Queen Elizabeth National park – Uganda

Queen Elizabeth National  park –  Uganda

This is the second most popular tourist destination taking Uganda Safaris. It is the most popular destination for holiday makers having a big population of tree climbing lions high concentration of hippos and crocodile on the Kazinga channel.
Queen Elizabeth National park is located in south western side of Uganda and is lying on the base of the rift valley between lakes Edward and George and its western side bordered by Democratic Republic of Congo.

Park History
The park was founded in 1952 as Kazinga National park and later after two years it was renamed Queen Elizabeth National to commemorate the visit by queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth covers 2475 square kilometers with Kigezi wildlife reserves and Kyambura. March to May and September to November are usually the wettest seasons in this park.The temperature range from 18 degrees Celsius to 28 degrees Celsius.

Getting to Queen Elizabeth National park

The easiest way to access the park is from Kampala via Mbarara town the home of long horned cattle Bushenyi via Katunguru and this distance covers 420km.While it covers 410km from the north Fort portal- Kasese via Katunguru.
Queen Elizabeth can also be accessed from the south Kabale or Bwindi Impenetrable National park via Kihihi to Ishasha gate.Flights are always arranged from Kasese, Mweya, Ishasha

THINGS TO SEE AT THE PARK
Queen Elizabeth is known as the best destination of tourists in Uganda and it has the “BIG FOUR” that is to say Lions, Leopard, Elephant,and Buffalo. And the other animal found are Warthog, Uganda Kob, Antelope, Giraffe, Topi, Giant forest hog, Bush buck, Hippo, Olive Baboon, Chimpanzee, Hyena and many more.The park also has many more bird species of about 400+ hence classified as the very important bird area species of birds include king fisher, Shoebill stork, Vultures, Eagle, Fish eagle, Falcon, Bee eater, and many more also beautiful  butterflies are found every where in the park.
The park includes Lakes of all types and sizes, the surfaced crater lakes, the inland salt Lake,and the Fresh water lakes.It also has mountains,  unexplored wooded valley,and a broad Savannah which provides a home for a wide variety of all kinds of creatures both in water and land.

THINGS TO DO AT THE PARK

Chimpanzee trekking at Kyambura Gorge
Chimpanzees here live the Kyambura River which flows towards the Kazinga channel across the Rift valley.Searching for chimpanzees starts from the Kyambura fig tree camp in the morning hours to early evening and these are always guided walks.

Game drives
The are usually three game drives done in Queen Elizabeth, Kasenyi area game drive,The Northern crater area game drive and Ishasha plains game drive. These are always done very early in the morning and in the evening hours.The game drives usually take you to vast population of Antelopes, Elephants, Buffaloes and Lion in fig trees and these are known as tree climbing Lions.

Kazinga Channel Lunch cruise
Kazinga channel is known as the 40km channel that connects Lakes Edward and George.The shoreline of the channel large number of mammals, reptiles and a lot of bird species which fish in the shallows of the channel.The lunch cruise is the most popular activity done on Kazinga  channel.

Bird Watching
This is an interesting activity in the park since the park has almost 500+ species of birds and is known as home for birders with the help of experienced guide you can spot birds in Lake area, swamps and other places in the park.

Nature walks
One activity done in one of the most popular tropical forest with large tracts in Uganda noted for large primate population and bird species is Maramagambo.This will give  a great experience with the help of an experienced guide who will give you relevant information of primates and birds here.