A truly Medley of Wonders!
Location in Kasese district, the size of the park is 1978sq km, the altitude is 13002m. Queen Elizabeth National Park spans the equator line, monuments on either side of the road marking the exact spot where it crosses latitude 00.
The park was founded in 1952 as Kazinga National Park and renamed two years later to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II of England. The park is home to over 95 mammal species and over 600 bird species. The Katwe explosion craters mark the park’s highest point at 1,350m above sea level, while the lowest point is at 910m, at Lake Edward.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is understandably Uganda’s most popular tourist destination. The park’s diverse ecosystems, which include sprawling savanna, shady, humid forests, sparkling lakes, and fertile wetlands, make it the ideal habitat for a classic big game, ten primate species including chimpanzees, and over 600 species of birds.
Set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains, the park’s magnificent vistas include dozens of enormous craters carved dramatically into rolling green hills, panoramic views of the Kazinga Channel with its banks lined with hippos, buffalo, and elephants, and the endless Ishasha plains, whose fig trees hide lions ready to pounce on herds of unsuspecting Uganda kob. As well as its outstanding wildlife attractions, Queen Elizabeth National Park has a fascinating cultural history. There are many opportunities for visitors to meet the local communities and enjoy storytelling, dance, music, and more. The gazetting of the park has ensured the conservation of its ecosystems, which in turn benefits the surrounding communities.
Most of Queen Elizabeth comprises open grassland and savannah which tends to be moist and woody in the west than the eastern part, Thorny Acacia dominates this savannah habitant with the high concentration of candelabra shrub a cactus that grows along the kazinga channel and on the kasenyi plains. Queen Elizabeth supports at least 95 species of mammals, it boasts of 20 carnivores like the Lion, Leopards, side stripped jackal and spotted hyena among others.
Activities in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Kazinga Boat Cruise: Kazinga boat cruising is an activity that you can have in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Boat cruising along a 40 km long Kazinga channel is awesome experience of learning a lot about African wildlife, scheduled boat cruising is twice a day, or three times on high pick season. Morning start at 11am and evening start at 3pm, these takes about 3hours.
Game Drive: June to September and January to February are the best season for game drive in this park, the tree climbing lion of Ishasha, lion tracking research in the Kasenyi palin, you can see a lot of animals during the game drive.
Chimpanzee Tracking: This is another interesting activity done in Kyambura gorge of Queen Elizabeth, it is a strip of a rain forest cutting across a vast Savannah dominated area, Chimpanzee are swing on trees and also walk on land too.
Bird Watching: Over 619nspecies has recognized internationally, knows as international birding association (IBA) Most of birds can be viewed along kazinga boat cruise.
Lion Tracking: Interested by visitors, lion tracking research is real research and conducted by professional researchers from the Uganda carnivores program (UCP). The lion tracking activities is done by limited number of people to avoid interference with the natural balance of the wilderness.
Culture Encounter: Visit and enjoy the local folklore from the elders of the communities in Queen Elizabeth National Park, enjoy the kikongoro cultural dancers at the equator kikongoro is a group of women who are deep rooted into African culture, they entertain visitors at the equator plus they make a lot of African crafts that you will love to take them as souvenirs.
