Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of Uganda’s most famous and most visited national parks because of its biodiverse safari destination. This park (Queen Elizabeth National Park)is famous for tree-climbing lions and the Kazinga Channel, which has massive hippo pods. Located in western Uganda, stretching across the districts of Kasese, Rukungiri, Rubirizi, and Kamwenge. The Park was established in 1952 and later renamed in honor of Queen Elizabeth II following her visit to Uganda, and today stands as one of Africa’s greatest wildlife havens. Queen Elizabeth National Park covers about 1,978 square kilometers, and it’s known for its rich biodiversity, stunning landscapes, and abundant wildlife.
The Park lies within the western arm of the Great Rift Valley and is surrounded by beautiful natural features such as Lake George, Lake Edward, the Kazinga Channel, crater lakes, and the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains. These diverse habitats support a wide variety of the most scenic conservation areas in Africa.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is home to over 95 species of mammals, like tree-climbing lions in ishasha sector, elephants, hippos, Nile crocodiles, Uganda kobs, warthogs, leopards, spotted Hynes, primates like chimpanzees, which can be tracked in the deep, lush forests of Kyambura Gorge, to name a few. Queen Elizabeth National Park is also home to over 600 species of birds, like red-eyed dove, white-browed coucal, dodo cuckoo, little swift, African palm swift, African jacana, marabou stork, western cattle egret, hamerkop, speckled mousebird, pied kingfisher, gray-backed fiscal, and many others. These birds can be watched in kazinga channel bridge.
Tourists visiting the park can enjoy a variety of activities, including game drives, boat cruises along the Kazinga channel, bird watching, chimpanzee tracking in Kyambura Gorge, nature walks, and cultural experiences. The Kazinga channel boat cruise is one of the park's most popular attractions because it offers excellent views of hippos, crocodiles, elephants, buffaloes, and numerous bird species along the shoreline.
What to see in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park happens to have a variety of tourist attractions that it offers to the clients or visitors who happen to visit throughout the year, and below are some of these attractions.
Kazinga Channel
A natural water channel linking Lake George and Lake Edward, famous for boat cruises, and abundant wildlife. Visitors can spot Nile crocodiles, hippos, buffaloes, and massive birds like red-eyed dove, marabou stork, African jacana, African palm swift, and many others alongside the shores.
Tree-climbing lions of ishasha sector
Rare lions that are often seen resting in fig trees in the ishasha sector. These lions climb acacia trees for easy view of prey, to decide what to eat, and more so, they climb trees to avoid insect bites like tsetse flies, and to escape the heat.
Kyambura gorge
A beautiful forested gorge known for chimpanzee and nature walks. The chimpanzee trekking activity takes around three hours, depending on different things like accessibility, location of the chimpanzee families, the trekking pace/ speed of visitors or clients, to name a few.
Birdlife
Queen Elizabeth National Park hosts over 600 bird species, like marabou stork, hamerkop, pied kingfisher, African jacana, gray-backed fiscal, pied cow, red-eyed dove, little swift, and many others, making it one of the best bird-watching destinations. These bird species can be watched in the Kazinga Channel Bridge and Kasenyi.
Mweya peninsula
A wildlife-rich area offering spectacular views of the park and the Kazinga channel. This peninsula gives a clear view to see wildlife like elephants, lions, Uganda kobs, buffaloes, and other animals.
Kasenyi plains
Famous for game drives and sighting lions, elephants, buffaloes, Uganda kobs, and other animals
Lake katwe salt
A traditional salt mining site that provides cultural and historical experiences. here people mining salt pad themselves especially women to avoid salt entering their private parts which is more interesting to visit the lake.
What to do in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Visitors to Queen Elizabeth National Park can enjoy a variety of activities, including which are got from the different attractions found in the park. These activities include,
Boat cruises on the Kazinga Channel
Visitors enjoy close views of hippos, Nile crocodiles, elephants, buffaloes, and bird species like red-eyed dove, African jacana, marabou stork, African palm swift, little swift, hamerkop, pied kingfisher, pied cow, and many others.
Game drives in Queen Elizabeth NP
Exploring the park by vehicle to see wildlife such as lions, elephants, buffalo, leopards, and Uganda kobs. This activity is mostly done in the morning hours or evening hours in the Mweya Peninsula.
Chimpanzee tracking
Searching for and observing chimpanzees in Kyoambura Gorge. To do this activity, you have to first pay for a permit to allow you to track the primate. After that, you are briefed on the dos and don'ts by the ranger guide, then after that, you can start your journey for trekking, which can take around 3 to 8 hours depending on how long you will track the primate.
Bird watching in Queen Elizabeth NP
Spotting some of the parks' more than bird species, including kingfishers, eagles, pelicans, African jacana, marabou stork, herm kop, and others.
Visit to Lake Katwe
Learning about traditional salt mining and the history of the local community. Visitors are interested in seeing how the people of the community mine the salt from the lake.
Cultural / Community tours
Visiting nearby communities to learn about local traditions, lifestyles, history, crafts, and also to interact with the locals. The community people give a warm welcome to the visitors by entertaining them with traditional dances and songs, which they perform.
Nature walks
Guided walks that allow visitors to explore the park's flora and fauna on foot. This gives visitors or tourists a chance to connect with nature while spotting several attractions like different plant species, wildlife, birds, and butterflies, to mention a few.
What to pack when visiting Queen Elizabeth NP
Packing for Queen Elizabeth National Park depends on the activities you are going to do(game drives, boat cruise, chimp tracking)
Important doccuments
Identification (passport or national ID)/ Immigration documents
Park permits
Travel insurance documents
Clothes
Long-sleeved clothes and long trousers will help you from the sun and insect bites.
Sunglasses that will protect from the sun and having clear view
A waterproof jacket in case of rain, because the weather is not friendly
Footwear
You need a pair of light, waterproof sneakers, a sweater, gloves, and long socks.
Health and Safety
Insect repellent for mosquitoes
First aid kit
Personal medication
Safari gear
A camera or a smartphone with good storage
Extra batteries or a power bank
Binoculars, which are good for spotting distant animals and birds
Food and Drinks
Reusable water bottle
Light energy giving snacks (crisps, nuts, and biscuits)
How to get to Queen Elizabeth National Park
You can get to Queen Elizabeth National Park by either road transport or air transport depending on the different factors such as time, experience because each form of transport offers a different experience.
By road
There are two routes that you use to reach Queen Elizabeth National Park.You can decide to use the Kampala-Mbarara route to the east of the park, covering 250 miles, orKampala- Fort Portal to the north of the park, covering 260 miles.
By Air
You can also get to Queen Elizabeth National Park useing or via air transport where you will board from either Entebbe Airport or Kajansii Air Field and fly to either Kihihi Airstrip, Kasese Airstrip, Mweya Airstrip, Kisosro Airstripe, to name a few.
Best time to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park is always open for visitors or tourists through out the whole year but the best time for visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park is during the dry season of the year (June to September or December to February). the dry season is the best time for visiting because during this time of the year the weather conditions are favourable for out door activities, the walking and driving, wildlife is out in the open playing or searching for food. Fror more information about Queen Elizabeth National Park, feel free to reach out to us or get incontact with any of our experienced tour consultants, we will be glad to help out in any way possible.