Climate of Ruhija Sector: Ruhija Travel Guide & Advice

Ruhija sector is based within the East of Uganda’s most outstanding gorilla trekking destination and boasts of a greatly undiscovered African jungle. Bwindi’s Ruhija sector has an Equatorial Climate with temperatures ranging from a minimum of 7˚C to 15 ˚C (45 ˚F to 59 ˚F) during the wet season and maximum of 20 ˚C to 27 ˚C (68 ˚F to 81 ˚F) during the dry season. The highest point of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is within Ruhija sector, known as Rwamunyonyi Hill.

Rains vary little across the Eastern region of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, which sees approximately 1400 millimeters to 1900 millimeters. Maximal rains are experienced during months of March, April, May, September, October and November which also increases fruiting and vegetation growth. This means animals, especially mountain gorillas have plenty of food during these months. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park’s rainforest plays a significant role in synchronizing the climate as well as environment of the surrounding areas. The high rate of evaporate-transpiration from the lush and towering trees of the rainforest increases precipitation that even the areas outside the Park experience.

Due to the thick vegetation, Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has been a controlling factor to soil erosion that greatly affects south-western Uganda as well as the likelihood for landslides that would have affected the area, given the altitude and steep slopes. The forests of Ruhija and Bwindi in general are important water catchment areas and majority of the Park’s rains form streams, thus the reason this Park has a network of streams.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is surprisingly the source of numerous Rivers that drains towards the west, south and north with the ones starting from the Park being Ishasha, Ivy, Ntengyere, Ihihizo and Munyanga Rivers that drain into the spectacular Lake Edward. Other Rivers drain into Lakes Bunyonyi and Mutanda, also found in south-western Uganda. The climate of Ruhija sector has been significant in the outstanding type of vegetation-Afro-montane (where mountain and plain forests meet) and there is also a continuous variation of low altitude to high altitude primary forests within Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. There are more than 200 unique tree species in this Park and out of these, at least half are Uganda’s endemic species.

Best time to visit Ruhija sector

Ruhija sector can be visited at any time of the year. Now that you have a clearer idea of the sector’s general climate, it is obvious that the best time to visit is the dry season when trails are not muddy or slippery. This doesn’t mean that activities are not conducted during the rainy season because even after the rains, it shines again and tourist activities go on.

What to Pack for your Ruhija sector visit?

Having known the climate and best time to explore Ruhija sector, the next thing is to plan what to pack for your visit. Over packing should be avoided but make sure to have a rain poncho, Hat, hiking boots, insect repellent, lightweight long pants, gardening gloves, waterproof backpack, long-sleeved shirts/tops to avoid being scratched and sunglasses, to mention but a few.