Gateway to the Mountains of the Moon — equatorial glaciers and giant lobelia in the Rwenzori highlands
Kasese is a compact Ugandan town at the foot of the Rwenzori Mountains — the fabled Mountains of the Moon that ancient geographers identified as the source of the Nile — and the primary departure point for treks into Rwenzori Mountains National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of glaciers, heather moorland, and giant lobelia growing at the equator. The town itself is an unpretentious agricultural and mining hub (copper, cobalt, salt from nearby Lake George), and its appeal is entirely as the gateway to one of Africa's most unusual high-altitude ecosystems. The drive from Kasese into the foo…
The Rwenzori region was long inhabited by the Bakonjo and Bamba peoples — Rwenzori means 'rainmaker' in Lukonjo, reflecting the mountains' role generating rainfall for the region's terraced agriculture. The area was incorporated into the Uganda Protectorate in the early 20th century, and copper and cobalt mining at Kilembe Mines (opened 1956, 12km from Kasese) made the town a company-town hub; the mines closed in the 1970s and reopened intermittently since. Rwenzori Mountains National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 for its irreplaceable Afromontane ecosystem and equa…