Things to see and do Queen Elizabeth National Park

Shallow (an average of one metre of water column), the approximately 40 km canal that connects Lake Edward to Lake George offers the opportunity for a two-hour boat ride, which is certainly the most popular activity in the park. Four or five daily departures (at 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm and 5:00 pm), from the landing stage located under the Mweya Safari Lodge, are scheduled by the UWA. Tickets (US$30 per person) can be purchased at the park office. It is possible to climb on the roof of the boat to make the most of the panorama, but be careful, the sun is hitting hard at the bottom of the Rift Valley. The luckiest ones will be able to see a leopard quenching his thirst, but you will probably have to be satisfied with watching hippos splashing hippos, elephants spraying elephants, eagles soaring eagles, kingfishers diving, crocodiles hiding, hogs drinking, antelopes slumming, lazing lizards, buffaloes basking, jacana showing off and weavers bustling about. A most enjoyable spectacle! Recently, the community organization Kazinga Channel Beach (+256 703 700 500) organized its own cruises (25 US$ per person for about 2 hours) with equally competent guides. Departures (from 8am to 5pm), towards Lake Edward or Lake George, take place from Katunguru, on the north shore of the canal, at the bridge over which the national road passes and under which fish spawn and swallows nest.

Whether on the Mweya and Kasenyi Plains side of Lake George, or to the south in the Ishasha sector, the Queen Elizabeth Park offers excellent opportunities to see iconic savannah mammals, with the exception of the extinct rhinoceros and the historically absent giraffe. The circuit along the Kazinga Channel offers a network of fairly tight tracks characterized by dense vegetation where you will be led to look for leopards and certainly to come across elephants. It is possible to explore this area in about 2 hours from Mweya, but the classic circuit consists of passing the main road and continuing towards Lake George towards the bare and euphoric candelabra-covered plains of Kasenyi where lions are numerous; lion tracking is organized in this part of the park for US$ 100 (park entrance included) in order to observe the king of the animals for four to five hours (independent travellers must have their own vehicle in which UWA trackers will ride). There are also large herds of Ugandan cobes, topis, buffaloes and many birds. The tracks in the Ishasha sector are much less frequented, but they provide an extraordinary encounter with a population of tree lions of about 40 individuals. This feline particularity, which is only found in the Lake Manyara Park in Tanzania, has not yet been the subject of real scientific studies, but the hypothesis put forward is that these lions, by climbing in the sycamores, would try to escape from insects carrying disease. Safari departures usually take place at dawn, but the lions stay in the trees when it is hottest. In addition to this leonine attraction, the Ishasha area, with its acacias and grassy savannah, will suit the most adventurous: it is, indeed, possible to camp near Lake Edward (Edward Flat), in the middle of nowhere, in an area of great wildlife richness: the presence of a UWA ranger (count 40 US$) is mandatory! Most travelers make their safaris as part of a chauffeur-driven tour. If you have your own vehicle, you can hire a park ranger to help you flush out the animals for US$20 per vehicle. Ask at the park office in Mweya or at the entrance to Ishasha.

This forest, which extends at the foot of the escarpment marking the eastern confines of the park, is home to many chimpanzees but, unlike their congeners in the Kyambura Gorge, they are not accustomed to the presence of Homo sapiens and nothing is organized to observe them. However, you will be able to hear their characteristic and emblematic cry. The Maramagambo forest is not well developed for tourism, yet it is easily accessible by the track leading to the Jacana Safari Lodge. Various species of primates (Hoest cercopithecus, colobus guéréza, baboon, samango, ascagne...) and birds (bulbul, souimanga, forest flycatcher, white-naped pigeon, Rwenzori touraco...), as well as some small antelopes, enjoy the forest and the undergrowth. Three guided walks (from 2 hours to half a day) are organized, from the UWA rangers' lodge, to discover the forest biodiversity. Walking around lakes, such as the Nyamusingire, and visiting a cave occupied by bats (Egyptian fruit bats) and four pythons are on the programme (another "cave", not far away, is used as a lair for cobras). Chiroptophobes can rest assured: a secure observation platform has been built in the cave to avoid any contact with the bats, which have been identified for the past 15 years as the natural reservoir of the Marburg virus. The ants in the vicinity being particularly voracious, flip-flops, Bermuda shorts and tank tops are not frankly recommended ...

The lush green Kyambura Gorge, which marks the eastern boundary of the park and contrasts with the surrounding savannah, is a deep canyon about 100 m long, 16 km long and up to 1 km wide, at the bottom of which the Kyambura River, whose ripisylve is home to chimpanzee runners, flows towards the Kazinga Channel. The total duration of the tracking usually varies between two and three hours, including a maximum of one hour with our quadrumane friends. The latter, familiar with human presence since the late 1990s, have seen their population increase, but the geographical isolate represented by this chasm is a source of genetic impoverishment. The departures take place at 8 and 2 p.m., but it seems that the chances of seeing the primates are higher in the morning. It is possible to register at the park office, but as the number of places is limited, the safest thing to do is to book in advance at the UWA headquarters in Kampala. The cost of tracking in the gorge is four times cheaper than in Kibale, but the probability of meeting our simian cousins is (much) lower. The access path is well indicated from the main road. In addition to chimpanzees, the vast ravine is home to some two hundred hippos, crocodiles and a large number of birds. Lions, leopards and elephants also come to drink from the waters of the Kyambura. The topography of the area and the demands of tracking require adequate equipment (good walking shoes, covering clothes...) and sufficient water.

A dusty urban enclave north of Lake Edward, the village of Katwe, bordering the lake of the same name, continues the old tradition of exploiting the salt reserves that contributed for several centuries to the prosperity of the kingdom of Bunyoro. Between Katwe and the equator there are several salt lakes created by volcanic activity some 8 to 10,000 years ago. Among these, Lake Nyamunuka, whose green waters are seasonally home to hundreds of pink flamingos and on whose shores buffaloes come to bask and heal (the sulphur emanating from the lake and the minerals of its muddy banks are said to be used to treat their wounds and pathologies), and Lake Kitagata, whose thermal waters are boiling, are two particularly remarkable examples. With a sturdy 4x4, driving the 27-kilometre crater track from Kabatoro Gate to Queen's Pavilion offers superb panoramas of this specific region of the Albertine Rift, which is somewhat reminiscent of Lake Turkana in Kenya. A break at the Baboon Cliff allows you to enjoy a photogenic picture. In Katwe, some villagers have created associations whose objective is to make people discover the historical, cultural and natural heritage of the region: visit of a salt works, bird watching, excursion on the islands of the lake, some of which are inhabited by Congolese who fled the war and live from fishing...