The 120km-long Rwenzori range, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is lesser-known and not as frequently climbed as Kilimanjaro, but it offers crowd-free hiking and a sense of wilderness that climbers cannot find on Kilimanjaro. About 50,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro each year. Meanwhile, official statistics show that only 693 people climbed Rwenzori’s loftiest peak — 5,109-metre Mount Stanley’s summit, which is Africa’s third-highest mountain — between January and October 2017. John Hunwick, 69, who runs Rwenzori Trekking Services, first came in 1991, but then around 1996, the area got violent, and it wasn’t safe to climb the mountain range. But Hunwick claims the Rwenzoris have been safe and tranquil since 2009. You can take a day or two in the park or a full seven or eight-day expedition up the mountain. The Guardian writes that “even those just dipping a toe inside the national park will be awed.”
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