Which part of Africa is Queen Elizabeth national park
Which part of Africa is Queen Elizabeth national park: This great park is located in the eastern part of Africa. The national park is found in one of the East African countries named Uganda. In Uganda, Queen Elizabeth national park is found in the western part of the country in Kasese, Rubirizi, Rukungiri, and Kamwenge. The national park is found in the western arm of the great east African rift valley and it’s on the border with DR Congo.
Which part of Africa is Queen Elizabeth national park
While Understanding which in part of Africa is Queen Elizabeth national park, One must know that Queen Elizabeth national park shares boundaries with Virunga national park of DR Congo while Kibale forest national park and Rwenzori national park of Uganda are not so far from the park. The park is located 400km from Kampala, and 440km from Entebbe by road.
Queen Elizabeth national park covers 3898 sq. km with savannah and riverine vegetation cover. It was gazetted in 1952 to protect different wildlife species that had been seen in the park. As of today, the protected area is home to 95 mammals, 10 primates, and 600 bird species which are seen by taking part in different activities.
Attractions in Queen Elizabeth park
Animals
Queen Elizabeth park harbors 10 primate species among which include chimpanzees and 95 mammal species including the big mammals. The park is one of the two national parks harboring tree climbing lions and it has the highest population. The tree climbing lions are only seen on branches of big fig trees and acacia in Ishasha sector of the park.
The animals of this park are seen in most of the park areas for example Ishasha, Mweya peninsula, and Kasenyi plains. The animals are seen during game drives, nature walks, and boat cruises on Kazinga channel. These animals are seen doing their day to day activities like hunting, resting, coupling, feeding young ones, and much more.
Animals living in the park include buffaloes, lions, leopards, sitatungas, bushbucks, topis, defassa waterbucks, elephants, spotted hyenas, aardvarks, Nile crocodiles, hippos, small spotted genet, giant forest hogs, serval cats, Uganda kobs, side-stripped jackals, chimpanzees, red-tailed monkeys, black and white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, l’hoest’s monkeys, banded mongoose, grey-checked mangabeys, olive baboons among others.
Birds
Queen Elizabeth national park is home to over 600 bird species living in the savannah and riverine vegetation where they find food and home. These birds are seen in areas like Lake Katwe, Katunguru bridge, Mweya peninsula, Lake Kikorongo, Maramagambo forest, Kasenyi and Ishasha sector among others.
Bird species seen in Queen Elizabeth national park include Long-crested eagle, plain green bull, tawny eagle, grey pratincole, grey-green buck shrike, olive woodpecker, dark chanting goshawk, southern carmine bee-eater, vinaceous dove, grasshopper buzzard, olive bee-eater, bearded woodpecker, northern ground hornbill, African grey hornbill, white thighed hornbill, black-winged kite, white-headed wood hoope, and common scimitar bill.
Other notable bird species are swallow bee-eater, rufous-breasted wryneck, brown-eared woodpecker, African thrush, grey woodpecker, yellow-fronted tinker bird, spot-flanked barbet, lesser striped swallow, red-capped robin chat, white-throated bee-eater, black cuckoo shrike, eastern black-headed oriole, black-throated watt led-eye, northern fiscal, banded martin, crested malimbe, blue-throated brown bird, mosque swallow, purple banded sunbird, pin tailed whydah, and village indigo bird among others.
Kazinga channel
The largest water channel in the whole world is found right inside Queen Elizabeth national park. Kazinga channel bisects Queen Elizabeth national park into two parts while connecting lake Edward to lake George. The Kazinga channel is one of the attractions in Queen Elizabeth Park and an attraction of its own within the park and the main activity done there is a boat cruise.
The boat cruises on the Kazinga channel are done to enable tourists explore the channel, lakes Edward and George. While exploring, tourists are able to see different animals such as hippos, crocodiles, water birds, and other park animals like antelopes, buffaloes, elephants, and much more grazing around the channel.
Accessing Queen Elizabeth national park
Accessing Queen Elizabeth park by flight is so easy as tourists out of Uganda will have to fly to Entebbe international airport and it’s from here one chooses the type of transport to use and get to the park. Queen Elizabeth is 440km away from Entebbe and it can be accessed by road transport or air transport. By air transport, tourists can fly from Entebbe international airport to Mweya airstrip.
Accessing Queen Elizabeth park by road transport from Entebbe can access the park in 7-8 hours by driving through Kampala, Masaka, Mbarara, and Rubirizi to the park. The second route is through Kampala, Mubende, Fort Portal, and Kasese to the park. Road transport is long but tourists get great views of attractions in Queen Elizabeth Park along the way.
Best time to visit Queen Elizabeth national park
In order to know what could be the best time too visit Queen Elizabeth park, one should understand that the park is one of the areas close to the equator lining and it’s always warm during most days of the year meaning it can be visited all throughout the year. Whereas the best time to visit Queen Elizabeth Park for the best experience is during the dry season from June to September and December to February because of the little or no rainfall. In the dry season, the vegetation is short and scattered with good views of wildlife, game trucks are dry allowing access to all park corners and the roads connecting to the park are in good condition.
Travelers and most especially those who love discounted things can look at visiting Queen Elizabeth national park in the rainy season of March to May and October to November. The challenge with the rainy season is that the park receives plenty of rainfall which makes the game trucks muddy, roads leading to the park are in poor condition and the vegetation is tall with unclear views of wildlife.
