Interview with author and travel writer Philip Briggs
It's funny to think that twelve years ago I knew very little about Uganda. My teenage dream was to live in sub-Saharan Africa and finally I was here, working as a volunteer with the Uganda Conservation Foundation. The first book I bought was the *Bradt Guidebook, the go-to travel planning resource for Uganda. Imagine how delighted I was - a decade later - to finally meet author Philip Briggs on a fact-finding trip to Uganda and how excited I am to be a (minor) contributor to the new edition.
As you might guess, I had been wanting to meet Philip for a long time. I had lots of questions I wanted to ask him! He is author of dozens of guidebooks to a long list of countries. When I grow up, I want to be like Phil.
(*You can claim a 25% discount for buying the book online if you scroll down the page).You've been writing the Uganda guidebook for almost 30 years. Where did you travel on your first visit here?
"I first visited Uganda in 1988 on the recommendation of another backpacker I met in Kenya. I travelled to Ruhija ( Bwindi Impenetrable Forest) on the back of a tractor to track mountain gorillas. Back then it only cost US$1 but the gorillas weren't really habituated, and I didn't see them, just heard them voicing their disapproval from the depths of a facing slope. Since then I have had several more successful tracking excursions, in Rwanda and the Congo as well as in Uganda!
I returned to Uganda in 1992 to research the first edition of the Bradt Guide. A highlight of that trip was a 30 km bike ride from Bulisa to Murchison Falls. There was no lodge there then, I stayed in a Uganda Wildlife Authority / UPDF camp, which is now the site of Red Chilli. I also did the boat ride to the Bottom of Murchison Falls."
What do you think of tourism in Uganda now?
"Tourism has come a long way since the late 80s and early 90s, when there were a handful of 'proper' hotels, and facilities catering to budget travellers were pretty limited. Now there are often dozens of good hotels and lodges in places that then had nothing - for instance Lake Bunyonyi, Murchison Falls, Bwindi, Bujagali.
I didn't visit Uganda between 2005 and 2015 (a period during which the book was updated by Andrew Roberts) and I saw massive changes - almost all for the better - in Uganda's tourism industry when finally I did return in 2015.
Uganda tourism hasn't changed a lot since the last edition of the Bradt Guidebook (published in 2016). Tourism seem to have stabilised and got better overall.
On my most recent visit (2019), I was very impressed with the standard of guiding by Uganda Wildlife Authority. All the guides we had on our most recent trip come across as being very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the park where they work, and its wildlife."
What happens if you visit a lodge or hotel that's in the guide and the standards have dropped?
"When I first started writing the Bradt Uganda Guidebook 30 years ago, there were just a few hotels and lodges, so I included them all, even those that warranted quite negative write-ups. These days there are far too many for us to include them all, so accommodation listings are more selective, and I tend to just remove anywhere that I can't write about in a positive way."
What is the value of buying a guidebook in these days of social media?
"Online information for countries like Uganda still tends to be quite scattered and patchy. Guidebooks tend to be more comprehensive and coherent resources, with a lot of background and contextual information set against practical information, accommodation and restaurant listings and cross-referenced maps. The Bradt Guide in particular has pretty much all the information you would need to plan a trip to Uganda in one place, logically organised by somebody who knows the country well into cohesive and well-structured regional chapters over almost 600 pages. You simply won't find that kind of thing in the internet.
That is not to knock social media and other online resources; they most certainly have their place. For me, though, I would still always prefer to use a good guidebook as my initial and primary planning resource and switch over to social media and other online resource for supplementary information.
I also find that people who rely on word-of-mouth channels often end up visiting the same few well-publicised places and doing the same few activities. A guidebook generally offers a greater diversity of off-the-beaten-track options."
For people who already have a copy of the Bradt Uganda Guidebook, why should they buy the latest edition?
"The most substantial change to the new edition is the expanded coverage of Karamoja and the north-east of Uganda. However, it's also lots and lots of small details: removing places that have closed and the inclusion of many new places that opened since the eighth edition was researched. (For example in the vicinity of Kibale Forest, we've included at least six new lodges, hotels and restaurants, and Sunbird Hill). Prices and contact details for more established lodges are also fully updated. Essentially with edition nine, the Uganda Bradt Guidebook is a whole lot more up-to-date!
Bradt co-author Andrew Roberts was responsible for updating the Kampala section of the guidebook, which has been reorganised to promote more activities and days out."
What is your least favourite activity when you are researching a destination?
"Checking hotels and lodges. There seem to be more places that need checking with every new edition, and it isn't something that personally interests me, but it needs to be done!"
Is travel still fun when you're a travel writer?
"Generally, yes. If I'm walking around a town in the sunshine, it's certainly more fun than sitting behind a desk. If you're tracking chimps, it's great fun of course but if you're looking at hotels it's ..." Philip pulls a face... (so I think we can guess the answer to that one!)
Diary of a Muzungu writes: Thanks Philip for your insights! It's amazing to read how much Uganda has changed in the last 30 years.
What's new for edition 9?
I was delighted to make a few recommendations for the latest edition of Bradt Uganda. They included Entanda Cultural Adventure in Mityana.
"Head to the award-winning Entanda Cultural Adventure in Mityana to experience a few hours of traditional Ugandan life: expect a joyous welcome of dancing and drumming, bountiful organic fruits, a local lunch and a chance to try traditional hunting and listen to the traditional wisdom (and bedroom secrets!) of the 'senga,' all part of your initiation into Buganda culture." Read the full listing in Bradt Uganda edition 9. Entanda also has a listing in my Travel Directory.
In the Shadow of Chimpanzees, Kibale Forest edge"Brainchild of primatologist Julia Lloyd, Sunbird Hill is a private birding site that coordinates the NatureUganda Bird Population Monitoring Programme for the Kibale area and is affiliated to registered community / conservation charity In the Shadow of Chimpanzees. More than 240 bird species have been recorded, including 13 of 38 sunbird species listed for Uganda, and the keenly sought green-breasted pitta." Read the full listing in Bradt Uganda edition 9. In the Shadow of Chimpanzees also features in my Travel Directory.
The Bradt Uganda Guidebook is quite a tome (at 600+ pages, paperback or digital), but there is no other guidebook like it. It works very well read in conjunction with Diary of a Muzungu 😊"arguably Uganda's two best travel resources," according to Mr Briggs.
Bradt Uganda also has an update site where travellers can share their experiences. Philip refers to these updates when he and Andrew Roberts are updating the guidebook, every three years. (Some lodges find it useful to add information there too although there's no guarantee of inclusion in the subsequent guidebook).
Who is Philip Briggs?
Philip Briggs has been exploring the highways, byways and backwaters of Africa since 1986, when he spent several months backpacking on a shoestring from Nairobi to Cape Town. In 1991, he wrote the Bradt guide to South Africa, the first such guidebook to be published internationally after the release of Nelson Mandela. Over the rest of the 1990s, Philip wrote a series of pioneering Bradt travel guides to destinations that were then - and in some cases still are - otherwise practically uncharted by the travel publishing industry. These included the first dedicated guidebooks to Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana and Rwanda, new additions of which been published regularly ever since. More recently, he has authored Bradt guides to Somaliland, Suriname, Sri Lanka and The Gambia, all published by Bradt. He spends at least four months on the road every year, usually accompanied by his wife, the travel photographer Ariadne Van Zandbergen, and spends the rest of his time battering away at a keyboard in the sleepy coastal village of wilderness in South Africa's Western Cape.
How do I buy a copy of this fantabulous what to the what guidebook?
Click here to visit the Bradt Guides website where you can claim 25% discount when you use the promotional code UGANDA25. (This applies to this specific guide only). The book is also available at Aristoc in Kampala and all good bookshops (but you'll need to buy it using the above link if you want the discount).