Game Drive Safaris in Queen Elizabeth National Park
Game Drive Safaris in Queen Elizabeth National Park : Queen Elizabeth national park is situated near Fort Portal town in the southwestern part of Uganda along the border of Democratic Republic of Congo. This park is locally known as Kazinga national park. It is situated on an area of 1978 square kilometers and is largely dominated by savannah grasslands, wetlands, tropical forests, salt lakes and acacia savannah. It stretches to 4 districts of Uganda and these include Bushenyi, Rukungiri, Kamwenge and Kasese. Queen Elizabeth national park is under the management of Uganda wildlife Authority and the park is a UNESCO heritage site. Queen Elizabeth national park is a habitat to over 600 bird species, 95 mammal species, 10 primate species and a number of tree species. This park is very famous to the world because it is a haven to the rare tree climbing lions. This park was named after the Queen of Britain, Queen Elizabeth the second and this was done after her visit to Uganda. Queen Elizabeth national park can be accessed by road or flight by the tourists who wish to visit it.
Queen Elizabeth national park has various attractions which attract visitors from different parts of the world to come visit it and some of these attractions include the tree climbing lions which are the park’s main attraction and are located in the southern part of the Ishasha sector which is an area within the park, Kazinga channel which shelters the largest number of hippos within the park, Mweya peninsular, birds that are approximately 600 species that the park harbors, animals that are over 95 species, Kyambura that offers activities like chimpanzee tracking, nature walks and many more, Equator, Katwe salt works, maramagambo forest, Kasenyi plains, Ishasha sector and many more. Queen Elizabeth national park also has a number of water bodies which include lake katwe, lake George, kazinga channel and many more.
Queen Elizabeth national park has also a lot of exciting activities that it offers to visitors which include lion tracking, chimpanzee tracking, mongoose tracking, game drives, nature walks, bird watching, cultural tours, boat cruise among others. This park offers all these activities at anytime of the year though it has the best seasons of the year in which it offers each of them. Each of the activities mentioned in can either be offered best in the dry season or wet season. Visiting this park to carry out the various activities entirely depends on the visitors schedule though the park mostly receives visitors in the dry season.
Game drives in Queen Elizabeth national park are one of the main activities done in this park and visitors would not opt to miss out in engaging in it. This activity is offered to visitors with the aim of exposing them to the various wildlife and sceneries in Queen Elizabeth national park. This enables visitors to sight a number of bird species and animal species while on the game drive. This activity is offered through out the year at the park though the best season in which this activity is more enjoyable and convenient to visitors is during the dry season in the months of June, July, August, September, December, January and February. In these months, the trails in the park are dry and accessible unlike in the wet season when the trails are wet and slippery which disturbs visitors movements. In the dry season, the tourist can easily spot the animals and birds while on the game drive because animals gathers around the available water sources in search of water to quench their thirst and the vegetation is less thick enabling visitors to sight different attractions within the park.
Game drives in Queen Elizabeth national park are held in three phases and therefore a visitor is free to carry out this activity at the time they feel is convenient though the itineraries are designed which stipulate the time at which visitors are supposed to engage in it. Game drives in Queen Elizabeth national park start in the morning at around 6:30am or in the afternoon at 2:00pm or at night. This activity is carried out by visitors after being briefed by the park guides on what to do while on the game drives and after they set off with a guide that takes them through the process. It takes visitors about 4 hour while on the game drive in this national park. Game drives are mostly done in ishasha plain, mweya peninsular and kasenyi plains in Queen Elizabeth national park. These are the most popular places in the park where the game drives are done in Queen Elizabeth national park. These sections of the park harbor the largest numbers of animal and bird species in the park. This gives opportunity to visitors to view wildlife to the fullest.
Some of the animals that can be spotted during the game drive include the lions, the buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, cheetahs, antelopes, warthogs, vervet monkeys, patas monkeys, baboons, civets, waterbucks, bushbucks, kobs, elephant. This park harbors 4 of the big five animals and these can be sighted during the game drives. These are the elephants, buffaloes, lions and leopards. Some of the birds species that can be spotted in Queen Elizabeth national park while on a game drive include African jacana, black bee eater, palm nut vultures, great blue turaco, shoe bill stork, gray crowned crane, African fish eagle, pied kingfisher and many more.
The park fees for game drives in Queen Elizabeth national park differ according to the visitors age and the time at which the game drive is being carried out. Foreign non residents pay 45US dollars if it is an adult and 20US dollars for children, East African citizens pay 20,000 Ugandan shillings for adults and 10,000 Ugandan shillings for children and foreign residents pay 35US dollars for adults and 10US dollars for children. The above charge is for those conducting a day game drive so those who participate in the night game drives are charged differently. For those participating in the night game drive pay 40US dollars fir foreign non residents, 35US dollars for foreign residents and 40,000 Ugandan shillings for east African citizens.
