Visiting Semuliki park in the dry season

Visiting Semuliki national park in the dry season: Semuliki national park is one of the national parks in western Uganda that tourists love to visit. The national park is found in Bundibugyo district near the borders of Uganda and DR Congo. Semuliki national park is a 220 sq. km piece of land protected by Uganda Wildlife Authority a government agency that protects all national parks in the country.

Semuliki national park is open for tourism all throughout the year however we are looking at visiting the park in the dry season. The dry season in Semuliki national park happens from June to September and December to February. This is when the park is experiencing little or no rainfall and there is plenty of sunshine.

The dry season has been proven to be the best time to visit Semuliki national park because of the good weather. This period attracts a lot of tourists from different parts of the world who come to see the attractions of the park. Semuliki national park harbors 435 bird species, 9 primates, 53 mammals, and 448 butterfly species.

What are the advantages of visiting Semuliki national park in the dry season?

The weather is so good in Semuliki national park during the dry seasons. Tourists who visit Semuliki national park during the dry season will find little or no rainfall and plenty of sunshine in the park. The good weather favours most of the park activities within Semuliki national park.

During the dry season, the vegetation inside Semuliki national park is very short and even scattered. This is an advantage to tourists because they get clear views of animals in the park as well as other attractions. Vegetation is always short in the dry season because it’s dried up by plenty of sunshine.

During the dry season, roads connecting to the park are dry and passable even though dusty. Tourists are able to access the park in a very short time compared to when it’s a rainy season and the roads are muddy. The other good thing is that the nature walk trails are dry inside the park during the rainy season and this means that tourists access different park areas without any challenge.

What are the disadvantages of visiting Semuliki national park in the dry season?

There are minor challenges that come with visiting Semuliki national park in the dry season. One of the disadvantages is that the park has a lot of visitors and the lodges raise the prices for tourists to stay. Lodges never give discounts like they do in the low season when the tourists are few. Tourists should therefore expect their tours to be a bit expensive in the dry season.

Which activities can be done in Semuliki national park in the dry season?

Nature walks

During the dry season, Semuliki national park has little or no rainfall which means that the walking trails are dry and the vegetation is short. When the trails are dry tourists are able to move to most of the park areas without any difficulty. This increases their chances of seeing most of the attractions of the park. Different nature walk trails have been constructed in the park for tourists to access all park areas and get close to nature.

Nature walks in Semuliki national park are a guided activity led by armed ranger guides of the Uganda Wildlife Authority. It starts with a briefing from the park headquarters where tourists are taught the rules and regulations of the activity. Later armed ranger guides lead the tourists in the jungle using any of the trails based on what they want to see. Nature walks introduce tourists to animals, birds, butterflies, plants, water sources, and hot springs among others.

Birding

Bird watching in Semuliki national park is done all throughout the year therefore tourists who visit in the dry season can try out bird watching to see the different recorded bird species here. Over 435 bird species are said to be living in Semuliki national park and good bird lovers can see most of them in a single day.

Bird watching in Semuliki national park is carried out in different spots where a high population of bird species does live. A good birding guide will help you in locating different bird species among which include Shoe bill, Northern bearded scrub robin, black-chinned quailfinch, African pygmy goose, White-crested hornbill, Malachite kingfisher, Congo serpent eagle, Blue-billed malimbe, Ross’s Turaco, Grant’s bluebill, Black-dwarf hornbill, swamp palm bulbul, and White thighed hornbill.

Other birds to see in Semuliki national park include Fire-crested Alethe, Long-tailed hawk, Orange Cheeked waxbill, Great blue Turaco, Xavier greenbul, Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher, Rufous-sided broadbill, Black-Dwarf hornbill, Black-Dwarf hornbill, Lemon-bellied Crombec, Capuchin babbler, Forbe’s plover, Long-tailed Hawk, Purple-breasted sunbird, Eastern-bearded Greenbuls, and Gabon woodpecker among others.

Butterfly watching in Semuliki

When the grass is short and the walking trails are dry and easier to go through, tourists who love butterflies will be able to carry out the activity smoothly. The short vegetation cover allows tourists to have a better butterfly watching in Semuliki. The dry walking trails allow tourists to access most of the areas of the park hence increasing the number of butterflies to be seen.

Butterfly watching in Semuliki offers over 448 butterfly species live in Semuliki national park and tourists will be able to see most of them. Butterfly species to see in Semuliki national park include euphaedra hollandi, catuna crithea, cymothoe Cyclades, widespread forester, variegated pearl,  mylantria xanthospila, spiny bollworm, bicyclus mollitia, simple orange forester, common ginger white, boisduval’s tree nymph, tailed bush brown, common pathfinder, and common palm forester.

Butterfly watching in Semuliki is so rewarding with other butterflies species that include the blue diadem butterfly, gregori’s brown pansy, marcipalina umbrosa, rhodope dotted border, common nephele, dark yellow forest sylph, sarothroceras banaka, haritalodes polycymalis, euphaedra hybrida, square winged red charaxes, euriphene saphirina, cadarena pudoraria, coffee berry moth, zebra pyrale, chirinda bush brown, rhipidarctia crameri, and marcipalina conjuncta among others

Batwa cultural tour

On your safari in Semuliki national park during the dry season, you can visit the Batwa pygmies in the different villages around the park. Ntandi village or Boma village is where tourists can meet the Batwa pygmies and interact with the locals. Batwa pygmies were initially forest dwellers that lived in Semuliki national park alongside animals.

The Batwa were evicted from Semuliki national park when the government was gazzetting the park and so they decided to settle around the park boundaries. This is where tourists who want to interact with them can find them. Visiting the Batwa pygmies is led by local guides from the village who know well about the different homes in the community.

When tourists visit the Batwa, they are welcomed by traditional dancers who entertain them through dance and drama. They are allowed to relax and later they are taken around different homesteads where they meet different people with different stories of how they live their day to day lives. The elders of the community are there to tell stories of what happened in the jungle.

Visiting the hot springs

The walking trail to the hot springs is dry during the dry season and this is because of plenty of sunshine within the park. Tourists are able to move easily to the hot springs with the help of an armed ranger guide. There are two hot springs in Semuliki national park but the most loved one is the female one. Its waters are too hot to the extent that they can boil eggs. While at the hot springs, you will learn the scientific and traditional versions of how they were formed.