Queen Elizabeth National Park is a ‘one of a kind’ Park nestled in the western region of the ‘Pearl of Africa’ – Uganda, Kasese. This beautiful Park has a lot of magnificent attractions that you can’t just describe in a single article but rather needs you to take a long trip yourself to fully evidence how extraordinary the Park is!!
Many of my colleagues and workmates visited Uganda for a couple of times but most of them were amazed by the magnificence and uniqueness of this particular Park (Queen Elizabeth), a thing that lured me also to take a trip to Uganda and visit this Park. Do you want to know how my trip to Uganda went down?? Well, below is a summary of my unforgettable trip to the Peal of Africa and the ‘Medley of Wonders’ – Queen Elizabeth National Park in particular:
It was in January 2020 that I finally chose to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park, in western Uganda, after picking interest from my colleagues who had recently visited the Park and were having full of praises for it.
Looking for an appropriate local tour agency to travel with wasn’t really a problem to me as I just opted to travel with the same agency (NATURE ADVENTURE UGANDA) that all my colleagues had used and got successful and joyous trips. So all I did was to contact Moses, agency’s tour consultant, who was really very friendly to me and designed for me an ideal itinerary to visit this marvelous Park, and the rest [as they say] was history! Rates were reasonable and everything was simply nice!
For real I have no proper words to rightly describe how amazing it is to travel with NATURE ADVENTURE UGANDA but all I can say is that these guys are specialists in the game and they really know what they’re doing – I didn’t at one point get disappointed and I was treated as a boss all the time, what a feeling!!!! I highly recommend this tour agency for an amazing and memorable trip in Uganda.
Meanwhile, on my trip, I ordered for a driver-guide, and I would really highly recommend to always hire a driver-guide because he eases everything for you and you get to learn a lot unlike when you’re driving yourself. My driver-guide, Emma, was so friendly, social, experienced and knowledgeable that I really got more on my trip than I expected.
I reached in Uganda at around 5pm, in the evening, where Moses – tour consultant, came and picked me up and he then drove me to my hotel (Protea Hotel, Kololo – Kampala) where I was destined to spend my night before setting off the next morning to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Very early in the morning, Moses came together with my driver-guide, to my hotel, in a Toyota Land Cruiser and I had to clear all the bills to Moses before setting off for a thrilling journey in western Uganda. We left Moses going back to the agency’s headquarters as we begun a very unforgettable and tremendous trip.
Emma drove me carefully while jazzing me ear-catching stories about Uganda; we talked about Uganda’s culture, artistry, traditions, politics, history, sports, climate, tourism, and many more things that I really got to learn, and it was a pleasure listening to these amazing stories from my driver-guide! I really got a great knowledge about Uganda besides the trip. However, I reached time and I dozed off on the way, since it’s quite a long journey from Kampala – Uganda’s capital, but my driver-guide woke me up to have lunch at a certain hotel that I forgot the name, in Kasese – the closest major town to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
After our delicious lunch, we continued with our trip and we finally reached the Park at almost 4pm, in the evening. Reaching the Park gates, my driver-guide moved out of the car to clear everything with the people at the gate and after we went for an evening game drive. Of course I pulled out my camera and started gathering lots of photos of various wildlife species as well as the Park itself as Emma was driving slowly.
We met a variety of animals during this evening game drive, such as buffaloes, elephants, warthogs, Uganda Kobs, Waterbucks, Rothschild’s giraffes, and many others. The Park also has many hippo pools that we managed to spot a variety of hippos and this was more than fantastic!
After the evening game Drive, we drove towards my lodge that I was booked for by my agency – Mazike Valley Lodge. Here they welcomed us in a very charming way and I immediately went for check in. After checking in, we went for a dinner and then after I went for a bathe and then sleeping.
We woke up very early for a morning breakfast and then set off for a morning game drive in the Park where we got to see most of the Park’s wildlife species and bird species (over 600 bird species), taking a lot of photos with my camera. We also paid for a lion tracking experimental in the Park where we tracked for lions and leopards with trackers and really observed a lot in these two cats’ daily lives, for almost an hour with them – it was definitely breathtaking!
After that we drove to the Mweya sector of the Park where the beautiful Kazinga Channel nestles. Here we first had our lunch at a restaurant called Tembo Restaurant and then went for an afternoon boat cruise the picturesque Kazinga Channel viewing a variety of animals at the shoreline such as Hippos, Nile Crocodiles, Buffaloes, Elephants, Warthogs, and many more plus a myriad of water birds. After the scintillating boat cruise we went back to our lodge for dinner, bathe, and an overnight sleep.
In the following morning we woke up as usual, had breakfast and then drove to the Kyambura Gorge and tracked chimpanzees, which was also an amazing time from there. From there, however, we had our lunch and drove to the Ishasha Sector of the Park in search of the tree climbing lions; this was my best part of the journey!!
It’s really not a usual thing for lions to climb trees but while in the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park you will notice that it is a very normal thing, something that really left me in awe! It was really so surprising and amazing seeing these unique species of lions exhibiting their unusual behaviors, different from those of the other usual lions – climbing the fig tree branches, and this superbly made my trip awesomely memorable!!
For sure I wanted to spend all my life in the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth but it wasn’t really possible, and I had to leave there soon but all my thoughts remaining behind. From the Ishasha Sector, where we also viewed many antelope species like Impalas, Waterbucks, Kobs, Topis, and many others, we also visited the Ishasha River spotting numerous Hippos there. After here, we drove back to our Lodge.
In the following morning, after having breakfast, I had to say bye bye to the mighty Queen Elizabeth National Park and I almost shed tears because it is really an extraordinary park both in beauty and in terms of having mob attractions that you won’t love to leave so soon. We drove back to Kampala but we had a stopover at the Uganda Equator, at Kayabwe, where I took lots of photos as well for remembrance and then bought some souvenirs for my family and relatives at the craft shop there. We after proceeded with our way back to Kampala to catch my flight back home.
That was my fantastic and memorable trip to Uganda (Queen Elizabeth National Park) and after all this corona virus thing disappears, am looking forward to going back to trek the mountain gorillas and chimpanzees as well as visiting Queen Elizabeth National Park again….Meanwhile, much credit goes to my driver-guide, Emma, and Moses, the tour agency consultant, as well as the entire agency for making my trip a one to remember….!!