23 May How Well Do You Really Know Uganda?
Primates ✔️ The Big 5 ✔️ Birds ✔️
In addition to our amazing wildlife, did you know we have a wealth of culture to share, too?
Venture Uganda excels when it comes to culture because we have such a huge variety of activities to offer our clients. Thanks to our bespoke itineraries, you can choose exactly which cultural activities you want to weave throughout your wildlife safari or adventure holiday.
Some of our activities take you into the community to gain an insight into the daily lives of Ugandans, while others focus on beliefs and traditions. Some activities simply take you through Ugandan landscapes so you can see how things are done. All are established with community members and enable them to benefit too.
Our guides are also here to explain our culture and encourage clients to get involved in a fun, relaxed way. Whether you’re keen to try your hand at some Ugandan drumming, harvest and taste natural honey or weave brightly coloured cloth, you’ve come to the right place!
Ready to see what community and cultural activities we offer?
Hiking at Kisoro
Kisoro is the place to go if you want to track gorillas or golden monkeys. It’s also a great place to walk through the forest with the Batwa people or relax at the lake.
But you can go hiking here too, in the lush surrounding hills. Give your legs a stretch, feel the breeze in your hair, and soak up the breathtaking views. On your hike, you might also see some of the locals as you pass gardens, churches and homesteads.
This activity is a great way to feel refreshed after spending some time digging a little deeper under the skin of Uganda while immersed in nature.
Bark Cloth with the Bwebajja Women’s Group
On the old road between Entebbe and Kampala, you’ll find the Bwebajja women’s group. These lovely ladies make an array of crafts and giftware which you’ll find in the local craft markets and shops.
Not only is coming together to produce these items a social activity, but it also provides vital income for the women and their families. Our Venture Uganda Travel gift bags from bark cloth and handmade paper are made by this wonderful group. We think they’re quite funky and provide a nice link between our activity in the village, where you can see bark cloth being made and used for crafts.
Let us know if you’d like to meet the ladies and try some craft making yourself or any of our other bark cloth activities. We’d be happy to take you there!
Community Guides – The Royal Mile
One of the ways that local people can join tourism as a career is through guiding tourists.
We are hugely proud of our safari guides who escort our clients throughout their tours, but here we’d like to give a shout out to the site guides who are central to our community activities.
Meet Raymond! Raymond is a fantastic bird guide from the Budongo forest area. One of our favourite sites for birders and nature lovers is the Royal Mile – a small, private road that stretches through Budongo forest. You couldn’t feel more immersed in nature and it’s a joy just to wander down the road passed only by the occasional bicycle.
Raymond will help you identify the many special forest birds found here (along with chimps and other primate species) but he can also tell you about the culture and history of the place, such as how The Royal Mile got its name, the escape of the Kabalega (king) of the Bunyoro Kingdom from the colonialists, how Polish refugees were hosted here during World War 2, the development of the local sugar cane industry, and the visits of Ernest Hemmingway and Audrey Hepburn!
So, how about a walk with Raymond?
Crossover Visits
As well as offering safaris and adventure holidays, Venture Uganda Travel also arranges educational visits for school trips and university field courses.
Sometimes the two sides of our business overlap, for example:
As part of a university field course on conservation, we took students to visit a revenue sharing scheme run by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. 20% of the park entrance fees paid by tourists go to community groups or projects. As part of their evaluation of these schemes, students visited one such community group.
The group hadn’t had an opportunity to interact with tourists, so they asked Venture staff for advice about how to enter tourism, offer services to tourists, and earn money. We were happy to work with them and they soon blossomed, developing a community visit to the home where their group is based.
You can now visit gardens, beehives, medicinal plants, domestic animals and join in with all manner of tasks, including tasting! They love to share stories with visitors. This has made for a really authentic, interactive experience – and is making them a little extra money too.
Want to add some special visits to your itinerary? Get in touch for more details
Rubona Basket Makers
In the shadows of the Mountains of the Moon (Rwenzori mountains), there is a small community called Rubona. Some of the women there formed a group and they now work together to boost their incomes by weaving beautiful hand-crafted baskets, with a real emphasis on quality.
Tourists are invited to join them as they produce natural dyes from garden plants, dye the raffia and weave the baskets. Just across the road, there is a beekeeping cooperative, and it’s possible to tour their facilities too, and learn how they produce honey. It all adds up to a fantastic morning or afternoon activity. Speak to us to include this in your itinerary.
Meet the Kilombera Weavers
If, like us, you love the bright, colourful cloth of East Africa and all the items made from them, then a visit to Kilombera is most definitely for you!
The Kilombera weavers have a small workshop overlooking the River Nile which you can visit. Here you can see how they devise the colourways, set up the threads and weave the cloth which is all made from pure Uganda cotton. The shop next door offers some beautiful products made from the cloth, such as stunning sarongs, lovely bags and even relaxing hammocks.
Kilombera is located in the heart of the community, near the Adventure Capital of East Africa, so if you’re going rafting, kayaking, bungee jumping or paddle boarding, then ask us about planning a stop at Kilombera along the way!
Rwenzori Founders Sculpture Garden
During your transfer from Kibale to Queen Elizabeth National Park, it’s easy to drive by and miss the Rwenzori Founders. After all, who would expect to find a high-class bronze sculpture foundry in the middle of nowhere?
But the grassy hills make the perfect backdrop for this wonderful sculpture garden where you can find the bigger artworks. In the showroom, you’ll find the smaller art pieces. Much of the art is inspired by local scenes and natural history and you’ll be in awe of the excellent quality. If a particular piece takes your eye and you’d like to buy it, the foundry will happily pack and ship your items for you.
These types of activities are one of the truly wonderful things about travelling at a slower pace and soaking up the culture. It allows you to explore hidden gems and get to know our country better. If you have specific interests in mind or you’d like to include one of these cultural or community activities from above into your itinerary, please get in touch.