Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth national park is found about 400 km from Kampala in the Western part of Uganda and shared by districts like dist Kasese and Kamwenge and Rukungiri. Kasese town is along the northeastern boarder of this park; in the southern side is Rubirizi town. It was gazette in 1952 and was renamed Queen Elizabeth national park from Kazinga National Park in honor of Queen Elizabeth II who had visited it.
Queen Elizabeth national park is largely covered by the Savannah vegetation, there are crater lakes, the salt lake, water bodies like the Kazinga channel and forests like Maramagambo Forest. It also shares borders with Kigezi Game Reserve, Kyambura Game Reserve and also Kibale forest National Park.
This park covers an area of about 1,978 square kilometres and it stretches from Lake George located north-east up to Lake Edward which is in its south-west. The Kazinga Channel which connects these two lakes is part of this park.
Attractions in Queen Elizabeth National Park
it is the one of the major wildlife destinations in Uganda. It is known as a home to a huge population of Savannah wildlife species and birds. The major activity done in the park is game viewing done either early in the morning or later in the evening. This is the best place to go for wildlife viewing and you can expect to see large herds of Cape buffaloes, large schools of hippopotamus, crocodiles swimming along the shores of the Kazinga channel, there is a huge number of elephants. Leopards are rare but they are often seen roaming around while the lions are commonly seen the Ishasha sector of the park. Other mammals include different species of antelopes, warthogs and many more others.
Primates like chimpanzees, vervet monkeys, the black and which colobus monkeys, L’hoest and many more are found in Kyambura gorge and that where the Chimpanzee tracking adventure takes place.
There are also more than 500 different bird species and those interested in bird watch will find them everywhere across the savannah plains, along the shores of the Kazinga channel during the boat cruise along the Kazinga channels and in the forested areas during the nature walks.
Among the many attractions in this park are its volcanic features like the different volcanic cones, there are also a number of deep craters just as the case is in Kibale as they are within the same region. Among these crater lakes is the Katwe salt lake where salt is extracted locally by the local people living in communities around the park.
Accommodation in Queen Elizabeth National Park
There are various accommodation facilities from which you can choose. There are budget accommodations for the sting spenders and these include hotels like Simba safari lodge, the Bush lodge, the Mweya hostel, among others.
The midrange hotels include hotels like Marafaki safari lodge, Ihamba safari lodge, Kingfisher lodge and many more others.
The big spenders can be booked in Mweya safari lodge, Ishasha wilderness camp, or any other high end accommodation facility within or outside the park. All accommodation facilities do provide meals although with some, meals have to be on request.