Queen Elizabeth National Park

Founded in 1952, Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the most famous and oldest national parks in Uganda. It was named after a visit by Queen Elizabeth in 1954 and covers an area of 1978 km² in the west of the country. With its diverse landscape, the park offers some natural highlights and is well suited for wildlife viewing.

Starting with the very large animals, the park is now home to an estimated 3000 elephants again, after the number had dropped to about 200 in the 1980s. Nevertheless, the animal population is still threatened. On the one hand by poachers and on the other hand by herdsmen who come to the park with their large herds of cattle. Besides elephants, the park is home to Cape buffalo, Defassa waterbuck, bushbuck, Bohor reedbuck and the rare Sitatunga antelope. Warthogs and the brush-eared pig also occur. Very rarely tree lions and leopards are also sighted.

The park's diverse landscape includes open savannah and scrubland, as well as swamps, rivers, lakes and even tropical wet forests. Between Lake Edward in the west and Lake George in the east runs the Kazinga Channel, which is about 40 km long. River cruises along the canal are a great way to observe the diverse wildlife that has settled along the edge of the river. At the lower end of the canal live mainly buffalos and elephants, while predators such as lions tend to live at the upper end of the canal.

Two other hihglight of the park are Lake Edward and Kyambura Gorge, also called the "Valley of Apes" because chimpanzees live there. It is located on the northern edge of Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The best time to visit the park is from June to September or December to March, as it is dry and all places are easily accessible by car.