Rwenzori Expedition 2004

Come and walk the mountains of the Moon……

The Rwenzoris are a mountain range with the third highest peaks in Africa (after Kilimanjaro and Mt Kenya). At 5109m, Margherita Peak (highest) is quite accessible to those who may struggle with altitude, yet still offer the challenge of hiking through forest, bog, glacier and for the really energetic, snow-skiiing….. The foothills have stunning tropical forests (‘gorillas in the mist’ country) and mirror and green glacial lakes. This is typically a 10 day trip or more, requiring a budget of around R15,000.00 to R20,000.00 for guides, food, accommodation, transfers and airfair to Kampala. Budget obviously would vary depending on length of stay, number of people etc. A longer trip would offer the opportunity to take in chimp and gorilla country, game drives and other aspects of the beautiful landscape. 

Background to the Mountains of the Moon

For centuries, legend and rumour had told of the existence of snowy mountains that fed the Nile. About 1800 years ago, the 2nd century AD geographer, Ptolemy, showed them on a map and called them “Lunae Montes”, the Mountains of the Moon. Cartographers through the centuries have depicted these mysterious mountains and lakes on charts of Africa, but Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and the Rwenzoris were not identified on formal maps till the late 1800s. Sir Henry Morton Stanley is credited with having ‘discovered’ them (a European-centric view!), and his name is given to the biggest mountain in the range, which contains the highest peak, Margherita, weighing in at 5109m. The peaks in this range of 100km by 50km, which borders the DRC and Uganda, were supposedly first scaled in 1906 by the famous Italian expedition of the Duke of Abruzzi, but this might be another European-centric perspective, ignoring that locals may have summitted it many centuries before. 

The mystery and conjecture surrounding these mountains is probably fuelled by their natural mystique : their misty wet climate. The mountains create a major watershed in this equatorial region of the continent, and ultimately feed the Nile river. The ‘dryest’ season is brief, lasting from about mid-January to mid-March, and the mountains are shrouded in mist and cloud, the snowy and glaciated peaks protected from intruders by infamous bogs. In and around the Rwenzori, the Bakonzo people on both the Ugandan and DRC sides, continue to lead a life of cash crops and other agriculture and now increasingly supporting tourism. As with people from mountain ranges around the world, they are formidable climbers and guides.

The Rwenzori is protected in conservation terms through the Rwenzori National Park which was established in 1991 on the Ugandan side (four fifths of the range), and on the DRC side through the Pare National d’Albert since 1929. The area was proclaimed a United Nations World Heritage Site in 1994.