TOORO! The Pearl of the Pearl of Africa

By Nelon Gerrard Amooti

The forests, the hills, the mountains, the crater lakes, and a crispy taste of fine fresh breathe outline Uganda’s most naturally decorated and endowed piece of heaven that dropped in Tooro millions of years ago.

Tooro, the home of the world’s youngest reigning monarch Omukama Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV is an absolute clarity to Uganda’s acclaim of the crown of the Pearl of Africa.

A warm welcome by the people of Tooro (Batooro), ranked as the most hospitable and friendly Ugandans will make any bachelor come calling for a future soul mate.

Empaako, Tooro’s cultural phenomenon inscribed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage is well felt when you set foot in Tooro. The praise names also known as pet names unique to Tooro and Bunyoro in Uganda are the best form of expression of respect for one another irrespective of age. Every time you call your loved one by their Empaako, glowing smiles start dripping on their face. The special karo and firinda meal served at the Empaako naming ceremony and the main traditional food, is a delicacy out of this world.

A trip to Tooro will have you date with some of nature’s best on the different adventurously enthusing encounters to Katosa Martyr’s Shrine in Kyenjojo and then Fort Portal, Tooro’s metropolis and Uganda’s Tourism Capital that gives you a whole different view and special feel of a well planned and most clean urban centre.

 A sweet scent in the beautiful stretches of neat tea estates gives you a grand entry to Fort Portal which is naturally defined by beauty. Fort Portal unlike other urban areas in Uganda dotted by tall buildings and congested streets is naturally endowed with beautiful scenery glanced at on every turn from anywhere.

The Rwenzori Mountains with Uganda’s highest peak rollout to the skies from its foothills in Kabarole. This is home to Rwenzori Mountains National Park, mountain hiking, and farming and offers a winter experience throughout the year; the reason Fort Portal that lies on the windward side of the ranges has what most people consider as the most balanced weather on earth.

“In Fort Portal,

you feel loved even when no one says nothing”,

Dr. Muhumuza Herbert Ateenyi

 Water drops fall into your soul when at the famous Amabere Ganyina Mwiru Caves (Stalactites and Stalagmites) in the hills of Nyakasura whose waterfalls have an underground source said to be in the Rwenzori Mountains.

Atop Mweganywa hill is a beautiful view of Saaka Lava-dammed lake formed in the shape of a woman’s uterus at the base of Mountains of the Moon University, Lake Kigere and a blow hole best seen after a breathtaking and sweat breaking hiking experience.

“I have been to the alps in Europe and other

Mountainous areas in the world

that I thought were so unique

but it feels so different here,

it’s so amazing”

Tabea Jung from Germany

On Kamwenge road is Kibale National Park, the World’s Chimps Capital found in Uganda’s largest natural forest; Kibale Forest enriched with over 400species of birds including Tooro Olive Greenbull named after Tooro, over a thousand species of flora, different monkey species including the colobus monkey surrounded by numerous crater lakes, hills, tea estates and large farms.

Fort portal is the centre of most of the major tourist sites in Uganda found in the Albertine region including Rwenzori Mountains, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Kibale Forest and National Park, over 1000 hills, over 50 crater lakes, a network of rivers going through Fort Portal town, chimpanzees, Tooro-Semiliki National Park, Sempaya Hot springs, Amabere Ganyina Mwiru Caves and Waterfalls, fine weather, beautiful and hospitable people, and so much more.

“Tooro is one wonder of the world that makes you bow to God’s awesomeness every time”

Lake Nyabikere in Rweteera