Queen Elizabeth National Park – Uganda
Location: Kingfisher Lodge – Tribal Uganda Safaris
Travel Dates: August 20-23
Distance: +/- 8 hours car ride from Kampala
Temperature: 26-30 C°
Report:
Queen Elizabeth National Park is located between Lake Edward and Lake George and along the channel connecting both lakes, on the border between Uganda and Congo, and is about 2500m². We drove about a day to get there (400km along roads that have seen better days, full of buses driving crazily) from the capital of Uganda, Kampala. You pass the equator, through the Mburo National Park (where you often see zebras – we saw them on our return trip) and along dramatically changing landscapes with rainforests, crater lakes, and tea fields. A long, but far from boring ride, with our destination being the Kingfisher Lodge, offering breathtaking views over the National Park.
Since this was our first safari, we had no idea what to expect; our guide Mike was careful with his promises: there was a good chance we would see large animals, however, without any guarantee. During our first game drive, early in the morning, he took us to the right side of the main road through the park, a more open area. “We saw several elephants, green meerkat monkeys, baboons, dozens of cobs, waterbucks, African buffalos, and warthogs, a lion with 3 cubs, and dozens of beautiful bird species” in no time.
The destination of the afternoon game drive was a boat trip, starting on the Mweya peninsula. Along the way, we again saw all these animals, except the monkeys and lions, but it was a search, as this area is more wooded. And then came the boat trip on the channel, admittedly, we had high expectations. There, we saw hundreds (not exaggerated!) of hippos and buffaloes (including one with a white nose), about seven Nile crocodiles, an incredibly angry elephant, and the most beautiful bird population we have ever seen (various types of storks, weavers, kingfishers, ibises, a ‘conference’ of cormorants…). This is one of the most spectacular experiences of my life, which has produced hundreds of beautiful photos.
My 6-year-old son traveled with us, and that meant we had to adjust the planning somewhat. So, we could not go looking for Chimpanzees in the nearby Kibale Rainforest, as the minimum age for that is 15 years. Instead, we did a 2-hour nature walk on day 2. We saw red-tailed and black-and-white colobus monkeys there. Our guide Rachel made an effort and took us to the places where the Chimpanzees come to search for food in that part of the forest. We had our share of luck on the first day, I suppose. The walk was beautiful, but after the overwhelming game drive experience of the first day, we were somewhat disappointed.
We decided to do an extra sunset game drive that afternoon. It was very hot, and the animals were clearly all seeking the shade – we saw few mammals, but birds. We realized that we had been very lucky the previous day. And we didn’t see any nocturnal animals or leopards, which we had secretly hoped for. Still, one new ‘check’ in the book: a shy bushbuck, in a flash. And it was absolutely worth it because the sunset we saw here was breathtaking. I will never forget how the sun sank behind the Rwenzori mountains in various shades of orange and pink, with the concert of the crickets and occasionally a screaming bird in the background. Our safari ended in a climax and with a resounding tropical thunderstorm over the savannah that evening.
Uganda has several national parks, the source of the Nile at Lake Victoria in Jinja, a large population of mountain gorillas in Bwindi, and is trying to restore its rhino population in the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary (on the way to Murchison Falls), and all within a maximum of one day’s drive from Kampala. I definitely recommend a trip to Uganda if you love wildlife and spectacular nature. I would also recommend our friend Moses from Tribal Uganda for your local organization.
Sofie Van de Putte