Attractions In Queen Elizabeth National Park-Things to Do & Activities
Tourist attractions in Queen Elizabeth National park include activities such as Game drives, boat safaris, birding safaris and Chimps tracking among others. Queen Elizabeth is located in the Western region in Uganda in Kasese district and it is famously known to be the second largest national park in the country after Murchison falls national park covering a total surface area of about 2080 square kilometers. This national park was first known as the Kazinga channel but later in 1954, it was renamed as Queen Elizabeth national park after the visit of the Queen of England. More so, this national park is considered to be among the top destination that tourists planning to go on an adventurous safari in Uganda could ever choose to visit because it is surrounded with a beautiful scenery of green lash vegetation, dense forests which cat as a good natural habitat to large numbers of wildlife species, stunning water bodies such as; lakes and rivers, volcanic features like; craters and volcanic cranes, woodlands and many others. More so, Queen Elizabeth National park shares boarders with kibale national park and Virunga national park found in the Democratic Republic of Congo and it also crosses over around 4 districts like; Rubirizi, Kamwenge, Rukungiri and Kasese.
Main tourist attraction in Queen Elizabeth National park.
Queen Elizabeth National park is also considered to be the most visited national park in the country and this is because it the only place in Uganda where tourists can be able to see the tree climbing lions. Therefore, these tree-climbing lions are seen as the main tourist’s attraction in this park that attracts many tourists to travel from all over many parts of the world to this park with an aim of tracking the tree-climbing lions. In addition, the best area where to spot these species in large numbers is within the Ishasha sector, which is located within the Southwestern part of the park.
The ishasha sector is considered as the best area where to see the tree-climbing lions because it is surrounded with Candelabra trees that have big branches, savannah woodlands, Acacia trees, and huge fig trees, cactus trees where the lions always hang to relax and rest. However, it is noted that these lions usually climb most especially during the dry season, which helps them to avoid the heat on the ground, and research shows that these lions climb in order to protect themselves from being bitten by the parasites on the ground. More so, it also helps them to ease their hunting processes as they look down to watch over their prey such as; the Uganda kob, which are always noticed feeding in the field and antelopes. However, touring around Queen Elizabeth National park does not only give chances to see the tree climbing lions but also one can be able to sight see other beautiful wildlife species such as; 4000 African elephants, 3000 hippos, 2000 buffalos, bush bucks, duikers, water bucks, antelopes, warthogs, leopards. More so, bird lovers can be able to sight see very many beautiful bird species because this national park also harbours around 600 bird species such as; the great blue turaco, yellow throated cuckoo, red chested sun bird, robin chat, collared pratincole, lesser and the greater flamingos, papyrus gonolek, vereux eagle owl, African skimmer, papyrus canary white tailed lark, broad billed roller, grey winged robin chat, Caspian plover, white backed night, heron, yellow billed wattle eye and many others. This park is also a home to primate species such as; black and white colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, snakes, baboons,
Apart from the tree-climbing lions, more other tourist attractions within Queen Elizabeth National park also attract the attention of many tourists to travel to this park while on their safari. Therefore, these attractions include; the Mweya Peninsula which is located within the northeastern region of the park and it is seen as the best destination where individuals can go for mongoose tracking , the Kazinga channel which is known to connect the two stunning water bodies; lake George and lake Edward, Kyambura George which is situated in the Eastern region of the park and it is also commonly referred to as the Valley of apes and famously known as the best destination where tourists can go for chimpanzee trekking activities which are charged at a cost of about 50 USD per person, Lake Katwe which is known as the salt lake and touring around this lake, grants individuals opportunities to watch the salt mining processes and also to listen about the privileged stories that are told by the women miners about the salt mining and this helps tourists learn more about the history of the Germany salt factory and many others.
Best time to visit in Queen Elizabeth National park.
Tourists planning to visit Queen Elizabeth National park while on a Uganda safari are free to travel at any time they want throughout the year. However, the dry season is considered to be the best time they could ever choose to travel because it is during this period of time that there are less rains and the grass vegetation is always short which enables tourists to capture classic views of all the interesting features and the wildlife species within the park. Therefore, they should note that dry season is always between months of June to September and from Mid-December to February.
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