Semuliki National Park

Semuliki, a national park of some 219 square kilometres since October 1993 on the Congo border, is the only part of Uganda that is genuinely Congo Basin: an eastward extension of the Ituri lowland rainforest, flat and hot at 670 to 760 metres, with plant and animal species that occur nowhere else in the country. Around forty bird species here are found in Uganda only at Semuliki, which is why it draws serious birders. The Sempaya hot springs are the other draw, one of them a geyser throwing boiling water two metres up.

What's there

• The Sempaya hot springs - a female and male spring, one of them a boiling geyser.
• The Congo forest birds - around forty species found nowhere else in Uganda.
• The lowland rainforest - an eastward extension of the Ituri forest.
• The Semliki river - the river forming the border with the Congo.

When to go

June to August and December to February are the drier windows. The forest is hot and humid year round. Birding is best in the early morning.

Before you go

It is hot, humid and buggy, and the forest is dense with limited visibility. Large mammals are present but very rarely seen. The road in from Fort Portal is rough.

Nearby

Fort Portal is southeast, and Toro-Semliki is south.

Key facts