Boat Cruise In Queen Elizabeth National Park : Queen Elizabeth national park is known to be the largest and most toured national park in Uganda. It’s located in the southwestern region in districts of kasese, kamwenge, Rubirizi and Rukungiri. It’s a home to wildlife including 95 animal species such as elephants, buffaloes, leopards, hippos, bushbucks, giant forest hog, crocodiles, tree climbing lions in the ishasha sector, primates like black and white colobus monkeys, red-tailed monkeys, chimpanzee and baboons, 600 bird species such as African fish eagle, squaccon heron, papyrus gonolek, African spoonbills, open billed stork, wattled plover among others.

BOAT CRUISE ON KAZINGA CHANNEL

The boat cruise trips within queen Elizabeth national park are done from the kazinga channel, a channel that connects lake Edward as well as George and its 40km. the boat cruise within the national park is managed by the uganda wildlife authority and mweya safari lodge and it’s done in two phases that is morning that begins at 9am and afternoon that starts at 2pm at a landing side that is next to mweya safari lodge.

While on the boat cruise at kazinga channel, tourists move slowly through the channel while watching animals such as buffaloes, warthogs, antelopes, elephants which are spotted while drinking water on the water banks, large herds of hippos as well as crocodiles in water and many more. The channel is also known to be a bird’s haven and best for a birding safari. The channel is a home to birds such as black crake, African skimmer, swamp fly catcher, red capped lark, grey capped lark, pink backed pelican, pied kingfisher, pink backed pelican, long tailed cormorant, open billed stork, slender tailed nightjar, African mourning dove among others. Tourists are able to see local fishing villages as they try to lay their fishing gears for the night catch as the hippos are grazing on land.

WHEN TO GO FOR A BOAT CRUISE

The boat cruise activity can be done anytime throughout the year but the best time is during the dry seasons within the months of June to September  and December to February. Within this period the kazinga channel experiences little or no rainfall at all. Thus, making the channel to be a sanctuary of animals because they gather around to loosen up their bodies as well as drinking water. This makes them to be visible and making photography to be easy.

COST OF THE BOAT CRUISE

There are two scheduled sessions about the boat cruise at the kazinga channel that is morning and afternoon but mostly tourists go for the afternoon session because its more rewarding than the morning section. Tourists usually engage in the game drive around the kasenyi plains in the morning and later in the evening head for the boat cruise. The boat cruise at the kazinga channel costs 30USD for foreign non residents as well as foreign residents and 30,000 UGX for east African citizens. The boat cruise session lasts for 2 hours.

While on a boat cruise safari, tourists are encouraged to carry some equipment’s such as a hat that protects them from direct sunlight, pairs of binoculars to view birds in far distances as well as a camera plus extra batteries. Tourists can as well engage in other activities such as game drives, lion tracking, chimpanzee trekking, nature walk.

 Boat cruise on kazinga channel within queen Elizabeth national park is an activity that gives tourists breathtaking views of various animal species, vegetation types and various bird species. Since the boat cruise activity can be combined with other activities within the national park which makes the safari amazing and memorable.