Is this Africa's most surprising safari destination?

I overthought Uganda before I had even packed. It was my first trip to Africa. My first safari. I worried about boots, fitness, heat, insects and whether I was the kind of person who could casually disappear into a rainforest after breakfast. In my head, a safari looked one way: flat, dry, huge skies, pale grass, dust behind a 4x4. Uganda had other ideas.Most mornings started in the dark with a soft “good morning” outside the tent, followed by tea and homemade muffins. Then we would climb into the safari trucks before sunrise, half-asleep, waiting for the world around us to wake up. WildPlaces Africa (wildplacesafrica.com), founded by Jonathan and Pamela Wright, has a way of making you feel looked after without smoothing the edges off the wild. There were bush breakfasts, sundowners, sofas your whole body sank into and, in the cooler highlands, a hot water bottle tucked into the duvet cover at your feet. Their son Fergus travelled with us throughout, and his love for Uganda, especially its birds, was impossible not to catch.Uganda is often called the Pearl of Africa, but feels overlooked beside more obvious safari destinations. For many, Uganda means gorillas. I understand why, but Uganda is not one kind of safari. In Kidepo Valley National Park, where I stayed at Apoka Safari Lodge, the landscape felt vast but never flat. There were zebra, Rothschild’s giraffe, waterbuck, warthogs, hyena dens, eagles and birds I had never heard of before. It felt remote, but not empty. There were human layers too: the Karamojong and Ik communities, cattle, song, dance, granaries and the ways people have lived with this landscape for generations. Safari is not animals moving through empty space.Semliki lodge Mohammad Latif I.Then we reached Murchison Falls National Park, and Uganda changed again. At Kulu Ora, WildPlaces Africa’s newest lodge, the Nile is everywhere. You hear it before you think about it. The camp sits in a 75,000-hectare low-impact zone, shared only with one other WildPlaces camp. Its 11 canvas-walled suites have plunge pools and copper bathtubs overlooking the river. Apart from the pools, the lodge has been designed so it could be dismantled within a week. Pamela Wright, who created the interiors with her daughter Annabel, told me they wanted Kulu Ora to feel elegant and sophisticated, but comfortable. Not stark. Natural linens, tobacco leather, copper, terracotta and artwork painted in tea, turmeric and charcoal. Pamela called it a “soothing, soft place to land”. After days of lions, hyena, giraffe, buffalo, warthog, heat and river noise, I understood what she meant. What came next was Kyambura Gorge, a forest below the savannah. From above, you would hardly know it was there. Then you drop into the damp greenery with chimpanzees, baboons, monkeys, birds, butterflies and fire ants that made sure nobody stood still for too long. By the time we reached Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge, high on Nteko Ridge above Bwindi, I’d stopped asking how hard everything would be. Gorilla trekking can take two hours or eight. You follow the guides, trust the trackers and accept the mud. The descent was almost cinematic: rolling hills, towns across the slopes, tea fields stepping down towards Bwindi, then the forest itself, dense and green. We were looking for the Posho family, 17 gorillas led by Magara, whose name means good life. When we reached them, everyone went quiet. A silverback sat with calm authority. Young gorillas tumbled and played. Leaves moved. For a moment, looking felt more important than photographing. A stay at the Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge adds weight to the encounter. It is owned by the local community through the Nkuringo Conservation Development Foundation and managed by WildPlaces Africa, with guest stays helping to generate nearly $2 million for local communities and conservation-linked projects. It makes the experience feel less like a single wildlife spectacle.Kulu Ora lodgeWildPlaces AfricaWhen I got home, it was not comfort I noticed first, but the absence of the wild: the sound of the Nile, scanning horizons, the feeling that the day could still surprise me. I almost wanted to keep Uganda a secret, then realised how unfair that would be. This is the kind of place people should know about, not as a quick gorilla add-on, but as one of Africa’s most surprising safari destinations. People come to Uganda for the gorillas — I did too — but they leave with something much bigger.Hide & Seek Travel (hideandseek.travel) provides an 11-night Uganda itinerary from £16,500, including full board, internal flights, gorilla and chimpanzee permits, guided activities and park fees. Uganda Airlines (ugandairlines.com) flies direct from London Gatwick to Entebbe, with return fares from £635.