About the camp

Ruboni Community Camp is a community owned and run tourist lodge offering accommodation services, village tours and Rwenzori trekking experiences. The camp started back in 2005 and has grown through many stages, a reason for the high level of experience and hospitality by her staff.

100% staff is made up of local community members. They are knowledgeable of the nature and culture of the area. This makes Ruboni community camp the best hosts to show every visitor around the Rwenzori Mountains.

No wonder, this camp is the traveler favorite at the Rwenzori gateway, where Rwenzori trekking starts. It also exemplifies a purely community owned and run tourism enterprise in Uganda and is a member of the Uganda Community Tourism Association (UCOTA).

Location of the camp

It is located in the foothills of Rwenzori Mountains, western Uganda, Kasese district south of Fort portal town. The location is at the trail head to the Nyakalengijo central circuit gate of Rwenzori Mountains National Park. Being a nature based lodge located in the natural jungle, it gives all guests an opportunity to live close to nature during their stay. The following details give more information about the geographical location of the camp;

• GPS coordinate: 0.35023, 30.03007
• Altitude: 1646m
• 380 km from Kampala,
• 26km from Kasese town,
• 81km from Fort portal

Activities offered by Ruboni community camp

Ruboni community camp is the leader in provision of accommodation, village tours, cultural experiences in the Rwenzori foothills.  At the moment the camp has started offering trekking trips going into the park on the 3 days 2 nights Mahoma trek or the seven days central circuit trek. A team of local experienced guides is always waiting to take you on to any of the five local tours. These include;

• Village cultural walk, (3-4 hours)
• Forest trail walk, (3-4 hours)
• Hill climb trek, (3-4 hours)
• Mahoma trail trek inside the park (3 days)
• Rwenzori central circuit trek (7 days)

Besides the tours and treks, the camp also organizes cultural performances to showcase the traditional life of the Bakonzo people living in these beautiful foothills of Rwenzori. These include;

• Traditional dance performance
• Drumming lessons
• Scheduled Cultural evenings

Meals:

At the camp, you find a strategically positioned and well stocked onsite restaurant serving both vegetarian and none vegetarian meals. The resident local chef at the lodge has been cooking for over ten years in different hotels. He has further been trained to offer the best meals to Ruboni camp guests. This chef prepares a range of meals that make the camp restaurant a favorite in the area. The meals cooked  on order are served fresh and very delicious. Most of the food supplies and vegetables are sourced from the local farmers, giving them the much needed income. The camp staff grows some of the spices on the site to ensure the best meal for every visitor any time. To give the guests a full experience of living in Rwenzori, traditional meals and drinks can also be served on request.

Accommodation categories

Ruboni community camp offers a range of accommodation categories. These include the Self contained rooms, none self contained rooms and limited camping. With these categories, the camp is able to cater for most of the traveler’s accommodation needs. The current accommodation rates can be seen here. All accommodation options have wonderful views of the mountains. Thanks to the location of the camp that was planned with this in mind.

Accommodation capacity

The camp takes a minimum of 16 people sleeping a night, based on twin and double rooms. However, for large groups, more beds can be added in large cabins and bandas to make a total of up to a maximum of 20 people sleeping in the rooms a night.

Facilities and amenities

• Private parking
• Sitting furniture in the rooms, restaurant
• A Terrance with furniture on the veranda.
• Overhead showers and flushing toilets
• Electricity in all rooms and restaurant with sockets
• All pathways are paved with board walks and or steps at steep areas
• Lighting during the night on the walk ways
• Hot showers in the lower Terrance bandas and refilled hot showers on the upper Terrance
• Beds with bedding/ sandals/ towels/ toilet paper and soap
• Mosquito netting on the beds and on the ventilators.

Surrounding and environment

The camp is located in a rich and colorful forest habitat parched on the hillside, overlooking the portal peaks of Rwenzori Mountains. Formally a cassava garden, the lodge property has been allowed to regenerate the indigenous forest. The common plants include; Endrema (local name), wild bananas, elephant grass and a variety of other indigenous trees and plants. This habitat is liked by a variety of wild animals such as birds, chameleons, squirrels, monkeys and varied insects. All these will be common site during your stay.

How to get to the camp:

The camp is accessed by marram road only. You branch off west on Kasese Fort portal road and drive for 17km on Nkenda-Nyakalengijo road. You will drive straight, past three trading centers of Bugoye, Ibanda and Nyakalengijo. After Nykalengijo trading center, drive along the pipeline then cross river Ruboni (the origin of the name of the village and camp) to Mihunga village where the camp is located. You will find a sign Ruboni community camp on the left side of the road. In case you want to book your stay in advance, the phone contacts and email are both available on this website for support. If you need any assistance during travel, please use Google maps or contact us.