Tourist activities in queen Elizabeth national park
Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the famous and most thrilling national park in Uganda, this amazing tourist destination is found region of Uganda lieing at the top of escarpment of western rift valley. Queen Elizabeth national park formerly known as Kazinga national park covers an area 1,978 square kilometers is a home to a variety of wildlife species which include animals such as 95 species of mammals including African buffalo, Ugandan kob, hippopotamus, giant forest hog, warthog, Nile crocodile, African bush elephant, African leopard, tree climbing, lion, and chimpanzee and many more. Queen Elizabeth national park is an important birding site with many bird species such as White-faced Whistling, Spur-winged Plovers, Squacco Heron, Fish Eagle, Pink and white backed Pelicans, Long tailed Cormorants, African Jacana, Yellow backed Weavers, open-billed Stork, Water-Thick knee, Pied kingfishers, Wattled Plovers, the Black Crake and the Knob-billed and many more.
Apart from wildlife and birds Queen Elizabeth national park is made of other attractions which include kazinga channel, Maramagambo forest, crater lakes, ishasha sector, mweya peninsula, kasenyi plains, kyambura gorge and many more
Game drive
Queen Elizabeth national park is famous for offering thrilling and adventurous game drives in the beautiful short savannah plains of the park, while on a drive on the various trails in park you get to view many animals such as herds of elephants, herds of buffaloes, hippopotamus, warthogs, leopards, giant forest hog, antelopes and many more as they are either grazing or wandering in the park. The most perfect area to view animals in the park is around the kazinga channel where you get to spot a high concentration of animals as they crowd the channel to drink water, also in the kazinga channel you get to spot Nile crocodiles. Games drives in Queen Elizabeth national park are offered in sessions that is morning game drive, afternoon and night game drive. Morning game drive offers a perfect time of viewing animals as they haven’t dispersed because of sunlight and night game drive is perfect for viewing nocturnal animals and predators like lions and leopards.
Best time to go for game drive
Bird watching
Queen Elizabeth national park is a very fascinating birding site, the park is dominated by different vegetation regions and sectors which are perfect habitants for birds such as Maramagambo forest, kyambura gorge, and kazinga channel and kyambura gorge. These areas are habitant for forest, savannah and forest bird species, bird species in the park include malachite, black-ramped button quail, Collard Pranticles, papyrus canary, Verreaux’s eagle-owl, black bee-eater, Squacco heron, African fish eagle, swamp fly-catcher, long-tailed cormorants, Martial Eagle, Black- rumped Buttonquail African Skimmer, White winged terns, White-winged Warbler, shoebill, African skimmer, Verreaux’s Eagle-owl, Grey-headed kingfisher, papyrus gonolek, Papyrus Canary, and the thin-tailed Nightjars and many more.
The best time to go for bird watching in Queen Elizabeth national park is in the period of December to February.
Boat cruise
Boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth national park takes you on a boat trip on kazinga channel, kazinga channel is a 40 kilometers natural channel connecting Lake Edward to Lake George. Boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth national park on kazinga channel is a safari of 2-5 hours a perfect opportunity for enjoying the aquatic nature of the park, on this safari you get to view many animal on the banks of the lake such as herds of elephants, buffaloes, hippopotamus and many more. On the boat ride you also get to spot many bird species such as crested crane, shoe bill and many more. Boat cruise ion kazinga channel are offered into two time frames that is at 09:00 am in the morning and at 02:00 pm in the afternoon.
Primate tracking
Primate tracking in Queen Elizabeth national park takes place into two sections of the park that is kyambura gorge and Maramagambo forests, these sections are forested making them a prefect habitant for primates and they are only areas where you get to finds in Queen Elizabeth national park. Primates in these areas include chimpanzees, olive baboons, and red tailed monkey which are spotted while on a walk in the thick forests of kyambura and Maramagambo. Also you do primate tracking in these forests you also get to spot many bird species.
Lion tracking experience
Lion tracking experience in Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the most tourist interested in activities in the park, the experience takes place in ishasha southern sector of Queen Elizabeth national park. Lions tracked this experienced are easily tracked using the help of trackers/radio collars around their necks.
Best time to visit Queen Elizabeth national park
It is always a good time to visit Queen Elizabeth national park for a safari throughout the year, the best time to get the most thrilling experience in the park is during the dry season period. Dry season is received in the months of June, July, august, September, January and February. In these months the park experiences less rainfalls thus the trails and route are dry and easy to navigate most especially on game drives the highlight of Queen Elizabeth national park.
Accommodation in Queen Elizabeth national park
Accommodation plays a greater role to the experience you are to get while on a safari in Queen Elizabeth national park, there is many lodge and hotels in and around Queen Elizabeth national park and these are of 3 statuses that is luxury, mid-range and budget. Accommodation facilities include Jacana safari lodge Kyambura gorge lodge, Volcanoes kyambura gorge lodge, Ishasha wilderness camp, Hippo safari lodge, Mweya safari lodge, Kyambura game lodge with a luxury status, Bush lodge, Enganzi game lodge, Marafiki safari lodge and many more with mid-range status and Pumba safari cottages, Kazinga channel view resort, Mweya hostel, Simba safari camp, @the river ishasha with a budget status.
How to get to Queen Elizabeth national park
Queen Elizabeth national park is a very accessible tourist national park with many high maintained routes leading to the park, this thrilling tourist destination is located in western Uganda and it is a distance of 420 kilometers from Kampala. Kampala is the starting point for most safari in Uganda to Queen Elizabeth national park because it is near the main gateway into Uganda that is Entebbe international airport found in Entebbe. By road, you use two routes from Kampala that is Kampala via mbarara route and Kampala-kasese via fort portal route, by air there is chartered domestic flights from Entebbe international airport and kajjansi airstrip to three airstrips situated near Queen Elizabeth national park that is kihihi, Mweya and kasese airstrip.
