In the past, trekkers of Rwenzori Mountains were offered just one trail option. It was one size fit all. Until now or even probably you, reading now, still know it like that. However, things have changed. Now trekkers swim in a big pool of trekking options. You don’t have to be stuck on one traditional trek or on a fixed trekking price.

Nowadays, if you want to do some trekking on Rwenzori Mountains, you have several options to choose from. The choice will be based on your budget, level of fitness and the time you have for the trek. You can choose between the following 5-10 options;

One day trail treks:

These are called nature walks, on the central circuit trail, these two options can go to Nyabitaba, Diamond trail in buraru or one-day treks in other gates of the park. Please not that, Mihunga gate is the oldest, easiest and still the best option for these nature walks. The other gates are normally the second option just in case the guest has a special interest.

Short multi-day trails:

These include one overnight to Nyabithaba-lake mahoma trek, one over night Mahoma trek, Two nights Mahoma trek, 3-4 nights bukurungu trail, and two nights john Mathe trek.

Trekking the lower slopes:

This is the same as the short multiday trails. It includes mahoma trek, John Mathe trek, Nyabitaba trek overnight or other short treks on other gates such as on the the kilembe gate, Bukurungu trail gate, Bughalitsa trail gate, Kazingo trail or Kinyambanika trail gate.

Trekking options on the high peaks:

This trekking option is more challenging and quite demanding. Some of them require technical skills and equipment. The treks to the high peaks option includes mainly climbing the peaks like Margarita trek. Margarita is the highest on Rwenzori at 5019 meters above sea level. This is also the highest point in Uganda.

Other peaks under this option include; the Rwenzori central circuit trail, with the peaks; Speke, Baker, Emin, Weiseman, Gessi, and Luigi da Savoia. The village has a community store where we can hire most of the equipment required for these peak climbing treks. However, since equipment can be quite personal, we encourage guests to come with their own if they can.

If nontechnical climbers want to do these treks, we encourage them to first aclmatise in the community treks or the shorter trek options. This can be arranged to suite the particular trekking plans. 

Community treks:

This is an option that involves trekking in the community outside the park. Besides trekking inside the Rwenzori Mountains National park, you have many options of trekking in the community. You can check these options out here on the map of Ruboni Village. On these treks, guests can hike up to 2400 meters above sea level or even slightly higher.

Ruboni community offers a perfect hill trek option to Makongothe hills, south of River Mubuku. This is called the community hill trek.  The community hill trek can be done either as a day trek, taking 3-4 hours or an overnight hill trek starting in the afternoon and ending the next morning.

Besides trekking on the hills, Ruboni offers interesting forest trails. The forest trail is located in the natural territory neighboring Rwenzori Mountains National Park. It is a buffer zone that has been created by the community from the same natural forest of the park. In this forest, you can find the same wildlife as you can find in the park. Wildlife such as the primates, snakes, birds, and also looking for the elusive three horned chameleons.

The village walk is a cultural option. On this walk, guests visit homes and other livelihoods around the residential village. The walk takes show cases what the local people do to live and how their social and cultural life related to the natural environment.