There is no other range that captured the imagination of Ptolemy and the old world philosophers in quite the same way.  Forest elephant and wild chimpanzees crash through the undergrowth in the lower slopes, shy bushbuck hide amidst giant lobelia forests and the elusive Rwenzori Turaco cuts a dash across the thundering streams.  

Clouds hide the range for most of the year (it took Stanley over three months to see the peaks despite camping 50kms them), torrential rains drench the Ugandan side of the range and the icefields are hidden from all but the hardiest of creatures.  However, a trek up the deep valleys of the Rwenzori is an immersion in a different world. The vegetation that thrives on this rain-soaked massif is nothing short of phenomenal and with each gain in altitude it changes. Nature does its best to hide the secrets of these mountains from us because even when the cloud lifts, remarkable plants cling to sheer rock walls, giant heathers, draped with 'old mens beard' grow from amidst slippery boulders and vivid green mosses blanket the range.   

The further we climb the Ruwenzoris, the more awed we become with what has been hidden from us.  Leaving steamy tropical rainforest we hike through mist shrouded bamboo, past hidden lakes, marvel at thundering waterfalls and eventually traverse an equatorial icefield to the snow capped peak of Margherita at 5109m.