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Thije Kor
NL
Visited:
December 2011
Reviewed: May 18, 2012
Email Thije Kor | under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic wildlife experience in an overly complicated park
This continued as I arrived at the chimp tracking site on a motor taxi. As it turned out, my reservation hadn't come through at all. Luckily I was able to take somebody else's place. Then there was the problem of my transport. I didn't have my
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own car, even though that's usually a requirement for the Chimp tracking safari, since the tour guide has to bring us to a yet to be defined location in the park (and of course the company doesn't have its own transportation). Unfortunately none of the at least six people I spoke to over the phone to try and make a reservation, had the courtesy of telling me this. Again luckily, I was able to drive along with another tourist who did have his own car.The Chimp tracking safari itself turned out to be amazing. Our tour guide, Stephanie, lead us through a lush piece of rainforest in the beautiful Kyambura gorge, sharing all sorts of information with us about the things we stumbled upon. The site wasn't the ideal place in Uganda to do Chimp tracking (this is most likely Kibale Forest NP), and we were aware of the reasonable possibility of not finding any chimps at all. After a three hour walk uphill, downhill, through bushes and pools of mud in the middle of the jungle, our guide finally spotted several chimps in the distance. Before that, we had already seen a wide range of tropical birds, hippos, baboons, crocodiles, velvet monkeys and an elephant. Even without the chimps it would've been worth the $50. Our guide was an absolute genius and the scenery was beyond beautiful
Almost every other activity happens all the way on the other side of the park, which is about an hour and a half away by car from the chimp tracking site. In the meantime you drive through scenic pieces of savanna, where elephants play games with each other, gazelles graze freely and baboons block the road just to take the piss out of you. Passing the main gate, you arrive at the Mweya peninsula, where you can find a tourist information office, a gas station, a cute restaurant/bar and a wide range of hotels and hostels. I can't judge any of these accommodations as I haven't spent a night in any of them, but the general opinion seems to be that they are remarkably good and well priced for national park standards. The scenery around here is once again brilliant, as you're surrounded by beautiful nature on one side and the stunning lake Edward and the Kazinga channel on the other side.
At the end of the afternoon I went downhill to the shores of the channel, to do the Channel launch trip. This is being done in a standard type touring boat in groups of about 20 people. This was an absolutely amazing experience not many other moments during my time in Uganda can compete with. From the upper deck of the boat I was able to see loads of elephants, hippos, African buffalos, crocodiles, gazelles and monitor lizards on the shore of the channel, living in peace with each other and not caring the slightest bit about us tourists coming so close. Our tour guide was a slightly nervous, but funny man, who enthusiastically provided us with tons of information about literally everything that moved around us. Lastly, seeing the sun setting above the horizon over Lake Edward was a very nice bonus.
Going back wasn't as much a pain in the ass getting there, but only because the staff of the fancy Mweya Safari Lodge were so kind to help me getting a taxi and use their phone to call him, even though I wasn't even a guest of theirs. The taxi brought me to the village of Katunguru, near the main entrance next to the freeway, seperating one side of Queen Elisabeth from the other. From there I was able to take public transport back to civilization.
All in all, Queen Elisabeth National Park provides some of the best tourist attractions in the whole country, for better prices than your average safari in Kenya or Tanzania. It's a major hassle to get there, and dealing with all the complications and the bureaucracy isn't easy if you're on a tight budget, but there's no doubt it's very much worth it.
anhowie
DK
Visited:
January 2006
Reviewed: May 3, 2012
35-50 years of age
Fantastic scenery and plenty of wildlife.
I have been to Q.E 15 times and just love this place. The views from the crater area is magnificent. A trip with the Jetty up Kazinga Channel is an absolutely must, the the bird life is second to none and watching the elephants coming for a swim at sunset is not bad either. I've all seen leopard there and of course plenty of hippos.
I've lived in Uganda 1998-2002 and have later been back to stay at Mweya lodge, witch I love!! The views are amazing and sitting by the flow over pool watching the the animals by the river with a sun downer after a day of safari....lost for words!
Anette from Denmark
My visit to QENP was brief but very enjoyable, fairly good game viewing in an exceptional setting.
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as inside the park itself, includng herds crossing in places. Heading back to Kampala next day we drove along the tar road and up to a couple of viewing areas overlooking the QENP - stunning views, and baboons on the road. Next time I hope to spend more time at QENP, perhaps in a different part of the park.
Gerhard Mauracher
AT
Visited:
August 2011
Reviewed: Apr 20, 2012
Email Gerhard Mauracher | 50-65 years of age
also wonderful birding on an boat trip on the channel , great game run in Ishasha
job2003
AU
Visited:
May 2008
Reviewed: Apr 18, 2012
50-65 years of age
Very exciting spotting lions and the leopard, the hippo in the Myweya resort was unforgettable, the trundling elephants were wonderful, the boat trip in the Kazinga Channel was worthwhile because it enabled us to get up close to the hippos and so many birds.
Really worth a visit. Here you can see lots of wildlife in a beautiful scenery.
Wilderness Adventure Camp
The lodge we stayed at was called Wilderness Adventure Camp. The lodge was a beautiful large dining hall, open to the wild on three sides. It also is on the shore of the Ngtungwe River, which as the guide says has an old resident hippo (and you will probably hear it grunting throughout the night).
One of the most unique features was the sleeping arrangements... Tents. I was very excited to go camping on the savannah (although in reality you are in more of a jungle than a plain). To my delight, the tents were incredibly clean, relatively bug free and had a porta-potty within. They were actually cleaner than many of the upper end resorts I stayed at.
The game drive started out quite well, one of
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the first sights you see is the natural destruction caused by elephants. If you think teenage vandals are bad, you should see what a bored herd of elephant can get up to!All the normal animals you'd expect to see are there: oribies, antelope, buffalo, waterbuck, warthogs, monkeys, baboons. The big draws are the elephants and lions. Oh wait, did I say lions, I meant tree lions!
That was definitely the highlight of the park for me. I never thought I would get to see lions hanging out in a tree. Hell, lions sleeping on the ground are pretty cool in my book. To up the ante even more, our guide had tea and coffee for us so we sat in our vehicle under a lion having tea and cookies.
The drive ended with us returning to the lodge at dusk with a storm raging behind us over the Blue Mountains in the Congo. It was one of the most beautiful and memorable experiences of my life.
Ruud
NL
Visited:
June 2010
Reviewed: Sep 26, 2011
20-35 years of age
pummel
GB
Visited:
August 2010
Reviewed: Sep 25, 2011
20-35 years of age
We saw a lot of wildlife in QE park - the boat trip was BRILLIANT, we saw a pride of lions eating a kill, ended up driving through a herd of elephant and saw all manner of other creatures. It seemed more developed than elsewhere with some fairly big hotel-style lodges (we stayed in a small lodge a bit more out of the way) which was the only negative I can think of.