Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is a one centered park with easy access and connection to other two National parks, it’s in between Kibale forest National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park.

Briefly, it is also the 2^nd largest national park in Uganda covering 1,978km². Queen Elizabeth national park was founded in 1952 as Kazinga National Park, and renamed later after two years in 1954 to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II. The Park spans the equator line monument on either side of the road marking the exact spot where it crosses latitude 00.

Queen Elizabeth National Park has rich diverse ecosystems including sprawling savanna, humid and shady forests, sparkling lakes, and fertile wetlands. Part of it is the wetland on lake George which was declared a Ramsar site by UNESCO. The Park is thus dotted with beautiful scenery which includes dozens of enormous craters carved dramatically into rolling green hills, views, the Kazinga channel whose banks attract a lot of wildlife, Ishasha plains with tree-climbing lions.

Wildlife in the Park

The Park hosts over 95 mammals,10 primates including chimpanzees, and over 600 bird species. Queen Elizabeth National Park is known for its wildlife, including African elephant, African buffalo, Ugandan kobs, hippopotamus, topis, waterbuck, warthog, giant forest hog, Nile crocodile, leopard and lion hyenas, bushbucks, mongoose, and reptiles in Maramagambo forest. The rift valley escarpment forming Kyambura gorge is home to primate’s notable ones are chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, owl-faced monkeys, olive baboons among others.

There are over 600 species of recorded birds in Queens some of them include African finfoot, African hobby, Ayres’s hawk-eagle, African skimmer, Black bee-eater, Black-rumped buttonquail, Broad-billed roller, Caspian plover, Collared pratincole, Common sand martin, Crab-plover, Great blue turaco, Great white pelican, Grey-winged robin-cha and so many others.

Accessing Queen Elizabeth National Park

It is accessed easily from Kampala and tarmac road from Kampala via Mbarara town and Bushenyi covering a distance of 420km which leads to the center of the park, passing just 22 km from Mweya peninsula.

Alternatively, Kampala via Fort portal covering a total of 410km and through these routes’ visitors are able to access Kibale national parks. Queen Elizabeth National Park can easily be accessed with a scheduled flight from Entebbe to Kasese, Mweya, and Garunga airstrips.

What to do in Queen National Park

The Park is very attractive, spawning beautiful landscape, you have chances to have a close encounter with wild life, big cats and mammal species, crater lakes, salt lakes, etc.

Game drives and viewing

This is one activity that is on a sure deal you will see the big mammals. The Park is known to have more 1000 buffaloes, 2500 Elephants, you will have a great sighting of the different mammal species along kasenyi plains.  Most game drives take place in Kasenyi because of being amating ground for antelopes which attracts prides of lions and other predators as they come for hunting. You will have a chance to view different wild animals including lions, buffaloes, elephants, different antelopes, and many more nocturnal animals. You can also do a game drive around the Katwe explosion craters with its famous blue lake.

Launch Cruise

Only Queen Elizabeth national park is known for its large concentration of hippos along the kazinga channel, the channel alone is historic and attractive because its where two lakes, Lake Edward and George meet and separate. The launch cruise usually lasts for 2 hours and the famous ones start at 1:00 PM,3;00 PM and 5: 00 PM. While on the launch cruise, you will be able to see what you missed during your game drive. You have a chance to see elephants, buffalos on the shores, crocodiles sunbathing and big schools of hippos among others. This is a good place to spot different bird species including migratory birds.

Birding

Queen Elizabeth National Park is a good place for bird lovers since it has over 600 recorded species. Birds can be sighted throughout the park but most especially on Mweya Peninsular, Kazinga Channel, lake Munyanyange and around Lake George wetland, notable birds include sedge warbles, papyrus canary, the martial eagle, pink backed pelican, yellow-throated cuckoo and the Verreaux eagle owl where these birds inhabit in grasslands, forests and wetlands without forgetting the flamingos at Munyanyange

Chimpanzee trekking

The rift valley escarpment forming kyambura Gorge is home to primates, one major attractive activity is chimpanzee tracking and it’s done either in the morning or in the afternoon. The gorge is within the Kyambura escarpment and is separated by the Kyambura river. The UWA Ranger guide will lead you on this trek and once you encounter with these primates, you will spend 1 hour with them observing them and taking photos in close range. Apart from chimpanzees, there are other primates you are likely to encounter like red-tailed monkeys, vevet baboons, black and colobus monkeys.

Guided Nature Walk

The guided nature walk is done in Mweya peninsular and Maramagambo forest. A nature walk in Maramagambo leads you to the bat cave with a lot of bats and a big python. It normally lasts between 3 to 4 hours and it interests normally the botanists, and zoologists, and Researchers.

Experiential Tourism

Experiential tourism is more of behind scene activity, it’s a sure deal that you have 90% you see what you are looking for. This activity takes place in Mweya peninsular and it’s done with researcher who have a rare experience in predators together with the UWA ranger guide. The products under this include lion tracking, leopard tracking and mongoose tracking experience.

Cultural Community Experience

 The Park is surrounded by Bakonjo, Batwa and Bamba, Women from these communities have formed groups to showcase their culture through music , dance and drama and crafts in order to also benefit from Tourism. They include the Kikorongo women group and the Katunguru women group. You can as well take a community walk around Rubirizi district where you will see the green lake and several other crater lakes with one with the shape of Africa continent

Best time to visit

Uganda has equatorial climate however there are weather change pattern that seem unpredictable now. Therefore, predicting season is becoming outdated. All you need is water proof rain coat and minimal warm clothes while considering to visit. Therefore, you can visit the park any time of the year. However, it is usually drier from June to September and again December to February and rainy season covers the rest. Despite the rain season it does not necessarily mean it will rain the whole day and every day.