The history of Queen Elizabeth national park goes back as far as 1912, this is when the place was declared a restricted area after the outbreak of sleeping sickness. The locals that were living in the park by then doing agriculture and fishing were asked to move out and settle in the nearby areas. This created more land for wild animals because the area was depopulated.
When the area become big enough for different wildlife to survive, the British government decided to evict the few remaining people to create game reserves. They destroyed their homes and even killed the park animals forcing them to move to neighboring areas like DR Congo, Kasese, Bushenyi, Rukunguri, and many others to seek refuge.
In 1952, the large protected area was named Kazinga channel national park by the local people. The area has two game reserves one in the Ankole kingdom and the other in the toro kingdom and these were separated by the long water channel. In 1954, when Queen Elizabeth national park visited the places, two lakes Rutanzige and Katunguru found within the park were named after Queen Elizabeth’s father George, and uncle Edward
The present day Queen Elizabeth national park started to be famous in 1954 after the visit of the British monarch to the park. From the visit of the Queen, the Kazinga channel was donated to connect Ankole to Toro kingdom and from there the two game reserves named lake George and lake Edward were merged to form Queen Elizabeth national park
During the visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1954, she held a meeting at a now called Queen pavilion where she held a meeting with three traditional leaders from Ankole, Toro, and Bunyoro. From this meeting to remember her visit to the park, the government decided to change the park name from Kazinga channel to Queen Elizabeth national park.
About Queen Elizabeth national park
Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the oldest protected areas gazetted in 1952. The national park is the second largest in the country occupying 1978sq.km after Murchison falls national park of 3983 sq. km. This national park is home to 600 bird species, 95 mammal species, and 10 primate species. There is a lot of wildlife in Queen Elizabeth national park but what makes it famous are the tree climbing lions seen on big tree branches in the Ishasha sector of the park.
Queen Elizabeth national park expands to districts like Kasese, Rubirizi, Rukungiri, and Kamwenge. Uganda wildlife is the government body managing and controlling this park and it’s said for the past years the population of wildlife keeps on increasing. The national park is home to 4 big mammals which are lions, buffaloes, elephants, and leopards seen in any of the areas of the park.
Queen Elizabeth national park is also home to the highest number of hippos in the world and these are seen in the Kazinga channel which goes through the park while connecting lake George and lake Edward. The national park is one of the most visited in the country recovering one of the highest numbers of visitors a year.
There are a lot of tourism activities done in Queen Elizabeth national park and they include birding, game drives, Kazinga channel boat cruise, nature walks, chimpanzee trekking in Kyambura, and community tours among others. These activities can be done at any time of the year because the park is always open
Accessing Queen Elizabeth national park
Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the areas that is accessed by both air transport and road transport. By road transport, travelers can access the park from Kampala via Masaka, Mbarara, Bushenyi, to Rubirizi, or from Kampala via Mubende, Kyenjonjo, fort portal, to Kasese and these two routes take 7-8 hours driving.
By air transport, tourists can get to Queen Elizabeth national park using chattered flights from Kajjansi airstrip or Entebbe international airport to Mweya airstrip or Kasese airstrip. To fly to Queen Elizabeth national park, you need to book with airline companies such as Aerolink Uganda and Bar Aviation Uganda in advance. The flights take 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to Mweya where a driver guide drives you for a short time to your booked accommodation facility.
Best time to visit
Queen Elizabeth national park can be visited at any time of the year however certain periods are better than the est. The dry season has been proven to be the best time to visit the park and this is from June to September and December to February. The season is characterized by too little or no rainfall that makes the game tracks dry, vegetation is short and scattered with good views of the attractions and the roads leading to the park are passable.
Travelers can also visit Queen Elizabeth national park in the rainy season of March to May and October to November and this favors budget travelers because the lodges are at a discount. Travelers should know that the rainy season has a lot of rainfall that makes the game tracks muddy and slippery, vegetation is tall and thick with unclear views of the attractions and the roads to the park are impassable.
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