A Tour Guide's Review of Queen Elizabeth National Park

Description of Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park – Uganda’s most popular national park is located in the western part of Uganda. The park is approximately 420km by road which is about 6-7 hours of normal tourist driving through Mbarara-Kasese road. The park size is 1978km large and was established in 1952. It was named after the reigning Queen of England to honor her visit to the park in 1954.

How to get to Queen Elizabeth National Park

The park is approximately 420km west of Uganda’s capital Kampala. By road, normal tourist driving would take between 6-7 hours to get to the park via Mbarara-Kasese road. Nearly 95% of the drive is on paved and panoramic roads with few areas under repairs and only the last few kilometers towards to park gate that are non-paved and could be dusty and bumpy.

Scheduled  flights to Queen Elizabeth national park are also available (we do arrange this for you) to the nearby airfields such as Kasese, Kihihi and Mweya airfields saving you the long 420km drive. Flights are offered by Aerolink - https://www.aerolinkuganda.com/en

Queen Elizabeth National Park top activities

With a diversity of ecosystems and landscapes such as savannah plains, open grass lands, and permanent swamps, Queen Elizabeth national park is a home to over 95 mammal species, 10 types of primates and over 600 bird species. This gives the visitor a range of guided activities to explore such as game drive, boat trip, nature walk, community visit, and lion tracking among others.

Best way to enjoy your experience in the park

Game viewing; there are lots of sightings in the park such as elephants, antelopes (Uganda kob, water buck, bushbuck etc.) buffalos, monkeys (baboons, velvet monkey etc.), lions, and leopards, among others.

Game viewing is best done late evenings between 4pm to 7pm and early mornings between 6am to 10am when the weather is cooler, thus making the animals more active.

• Kasenyi area also the breeding ground for the Uganda kobs is more fruitful with animal sighting let alone birding due to the extensive track network that gives you good chance to explore the wild.
• Crater drive – this is a 27km impressive drive beginning from the Kabatooro gate all the way to the Queen’s pavilion. The drive is filled with eye catching landscapes, stunning views to the Rwenzori Mountains, Lakes George and Edward, the kazinga channel and part of the western rift valley. On top of this, there is chance to see some elephants, buffalos, baboons and many different savannah bird species.
• Ishasha sector – this is the southern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is about 130km from Mweya taking you approximately 2½ hours to the Katooke park gate. The climax of Ishasha sector is the tree climbing lions which are only seen here and Lake Manyara National Park of Tanzania.
• For the best game viewing experience, plan on using a safari 4x4 open roof vehicle with an experienced tour guide (we assure you of one) that understands the park tracks well.
• Boat trip; the 36km natural kazinga channel offers one of the most admired boat safaris in Uganda or even East Afrca. The Kazinga channel connecting lakes George and Edward is said to have the largest concentration of hippos in East Africa. The Kazinga channel is also very fruitful in that it gives you the opportunity to look at plenty of water birds, elephants, crocodiles, hippos, buffalos, fishing villages and much more. You may choose from the different guided schedules for the launch trips though the best trips are in the afternoon - 2 & 3 pm. The trip takes 2 hours sailing towards Lake Edward and back.
• Nature walk; these guided nature walks are offered in the Maramagambo rain forest giving the visitor an opportunity to also see the Blue Lake, Mweya peninsular and Kyambura gorge giving you a chance to see countless bird species, primates and beautiful landscapes.
• Community visits; this kind of visit give you an in-depth feel on how the locals in the various fishing communities live their day to day lives. Some of the communities around Queen Elizabeth national park are Katwe salt village, Kikorongo women community and Kasoga community.
• Lion tracking; this is an activity offered by the research and conservation team working under the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The team does research and monitoring on lions, leopards and hyenas.  On this trip, a reasonable pre booked number of visitors goes with the research team to follow the predators and learn more about them in terms of feeding, social behavior and health. The lion tracking activity takes approximately 3 hours with a guaranteed predator sighting.

Staying in Queen Elizabeth Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park offers a wide range of accommodations to choose from not only within the park but in the areas neighboring the park as well. One can choose right from the budget type, midrange and of course the high end facilities.

North of the park

• Bush lodge camp - https://naturelodgesuganda.com/the-bush-lodge/
• Buffalo Safari Lodge - https://www.buffalolodge.ug/
• Mweya safari lodge - https://mweyalodge.com/

South of the park

• Enjojo Lodge - http://www.enjojolodge.com/
• Ishasha Wilderness camp – http://ugandaexclusivecamps.com/ishasha-wilderness-camp/
• Ishasha jungle lodge - https://ugandajunglelodges.com/ishasha-jungle-lodge

This article was submitted by Robert Kimbugwe.
Robert is a freelance tour driver-guide with extensive guiding experience in Uganda, Rwanda, Eastern Democtratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Tanzania