The safari we went on in Queen Elizabeth Park in Uganda was probably the most complete and beautiful experience of our trip to Uganda.
We stayed two nights in the park, and during those two days, we did 3 activities:
- Game drive through the park looking for big cats and other animals that inhabit Queen Elizabeth. What you’d call a traditional safari.
- Trekking to see chimpanzees in the Kyambura Gorges.
- Boat safari along the Kazinga Channel to watch elephants coming down to drink, hippos, birds, and crocodiles.
The combination of these 3 activities, along with a lunch overlooking the park, made it the best part of Uganda, except for the Gorillas in Bwindi.
How to get to Queen Elizabeth National Park
We arrived from Kibale, where we had previously seen the chimpanzees in Kibale National Park. Before that, we had visited the Fort Portal lakes area, Murchison Falls, and the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.
Kibale is located in western Uganda and can be reached from Entebbe by road, but it’s a full day’s drive, so it can be tiring.
Another common route to include Queen Elizabeth Park is by following the classic gorilla route and entering from Kigali (Rwanda), as the airport is much closer.
In any case, the Ugandan government is building airports near the country’s most touristy areas. When they are finished, it will be easier to access these spots, and at the same time, as always happens, the whole area will become much more crowded.
So if you’re thinking about visiting Uganda now, it’s a great time if you want to visit a country that doesn’t have the tourist crowds of neighboring Tanzania and Kenya.
Why Queen Elizabeth National Park is worth visiting
What we liked most about the safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park was the variety of activities, the beauty of the place, and the way you see the animals.
Is it all positive? No. If you compare the 4×4 safari with a safari in the Serengeti or the Maasai Mara, it’s not the same. The number of animals you see in the Serengeti or Maasai Mara is much higher. So if you’re looking to see lots of animals without leaving the car, there are other more spectacular parks in neighboring Kenya or Tanzania.
But if you add up all the complementary activities you can do in the park, like the boat trip and the chimpanzee trekking in the Kyambura Gorges, it makes the Queen Elizabeth safari one of the best safari experiences you can have in all of Africa.
Activities inside the Park
Boat trip along the Kazinga Channel
The boat trip along the Kazinga Channel is one of the most beautiful things we’ve done in Uganda.
We left after lunch in a small boat with a maximum capacity of 8 people, but there were only 6 of us: a French couple and the 4 of us (Raquel, Xavi, our 3-year-old daughter, and Xavi’s mother).
We went with a park guide, started sailing, and began to see the first crocodiles, hippos, and a huge variety of birds. If you like birds, we can say that Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the best places to see birds in the wild.
The boat safari lasts about 2-3 hours and lets you see the animals quite close up. Being in a small boat, you get the feeling of being very close to nature.
The experience is so beautiful that you leave on cloud nine. And it wasn’t just us who felt that way; our first travelers to Uganda say exactly the same thing. The Kazinga Channel safari is a total must-see.
Trekking to see chimpanzees in the Kyambura Gorges
The trekking in the Kyambura Gorges is another memorable experience you can do in Queen Elizabeth. Only Raquel and I did the trek. My mother stayed with our daughter at the hotel. Chimpanzee viewing is not allowed if you are under 12 years old.
The Kyambura Gorges look spectacular from above—imagine a savanna with a sinkhole and a forest beneath the ground. That is, a savanna very similar to the Serengeti on top, and the famous Kyambura Gorges below ground.
The trek starts with a brief explanation from the rangers, with some tips and a warning that chimpanzee sightings are not guaranteed.
Once the explanations are over, they drive you to the entrance of the gorges, where we walked down a considerable slope to reach the bottom of the gorge where a forest and a river cross through. Once inside, everything changes: spectacular.
We were in a micro-world, with the feeling of being underground, with an ecosystem inside. We kept walking through a much easier area, listening to hippos, seeing huge trees inside a forest much denser than the savanna that makes up the national park.
We were a group of 4 adults, Raquel and I and two Swedes. The rangers told us they could form groups of 8 people maximum. So the trekking experience is much better going in a very small group. The trek is easy until you reach the chimpanzees; the rangers explained details of the forest we were seeing along the way.
We reached the chimpanzees:
Being a small group, we were able to watch them very peacefully. Some were in the trees and others were on the ground resting. Everything was very calm until, in a moment, everything changed.
Suddenly, they started screaming, moving, jumping through the tree branches, running along the ground, and we got a bit scared. What was happening?
The Ranger accompanying us looked at us calmly and said “don’t worry, don’t move, and don’t look them directly in the eye, it’s something between them,” “there are two females in heat and the males want to have sex with them,” “now they are fighting among themselves to see who gets to have sex with one of them.”
It was spectacular and at the same time we looked at each other a bit nervously; no one had warned us that the chimpanzees would start “going crazy” while we were there. Suddenly one came towards us, running—we couldn’t move, but I stood close to the ranger just in case. Raquel, who is braver with these things, was enjoying the show without seeing any kind of danger. The chimpanzee passed right by us.
Then came the calm, the silence…
I looked at our ranger; I needed explanations. She repeated that it was a fight for sex, but they weren’t fighting to hurt each other; they were just showing their power/strength without causing harm.
In fact, the rangers don’t know who the father of the infants is, they can only know the mothers, because it turns out they all end up having sex with each other, so they don’t know who the father really was.
With the calm restored, one chimpanzee approached us to greet the ranger. How did he greet her? By passing close to her legs, he gave her leg a little tap with his hand while she laughed. They were her friends; she had seen them every day for 3 years.
Given the spectacular experience we had, we were left wanting to ask our rangers many things. They stood out for their kindness and willingness to explain all kinds of details.
The ranger had been a ranger in various parks for 20 years, and she said that being a chimpanzee ranger was the most beautiful thing she had ever done. She confirmed they were such complex animals that they had become her favorites; every day was different for her and she didn’t want to leave that magical place.
It was time to go back; we said goodbye to the chimpanzees and returned by another path until we left the gorges. We got in the car, picked up our certificates, and went back to our accommodation.
Game drive in Queen Elizabeth
The game drive through Queen Elizabeth is the most typical African safari experience and the one I’ve left for last. A game drive is always beautiful and spectacular, but we had the problem that we were coming from Kenya and Tanzania and, therefore, it was easy to compare which was the better safari.
If you’ve never done a safari, you’ll love the Queen Elizabeth safari experience. On the other hand, if you’ve already done a safari in Tanzania or Kenya, you should have lower expectations as you’ll see fewer animals than in other parks in Kenya or Tanzania.
But, since nature is unpredictable, it gave us a surprise and we were able to see a lone leopard—a cat that’s hard to spot, and especially without other cars around. That’s the good thing about Uganda: the amount of tourism is much lower than in neighboring countries.
Where to stay in Queen Elizabeth Park?
We stayed in an accommodation in poor condition that we obviously won’t recommend to anyone. We weren’t uncomfortable, but the rooms weren’t good; plus, it had many stairs and the place was empty.
Since part of our job is looking for accommodations, we visited more places, from the simplest ones designed for backpackers to the most luxurious ones.
If you want to go on a safari in Queen Elizabeth Park, contact us and we’ll organize your Uganda safari.