There are so many incredible national parks in Uganda that in ten months we'll probably only make it to half of them. After hiking to see the gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Forest, the next park on our list was Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP), which is famous for its tree-climbing lions. QENP is only a few hours from our house and after hearing that a few other teachers wanted to explore it as well, we hired a car and spent the weekend there.
Since it can be a bit expensive to stay inside the park, we opted to stay at nearby Kingfisher Lodge which offered a beautiful pool and rooms overlooking the savannah. We arrived on Friday afternoon and immediately took off for a sunset safari. On the way to the park entrance we were greeted by many families of curious monkeys looking for a handout. The evening safari was fun because the air was cool, the scenery was gorgeous and the animals were active. We saw elephants, a variety of antelope, water buffalo and too many interesting birds to count. We were also very lucky to spot two tree-climbing lions napping in the branches on our way out. We only covered a bit of the 760 square miles that the park has to offer before the sun went down and we headed back to the lodge.
Queen Elizabeth National Park is known for being one of the better parks in Uganda to see a large variety of wildlife including African buffalo, Ugandan kob, hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, elephants, leopards and chimpanzees. However, it is most famous for being the home of tree-climbing lions, whose males have black manes. Part of the reason for the abundance of wildlife is the access to water - the park extends from Lake George in the north-east to Lake Edward in the south-west and includes the Kazinga Channel connecting the two lakes. It was originally called Kazinga National Park but was renamed two years later to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth II.
On our second day, we had a morning safari and then stopped for lunch at one of the more expensive lodges inside the park. For me, the highlight of the day was hanging out with the piles of sleeping mongooses which could be found napping under the trees on the grounds of the park - they were super cute! We spent the afternoon on a three-hour boat ride that took us the length of the channel and back and allowed us to get up close to hippos, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo, lizards and birds. Without a doubt, it was some of the best wildlife viewing I've ever had the opportunity to witness as being in a boat was much quieter and less obtrusive then rumbling around on dirt roads in a safari jeep.
That evening we had a long ride back to our lodge and went to bed early in anticipation of an early start and the drive back to Mbarara. After having spent the weekend at QENP, I can now understand why it's one of the more popular national parks to visit in Uganda and I highly recommend if you ever get the chance.
