Queen Elizabeth National Park, in the western region of Uganda – Kasese district, stands out as one of the most respected protected areas in Africa. The Park inhabits a variety of attractions, such as; birdlife, wildlife, trees, lakes and many others – it resides a lot of the big game in Africa.
The beautiful Kazinga channel, that connects Lake Edward and Lake George, is a one thing to die for in the Park! The channel attracts a varied range of animals and birds, with one of the world’s largest concentrations of hippos and numerous Nile crocodiles.
Game Drives in Queen Elizabeth NP:
This is by no doubt the most fascinating activity that you will not wish to miss when visited this remarkable national park. Most of the Park’s attractions are spotted during your game drives. This activity involves the tourists to drive through the park while viewing animals.
The Park has several spots of well maintained game viewing tracks. Morning hours are always the best for game drives because animals are still or just leaving their habitats, making it easier for you to spot a variety of them unlike in the noon hours where you find that animals have already scattered in the Park.
On a game drive in the Park, you will spot a variety of wildlife species including the African Cape Buffaloes, African Savannah Elephants, Hippos, Water-bucks, Uganda Kob, Topis, African Leopard, African Lions, Nile Crocodiles, Warthogs, and a myriad of bird species.
Queen Elizabeth is composed of various sectors; each of with its unique attraction. The Ishasha sector of the Park is so, so special…very unique as compared to the other sectors in the Park!!
This southwestern sector (Ishasha) of the Park is widely popular for the one-of-a-kind tree climbing lions that are really wondrous in nature.
It is not, on normal occasions, that you will find lions climbing trees but on a game drive in the Ishasha sector of the Park you will meet these unique lions exhibiting strange characters different from the other lions’.
You will be able to see the tree climbing lions lying up in acacia, fig tree branches chilling. The tree climbing lions in Africa are really unique creatures and can only be found in two national parks – others being found in Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park.
It is claimed that these unique lions in the Ishasha sector do climb the tree branches to hide away from the strong heat, having clear views of their prey, and also to run away from insects like tsetse flies which bite them. The best time to view them is when it’s too hot (noon hours).
Still about game drives in the Park, in the Kasenyi sector, you will enjoy one of the most astonishing experiences in the Park – Lion tracking.
Lion tracking is only found in Queen Elizabeth National Park under the Uganda carnivore project. The activity takes like 3 hours and engaging in this activity, your chances are very high to see lions and leopards – which at times you miss to see during the normal game drives in the Park.
The activity allows a limited of tourists and it is conducted twice in a day either in the morning or late afternoon with a squad of researchers and trackers who will track lions with radio collars.
You will get to equip a great knowledge about lions like the habituation call of lions, monitor their weather, and take photos, behaviors, record the moments and the results from monitoring will be added to the data base.
To take note of, you are advised to book for this memorable activity prior to your arrival in the Park. Meanwhile, there are many other activities in the Park such as; boat cruises on the Kazinga channel, bird watching, chimpanzee tracking in the Kyambura Gorge, guided nature walks, community visits, visiting the Maramagambo forest to spot a variety of monkey species and other primates.