Experience the best of Masindi

Masindi lies on the plateau of Bunyoro in western Uganda, a green, gently rolling country of farms, papyrus swamps and grassland that slopes down toward Lake Albert and the Albertine Rift. It grew as a trading and administrative centre, and its long main road and busy market serve the sugar estates and villages around. Hoima, where the Bunyoro king has his palace, lies to the south-west.

To the north-west, Murchison Falls National Park is centred on the Nile, which squeezes through a gap only a few metres wide and falls into a foaming pool. The Budongo Forest, a rainforest of mahogany and ironwood trees, protects a large population of chimpanzees and many forest birds, and the escarpment above Lake Albert gives wide views.

Food is plain and filling, with matoke, steamed green bananas, beans, groundnut sauce, rice, and fish from Lake Albert smoked or fried. Evenings are mild at an altitude of around 1,100 metres. Rain falls in two seasons, and the drier spells between them are bright and dusty.