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The Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda’s most-visited and accessible savannah reserve. It covers nearly 2000 m² and is bordered by Lake Edward and Lake George respectively to the west and the east or the Rwenzori Mountains to the north. The park was formerly known as Kazinga National Park, but was renamed QENP in 1954 to commemorate a visit by the British monarch (what a bosh!). Primarily associated with open savannah, like in Mweya or on Kasenyi Plains, the park is studded in many areas with dense cover of acacia and euphorbia trees and dotted with crater lakes. It also embraces large areas of swamp, the extensive Maramagambo Forest or Kyambura Gorge which is famed for its chimpanzees and overgrown with rainforest. Thanks to these different types of vegetation it is little wonder that QENP boasts one of the highest biodiversity ratings of any game reserve in the world.
 

Almost 100 mammal species and a remarkable 606 bird species makes this good safari territory, with elephant, a profusion of hippos, buffalos, lions and handsome Uganda kobs all regularly sighted around the tourist village on the Mweya Peninsula. The main acivities here are game drives and a launch trip on Kazinga Channel, which is particularly popular with birders. In the past much of the wildlife was wiped out by the retreating troops of Amin, Okello and the Tanzanian army, so don’t expect to see as much game as in Tanzanian or Kenyan parks. But numbers are recovering and wildlife tends to become more relaxed and less shy.

I visited the park twice and to me the most impressive part of the park is the remote Ishasha Sector, which harbours a high number of herbivores and carnivores. It’s not as accessible as Mweya and vehicles regularly get stuck on the potholed road to isolated Ishasha Camp. Very few other travellers find their way to Ishasha, which gives the place a very wild and lonesome atmosphere. The peaceful Ishasha Plains stretch out along the Congolese border and are well known for its tree-climbing lion population, which is most likely to be seen in arboreal action in the heat of the day. Unusual elsewhere in Africa, the tree-climbing behaviour here is a very common sight and might be observed throughout the year, albeit it’s difficult to imagine that they feel comfortable in the trees J.