Queen Elizabeth National Park
Queen Elizabeth National Park boasts of high biodiversity rating and with landscapes including sprawling savanna, shady, humid forests, sparkling lakes and fertile wetlands, make it the ideal habitat for classic big game, ten primate species including chimpanzees and over 600 species of birds. The park covers 1978 SQ KM, scenic and its one of the most popular parks in Africa. The park is inhabited by 96 species of mammals, including healthy numbers of hippos, elephants, lions and leopards as well as chimps and hyenas. The remote Ishasha section of the park, in the far south of the park, is famous for its tree-climbing lions; these females, who enjoy spending the long, hot afternoons snoozing photogenically in fig trees, are the most memorable sight in the entire park, but don’t miss the superb birdlife or the wonderful boat trip on the gorgeous Kazinga Channel.
Set against the backdrop of the jagged Rwenzori Mountains, the park’s magnificent panorama include dozens of enormous crater lakes carved spectacularly into rolling green hills, panoramic views of the Kazinga Channel with its banks lined with hippos, buffalo and elephants, and the endless Ishasha plains, whose fig trees hide lions ready to pounce on herds of unsuspecting Uganda kob.
Kazinga channel
The boat cruise on the Kazinga channel usually lasts for 2 hours and it gives visitors the opportunity to watch a variety of yawning hippos in water, water birds, buffaloes, elephants, Uganda-kobs, topis, water bucks, bush bucks, reed bucks, duiker, mongoose, swamp antelopes, spotted hyena, warthog, forest hog and many more.
The park operates a 20 seater motorised vessel which runs two rides a day; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. However from time to time there are three cruises on a single day basing on the numbers of visitors interested in taking this fascinating tour.
Registration for interested visitors is done at the offices found in Mweya, and after that you will be requesting to join in on the team that is also taking the cruise. trips set off from the landing stage beneath the lodge. You can choose to drive or to walk to the landing stage by leaving through the barricade at the headquarters of Mweya’s entrance.
Katwe Crater Lakes in Queen Elizabeth Park
These are situated just north of the impressive Mweya Peninsula and actually are the highest elevation in this national park. Enjoy the spectacular Crater Drive that runs on 27 KM which present distant sights of the eye-catching crater lakes while on your way. There is plenty of wildlife to see along the drive, although commonest are sights of Buffaloes plus Elephants.
Watch out for Lake Kitagata a lake fed by salty hot-springs with no wildlife around but just more than gorgeous can explain. Along this drive you will be satisfied with sights of the great Western Rift Valley plus its escarpments, Lake George, the Rwenzori Mountains of the Moon, the Kazinga Channel plus Lake Edward. You will also have the chance to visit the gorgeous Lake Katwe plus its long ago salt works.
Kasenyi plains
Kasenyi is located in Kasese District, within Rwenzururu sub-region in the Western part of Uganda. It is within Queen Elizabeth National Park; the most visited national parks in Uganda.
The location of Kasenyi plains is about 48 kilometers or 30 miles by road, just south-east of Kasese, (from the district head office) as well as the major town in this sub-region. Kasenyi plains are on the western shores of the adjacent spectacular Lake George, just near to the area where the Kazinga Channel joins together with the lake.
Kasenyi is an open savannah, and it is swarmed with various wild animals with the Uganda Kob being the dominant animals. Actually this place is the major breeding area for the Uganda Kobs within this park. For that reason, Lions are commonly seen here during the various game drives as they are drawn by the large Kob’s population which is their main prey. Kasenyi plains supports a captivating diversity of grassland birds, among which are the yellow-throated long crow, red-throat spurfowls as well as the grey-crown cranes.
The Kasese Hot springs/Kiwa Heritage
The hot springs are located in base camp zone, Kibenge – Kyanjoki Ward in Central Division of Kasese Municipality is one of the unique natural and cultural resources that Kasese district and Uganda as a whole is gifted with.
This hot spring locally known as Ekitagata is said to be having its sources from the invisible banks of Nile waters sources that flows through Semuliki in the mountains of the Rwenzori.
The hot springs are commonly known as ‘Esipatara Hot Spring’ as they are believed by local people to have healing powers. “Esipatara” locally in Uganda literaly means hospital. On a daily basis, so many people with different ailments flock the springs to bathe in the warm water.
The water in the springs can warm up to 80 °C (176 °F). It is estimated that about 1000 people visit Kasese Hotsprings per week.
Mountain Rwenzori National Park
The park is located within the “Mountains of the Moon”, as Mount Rwenzori is called. Mountain Rwenzori is situated in Western Uganda in the East African Rift Valley and straddles also to the Democratic Republic of Congo and its conservation area known as Virunga National Park.
The mountain is the third highest in Africa rising up more than 16,700 feet above sea level and its highest peaks rise above the clouds and are permanently snow capped.
The Rwenzori Mountain ranges are higher compared to the Alps and they have glaciers which are one of the sources of the longest river on earth, the River Nile. Margherita Peak is the highest peak on the ranges making it the 3rd highest peak in Africa together with its twin peak, Mount Stanley, which is within the park.
The 4th and 5th highest peaks, Mount Speke and Mount Baker, are also within the park
