Honeybear Bush Camp

Location

Kyambura Game Reserve hangs off the north-eastern corner of Queen Elizabeth National Park: some 150 square kilometres of savannah, forest and crater country, gazetted in 1996 and owned by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, with just two camps operating inside it. The Kazinga Channel forms its northern boundary, 32 kilometres of water joining Lake George to Lake Edward, and that permanence is the mechanism behind everything else: water that never dries keeps wildlife resident, and in the dry months it draws the reserve down to its banks.

Honey Bear takes the south bank. The tents sit low along the water, each facing a channel that holds around two thousand hippos along its length. By mid-morning on most days the elephants are in the shallows in front of camp, drinking and dousing themselves. On clear days the Rwenzoris stand on the western horizon, further off than they look; we have watched them vanish for days at a time. The camp is unfenced and the waterfront is working ground: hippos come ashore at night, hyena pass, and a leopard shows up near the tents from time to time.

About three kilometres from camp, Kyambura Gorge cuts the western boundary: a sunken forest holding the reserve’s chimpanzees.

Rooms

The tents take their brief from the camp’s namesake: nothing here would have rattled her.

All five are identical, and there is no ladder of categories to climb: every tent is the full offer. Each faces the water, with a king bed that splits to twins under a mosquito net, a writing desk, woven rugs, and vintage furniture that looks collected, not ordered. The tents sleep two, as doubles, twins or singles; there are no triples. En suite means a flushing loo, running water, and the outdoor bucket shower the camp has christened the Ava Gardner: you wash under open sky with the channel audible below, and it is the clearest signal of what Honey Bear is.

Each tent has a covered verandah, and we would call it the real living room: you end up out there watching the water traffic as the light goes off the channel. Sound crosses canvas just as freely.

Communal Areas

One long table sets the tone. Meals are taken together, in a mess tent that is large, airy and split between a dining area and a sitting room of deep sofas, or outside under lanterns when the evening allows, or on the deck above the water at breakfast. The kitchen keeps it hearty and unfussy, with house drinks poured throughout and sundowners on the bank as standard, premium labels aside.

Evenings run from the bank to the table to the sofas, in a camp small enough that the day’s sightings get shared around by dinner.

The team comes from within roughly 50 kilometres of camp, and in our experience that is exactly what makes a small camp feel settled. There is no pool and no spa; a camp this size would look odd with either, and that side of things belongs to The River Station, its plusher Wildplaces sister in the same reserve.

Activities

Two shared activities a day come with the rate: a game drive or a guided walk, morning and afternoon, with the camp’s guides. There is a third: Kyambura is a wildlife reserve rather than a national park, so night drives are allowed here, and a shared night drive is part of the package. With two camps and one operator on the whole reserve, the tracks carry no traffic but your own; a private vehicle or boat can be added for a fully private pace. After dark the reserve contracts to the reach of a spotlight, and what the day hid comes out to use the roads.

Boat safaris run from the camp’s own shaded boat, hippo pods at eye level, and the water is the place to work through the bird list here: 332 species recorded, ranked an Important Bird Area by BirdLife. The rains of March to May and October to November are the birding peak; the dry months belong to the game. Walking safaris cover the same country on foot, from the savannah to the rims of the crater lakes.

Chimpanzee trekking in Kyambura Gorge is the marquee add-on, and the camp sits three kilometres from it. The permit comes at additional cost, and the hour in their company.

Sundowner sailing on the channel, catch-and-release fishing and village visits are on the activity menu, and hot-air ballooning can be arranged. The tree-climbing lions of the Ishasha sector are a separate outing, roughly two hours to the south-west.