Page 16 - Jan-March 2024 Edition

|Travel Feature

By Dr. Nathaniel Dunigan
@nathaniel.dunigan (f)
Images by Nsereko Tom

THE SWEET LIFE, FROM FOREST
TO FARM
A REVIEW OF CHIMPUNDU LODGE AND
EMBURARA FARM LODGE
One of Uganda’s sweetest drives just
happens to connect the sister properties of
Chimpundu Lodge (in Kibale National
Forest), and Emburara Farm Lodge (two
hours to the south, just outside Mbarara).

Fort Portal
Chimpundu
KAMPALA welcomes You in the Lobby
Chimpundu
Kasese
Emburara
Mbarara
Mbarara
Mbarara
With very few trucks, bumps or potholes, this
road winds smoothly through vibrant little
towns and picturesque plantations, inviting
you further.
It crosses the equator—quietly marked
within the whispers of a stand of eucalyptus
trees.
Chimpundu
And then, it delivers you to handsome View from your suite deck
gates.
you’ll spend the rest of your holiday. You’ll
We began at the gates of CHIMPUNDU trek chimpanzees, watch birds and
LODGE — at the top of that road—in the butterflies (I have never seen so many
remarkable Kibale Forest. Baboons seemed butterflies!), eat and refresh, relax
to function as if on cue as they ushered us poolside, and lounge in your bathrobe
in, and as they remained part of our on your own deck.
enchanting stay.
The accommodations at both of these
As you receive the warm greetings, fresh lodges are more than on-point; they
juice, and warm facecloth from the lodge’s have everything one wants to find in an
more official hospitality team, I recommend excellent property: four-poster beds with
that you make your way out to the grand spacious netting-surrounds, bright-white
deck—overlooking the forested valley where and high-thread-count linens, duvets,

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