Photo: Ingo Wolbern · Public domain
Rwenzori Mountains
The legendary 'Mountains of the Moon', with glaciers on the equator.
About
The Rwenzori range rises along the Uganda–DR Congo border and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Multi-day treks climb through bamboo forest and giant heather into an otherworldly zone of giant lobelias and groundsels, with Margherita Peak — one of Africa's highest summits — for experienced climbers. Shorter day hikes explore the foothills.
Highlights
- Multi-day summit treks
- Foothill day hikes
- Unique alpine plants
- Bakonzo culture
Things to book in Rwenzori Mountains
2 operators we know of working in Rwenzori Mountains. They set their own prices — contact them directly, or ask Zuri to.
Hiking & trekking · Rwenzori Mountains
Rwenzori Mountaineering Services
A membership organisation formed in 1987 by communities around the Rwenzori foothills, providing trekking and guiding on the Central Circuit Trail from the Nyakalengija trailhead. It supplies guides and porters for multi-day hikes, including routes toward Margherita Peak on Mount Stanley, and maintains huts along the trail.
Ask them directly, or ask Zuri to
Hiking & trekking · Rwenzori Mountains
Rwenzori Trekking Services
Guided treks in Rwenzori Mountains National Park along the Kilembe Trail, which the company states it is authorised to operate. Itineraries range from single-day forest walks to multi-day climbs toward the higher peaks, and it also offers birding walks in the foothills. Operating since 2010 from a base at Kilembe near Kasese.
Ask them directly, or ask Zuri to
Where to stay in Rwenzori Mountains
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Stories from Rwenzori Mountains
Rwenzori Mountains
Mountains of the Moon: Racing to Know the Rwenzoris Before Their Glaciers Vanish
At dawn on the Central Circuit, the Rwenzori Mountains do not look like anything else in Africa. Mist pools in the valleys of Bujuku and Mubuku like milk poured into a bowl, giant lobelias stand sentry along the ridgelines with the improbable silhouette of something drawn by a fantasy illustrator, and somewhere above 5,000 metres, what remains of the last ice fields on the continent outside Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya clings to the black rock of Mount Stanley. The Bakonzo call this range Rwenzururu, "place of rain," and the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy is said to have marked it on his maps as the source of the Nile nearly two thousand years ago, the Lunae Montes — the Mountains of the Moon. Today the range carries a newer, more urgent distinction: it is disappearing in real time, and anyone who wants to stand on equatorial glacier ice will need to do it soon.
Torch Media Africa · 19 Sept 2026 · 4 min read
Rwenzori Mountains
Into the Mountains of the Moon: Uganda's Rwenzori Awaits Above the Clouds
At first light in Kasese District, the Rwenzori range does not so much appear as materialize — a wall of forested ridges climbing into a shroud of its own weather, the summit ice fields of Margherita Peak flashing briefly through gaps in the cloud before vanishing again. Ptolemy called these the Mountains of the Moon nearly two thousand years ago, guessing at a mysterious snow-capped source for the Nile far in Africa's interior. He was, remarkably, not far wrong. Fed by glacial meltwater and some of the wettest slopes on the continent, the Rwenzoris feed rivers that eventually swell the White Nile, and modern travelers who make the climb often describe the range in the same reverent, slightly disbelieving tone the old geographers used — as a place that seems to belong to a different, older world.
Torch Media Africa · 19 Sept 2026 · 3 min read
Rwenzori Mountains
Mountains of the Moon: Uganda's Rwenzori Rise to New Prominence
Long before satellites and glaciology teams confirmed what local herders already suspected, the peoples of the Rwenzori foothills spoke of a range so tall its summit wore snow within sight of the equator. Ptolemy, writing in the second century, called it the source of the Nile and named it the Mountains of the Moon. Today those same jagged, cloud-wrapped ridges still draw travelers willing to trade comfort for altitude, and Uganda's tourism authorities are pushing adventure travel harder than ever before.
Torch Media Africa · 19 Sept 2026 · 3 min read