Queen Elizabeth National Park is Uganda's most heavily visited game park. It covers an area of 2090 km2 around lake Edward and Lake George, at the foot of the Ruwenzori Mountains ('Mountains of the Moon') in the west of the Great Rift Valley. Here you will find an East-African savannah region with hills and open grasslands dotted with cactus-like candelabra trees and sunken crater lakes. The highlights are the Kazinga Channel and Chambura Gorge.
Queen Elizabeth National Park contains a wide variety of habitats, which means that the abundance of animals can quite rightfully be referred to as royal. It includes almost 100 different types of mammal. The concentrations of game are recovering well from the war that was waged here in the 1980s and elephants, lions, leopards, baboons, chimpanzees and the Ugandan kob antelope are already a common sight.
A visit to Queen Elizabeth National Park is not complete without a boat trip across the Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake Edward and Lake George. The channel is 32 kilometres long and is said to be home to the largest concentration of hippos in the world. Notably enough, however, there are not many crocodiles or Nile crocodiles here. A boat trip over the Kazinga Channel will give you opportunity to see many of the 606 different species of bird and perhaps even the extraordinary shoebill.
Maramagambo Forest lies to the south of the channel. It is one of the largest forests in Uganda and home to large numbers of chimpanzees and various other types of monkey. You can also visit the volcanic caves, home to thousands of bats and African Rock Pythons.
On a clear day in Mweya, it is possible to see the snow-covered mountain peaks of the Ruwenzori Mountains, some of which reach 5,000 metres into the sky. Mweya Peninsula is an ideal place to view vast herds of elephant, buffalo and the 'giant forest hog'.
On the north-eastern border of Queen Elizabeth National Park lies Chambura Gorge, an area that would suit Tarzan well, with densely leaved trees and vines that reach all the way down to the soft undergrowth. The path here takes you downwards into the gorge and past chimpanzees that swing from tree to tree and chatter noisily with one another while perched high in the treetops.
