Source of the Nile, Jinja

Three waterfalls stepping down the foothills of Mount Elgon, the largest dropping nearly 100m over a cliff with the Karamoja plains laid out beyond. The area is Arabica coffee country and the smallholder tours — picking, pulping, roasting over a fire, drinking it an hour later — are among the best in East Africa. Abseiling beside the main falls is on offer for anyone who wants it.

Uganda's largest and oldest park, split by the Victoria Nile as it forces itself through a seven-metre gorge and detonates into the Rift Valley below. Game drives on the northern bank turn up elephant, giraffe, buffalo and lion across open savanna; the afternoon launch cruise runs to the foot of the falls past hippo pods and basking crocodile. The Delta stretch is one of the last reliable places on earth to see the shoebill.

Uganda's most popular savanna reserve sits beneath the Rwenzori range between lakes George and Edward. The Kazinga Channel cruise delivers density you rarely see anywhere else — elephant, buffalo and hippo along a single stretch of shoreline. In the southern Ishasha sector the lions climb fig trees and drape themselves across the branches through the heat of the day, a behaviour recorded in only a handful of places worldwide.