Description: There are a number of high-end lodges in Buhoma to cater for those undertaking gorilla tracking. The Buhoma Community Rest Camp (http://www.buhomacommunity.com/) is not one of them. This is the budget end of the market. However, having stayed here once I am not sure I would be willing to pay more to stay anywhere else should I return. The Buhoma Community Rest Camp was more than adequate for my needs.

The camp is located just inside the National Park boundaries. The wooden main building comprises the restaurant / bar. An open verandah provided our first glimpse of the fabled Bwindi Impenetrable Rain Forest – a sheer escarpment facing us, thick with dark green foliage, skeins of mist drifting across the view. The cacophony of birdsong, frog croaks and crickets greeted us. Batteries could be recharged here (figuratively and literally). There were always flasks of hot water alongside tea bags and coffee granules. Soft drinks and beers could be bought at the bar (2000USh for a soft drink, 4000 for a beer). Food was also served here. Breakfast was fresh fruit, juice, toast and jam or marmalade, cooked eggs and unlimited tea or coffee. Dinners were three course affairs by lamplight – soup, roast chicken or fried fish with rice and veg, and banana fritter with custard or pineapple in syrup.

The accommodation was stepped down the valley below the main building. I should point out that if you do not like roughing it, or if you do not like being quite so exposed to nature this is not the place for you. (Then again, I’m not sure Bwindi at all is the place for you). Accommodation was in the form of bandas (self-contained huts) or tents, all with appropriate names – bushbaby, monkey, squirrel. I was in porcupine. This was an expanse of wooden decking on top of which a big green safari tent had been pitched. A corrugated iron roof was suspended overhead. The front flaps lead out onto a verandah equipped with table and chairs looking out once more to the forested hillside across the valley. The back flaps led out to a private bathroom. It was little more than a concrete shell with a toilet, sink and shower (which I never got warmer than tepid). But it was open to nature at the top – other visitors to my bathroom included a long-legged bush cricket and a massive spider as big as the palm of my hand (thankfully the former scuttled off and the latter showed no inclination to move from under the eaves). Inside the tent was electric light and two single beds, each with mosquito netting. Tucked away in there I didn’t get bitten once. But again nature was all around. On our last night my friend Laura, who was in the neighbouring hut was kept awake by something dancing on her tin roof – owls she thinks. She awoke to find a decapitated mouse left in a bucket outside her front door. I was woken by a very curious noise, as though a woman was repeatedly stubbing her toe not far from my tent and crying "Ow-ah!" In fact after a couple of occurrences I recalled that the hut off to my left was inhabited by a couple and was worried that I was actually overhearing an amorous encounter! The noise, however, then changed to a low grunt which built into a shrill yowl, followed by – once again – the "Ow-ah!" noise. When I attempted a passable imitation for the restaurant staff they told me it had been a bush cat.

The staff all come from the local community. The camp is a local enterprise by the Buhoma Community Development Association. It exists to employ local villagers and feed profits back into the community. If you don’t mind being occasionally reminded that you are in the wild, at the edges of a jungle, then I would recommend staying here whether you are on a budget or not.

Full board costs $80 for a single, or $100 for two sharing. Bed only is $60; it is probably a better bargain to go all-inclusive as breakfast is $10, a packed lunch $10, and a hot lunch or dinner $15.
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