QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK
TREE CLIMBING LIONS
The formerly renowned Kazinga channel national park is stationed in the western arm of the rift valley and it is the second largest national park in Uganda spreading on over 1978 square kilometers of land.
The park has been in existence since 1952 when it was gazetted as Kazinga channel national park, a name which was changed two years later to Queen Elizabeth national park so as to honor Queen Elizabeth ii of England’s visit to Uganda.
What our experts love about Uganda
Uganda is renowned for its stunning natural beauty, including the Rwenzori Mountains, the Nile River, and numerous national parks like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, It's a prime destination for wildlife lovers
Lovy - Travel Expert
The park is famous for its rich eco system ranging from the wide savannah landscape with humid trees and acacia woodlands plus shrubs, crater lakes, kazinga channel joining Lake Edward and Lake George, maramagambo forest, wetlands that have made a perfect natural environment for over 95 mammals including the popular big five like the lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo and 10 primate species and over 600 species of birds including the rare flamingos making Queen Elizabeth national park along the best birding sites in Uganda, opportunities of sighting reptiles.
Enjoy a unique experience of the tree climbing lions in the ishasha sector that can only be found in here in Uganda.
Activities Around Queen Elizabeth National Park
Bush breakfast in Queen elizabeth national park
Conclude your early morning game drive with a delicious breakfast in the bush setting. An exclusive spot in the park is set up with snacks and drinks to create a fine dining experience with your personal chef ready to prepare any hot meal for you if you prefer based on the table’s menu.
You can choose to enjoy this activity exclusively or to socialize a bit with other people joining.
Sundowner eperience in Queen elizabeth national park
After a busy day with all the different excursions, you will need to relax, refresh and rejuvenate and also breathe in untampared air and this comes along with a mini buffet set up inside the park. Different hot and cold snacks are laid out on a fine dining table for your consumption, feel free to feast based on your preference and like.
The sundowner experience provides so many opportunities like watching the sun set, the nocturnal animals beginning their night life and also other animals summarizing their day’s activities - watch them lazily stroll back to their nests for an overnight.
The sundowner provides the beautiful sightings of the sun setting and also different animals as they ascend to their homes for the night and the nocturnal animals begin to come out of their hide outs.
Lake katwe salt mines visit in Queen elizabeth national park
Lake Katwe located in the mweya side of the park is popularly known for being a salt lake from which salt miners for ages have earned a living from mining the salt here. The visit to Lake Katwe avails the tourists a chance to learn about the salt mining and salt production from the experts in the local community, who take you through the entire process from the mining to the evaporation to the purification to the transportation to the markets among others.
Nature walks in Queen elizabeth national park
The greatest chance to explore the park at the closest range through the savanna grasslands is to embark on a nature walk in Queen Elizabeth Park in accompaniment of a ranger guide either in the morning or in the afternoon after your boat cruise.
The walk is normally done in the thick trees of Maramagambo forest, Kyambura gorge – land of the apes, mweya peninsular – famous for the kazinga channel, ishasha sector popular for the tree climbing lions.
Possible sightings on the nature walk include: tree climbing lions in ishasha sector, crater lakes, mongoose, kazinga channel, and animals like elephant, buffaloes, warthogs, monkeys, bats, baboons, and river kajojo and kilyantama waterfall among others.
Crater lake visit in Queen elizabeth national park
Enjoy a good hike around the different crater lakes in Queen Elizabeth like Nyamunuka crater, Munyanyage crater and with a variety of wildlife like flamingos, warthogs among others.
Kazinga channel boat cruise in queen elizabeth national park
The boat cruise in Queen Elizabeth National park is done on Kazinga channel located in the Northern side of the park in the Mweya Peninsular either in the morning or afternoon. The channel stretching on 40km length connects Lake Edward to Lake George.
The 3 hours boat cruise on the kazinga channel offers sights of wildlife resting along the shore of the channel like African buffaloes, hippos, crocodiles, and monitor lizards, numerous bird species like the flamingos, African skimmer, kingfishers, and fish eagles among others.
Lion tracking in queen elizabeth national park
In the kasenyi plains located in north of Queen Elizabeth National park in the, Uganda wildlife Authority, has organized a cat family sustainable and conservation unit so as the cat lovers get enough information, fun, experience, exploration at a closer range.
Queen Elizabeth National park is a home to about 250 large cats including the leopards and lions among others with the tree climbing lions found in the southern sector of the park.
The activity is run each day with a limit of over 50 tourists, and it is carried out in three phases the morning, afternoon and at night. Lion tracking experience starts with meeting the researcher at the park headquarters for briefing about the dos and don’ts during the experience before proceeding to the savanna plains.
With the researcher in the vehicle, you head out to look for the predators, the researcher needs to track the movements of the animals which might lead him to drive off the demarcated trails some times and also use a radio collar.
Once the predators are sighted, the vehicle engine will be turned off not to scare away the animals, the researcher will provide you with full details about the cats’ lives and expect to learn a lot from this activity as it is a more of a research based activity. The data collected is used to better understand the lives and ways of the predators.
Tourists are able to monitor how the predators’ feed, behave, defend themselves, hunt for their prey and also watch how the juveniles play among others.
Chimpanzee tracking in queen elizabeth national park
The popular gorge running a hundred meters deep and one kilometer long is also known as the land of the apes hosting over 80 chimpanzees in the forest and most of these chimpanzees have been habituated and are very familiar with the human presence so no need to be freaked out by their presence. The trek can be done both in the morning and the afternoon based on your preference with a restriction by Uganda Wildlife authority of 16 pax per session.
The chimpanzee trek starts from the park headquarters where you are briefed about the chimpanzee trek guidelines, rules and regulations by the ranger guides.
Proceed with your trek that normally lasts for over 3 hours or more basing on when you find the chimps.
As you get closer to the chimps, you hear them hooting from a distance and this will need you to increase on your speed so that we don’t miss out the chimps because they keep moving and going deeper into the forest.
So many people can’t hide their excitement upon the first sight of the chimps as they swing from one tree to the other, showing off different poses. It is normal to be scared when you first get close to the chimps but all this is long forgotten because the chimps are so welcoming.
Spend 1 hour with the chimps as you take photos of the chimps as the ranger was give you more information about the chimps like different families in Kibale forest, mating periods, ways of living, feeding etc.
After about an hour of remarkable experience with the chimps, exit the forest to the park for your certificate.
Along the trek you also see other wildlife including insects, birds, monkeys, baboons, forest elephants, buffaloes among others.
Other activities in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Walking Safaris in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Uganda wildlife authority has demarcated different trails in the forest to endeavour clients experience and explore the forest to a full close satisfaction like clients walking from the north and the south through the ivy trail. The other trail has clients walking from the Nkuringo sector to the magnificent islands of Lake Mutanda, and another trail from Nkuringo to Kisoro with a beautiful green lush of vegetation on the hills plus the waterfall trail popularly known as the Munyaga river trail which ends at the beautiful cascade in the forest.
Encounter nature in the 3 - 4 hours walk as you listen to the catcalls hiding in their nests on the trees, the monkeys playing and never know you could see the gorilla’s en-route
Birding in in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
You can’t list the best birding spots in Uganda and miss out the Bwindi Forest that is a home to over 345 bird species with over 14 species that can only be found in Bwindi National park in the whole world. Like the African Green broadbill that resides in Ruhija sector.
You can sight the birds during your nature walk on the different trails like the ivy trail, Munyaga trail, bamboo trail and the mubwindi swamp trail on your gorilla trek, during the Batwa experience basically so many birds are visible during your trip to Bwindi National park.
You have chances of glancing at the different birds at the lodge, just carry along your binoculars and the birding field book to tick the different species you have seen to remark your trip.
Ride for a woman in in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
As it goes, Ride for a woman, it is an organization that was founded by a very calm and humble lady called Evelyn to financially and psychologically support the women who are single mothers, widows, struggling with domestic violence and also that have been struck by poverty. The project headquarters are in the northern side of Bwindi in the Buhoma sector, just a 10 minutes’ drive from the park headquarters, which makes it very easy to visit the women and spend either a full or half day with them as they weave, sew and tailor clothes, do different crafts, prepare traditional meals among others. Feel free to enjoy all of the delicious food you have prepared yourself, in the beautiful new dining room of Ride 4 a Woman.
Lake Mutanda in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
At the edge of the forest in the southern side of the park, in the valleys of hilly and dense terrains of Kisoro, you will be fully served with the beauty of a fresh water lake locally known as lake Mutanda, it is a home to several small islands that are viewed from a distance before you even reach the waters, the islands are all accessible on water once you embark on your boat cruise.
Other activities that can be done on the lake include fishing, sun bathing, and stand up kayaking, birding among others.
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