You will see a few paths coming off this road (one pointing to the aforementioned church), but stick to the main path. You will now be very much in rural Uganda!
After about half an hour (and now nearly 3 hours in), you should be able to see a radio tower on the top of the hill in front of you. Very close to this tower, you will need to take a left fork in the road up to the radio tower itself. Walk behind and around the radio tower and you will finally be rewarded (on a clear day) with views of the Semliki valley 1,000m below and Lake Albert in the distance. You have made it to the Semliki Viewpoint! To return, head back the way you came. Or you can try to pick up a boda-boda for between UGX5,000 - 8,000.
The Directions
If you know how to get to Fort Portal Walk 1 and would like to share that information with the community, contact [email protected] and we’ll post it right here in the directory.
The Directions
If you know how to get to Fort Portal Walk 1 and would like to share that information with the community, contact [email protected] and we’ll post it right here in the directory.
If you’ve written a description for Fort Portal Walk 1 you’d like to share with the community, send it to [email protected] and we’ll post it right here in the directory.
Top Tips
This is a fairly long (and very pleasant) walk with few services along the way, so do bring plenty of water and general supplies. Also, be prepared to have to walk back for at least 6km to Harugongo Market before you can guarantee yourself a boda-boda should you not be prepared for a 6-hour round trip.
Of course, if you’d rather not walk but would still like to reach the Semliki Viewpoint, a boda-boda shouldn’t set you back any more than about UGX8,000 one way. Perhaps UGX15,000 return.
At the viewpoint, look out for the very friendly Paul Rwabwogo (256) 0772 485 602. He owns (and can often be found on) the land here and has ambitious plans to build a campsite, cottages and a restaurant – as well as a trail heading down to some caves and game viewing below. For the immediate future, he promises that cold drinks (thanks to a solar-powered fridge) will be available from early 2017. He can also help you arrange transport back to Fort Portal should you be too tired to walk!
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