Queen Elizabeth National Park

SO MANY ELEPHANTS!!!

Sorry, just had to get that out of the way. Yesterday I took a trip up to QENP: the Mweya Peninsula area next to the Kazinga Channel that connects Lakes Edward and Albert. I started off the day at 6 am when Peter, my driver and new best friend in Uganda, came by Mbarara to pick me up. Peter is a real character. He punctuates every sentence with "Ne!" and throwing a hand up to his cheek. I slept for most of the two hour drive. I woke up as we entered the park, just in time to see a herd of at least 8 elephants grazing by the side of the road. There was an enormous matriarch, a couple other full grown females, and a whole slew of juveniles and babies. They were incredibly peaceful and took barely any notice of our car. We stayed and watched them for around 5 minutes before they wandered off into the scrub brush.

We then picked up our park ranger guide, whose English was impeccable. We went around the kob breeding grounds for our game drive. Ugandan kobs are, along with the crested crane, the national animal of this country. They're a beautiful antelope that is reminiscent of the impala but a bit bigger and sturdier. We watched them courting and grazing for a while while catching glimpses of an amazing amount of bird species. We almost saw a lion (it was on the far side of a tree and another safari group had spotted it) but I couldn't afford to pay $150 to drive off road. Which is a ridiculous sum but understandable given that they don't want people driving off road because many birds and reptiles nest on the ground and could be easily killed by cars. Still, a bit disappointing.

It was brutally hot by 9:30 in the morning and the landscape here was the essence of what you imagine when you think of Africa. The yellowed grass came up to mid thigh and was only occasionally interrupted by candelabra cactus/trees (the base looks like a tree while the top looks like a cactus) and small bushes. We also had a chance to explore a different environment around some crater lakes. This park is in the Rift Valley region, where there's a major fault line pushing apart the valley along the Kazinga Channel. This fault line instigated volcanic activity that formed intense craters filled with salty and sulphuric water. Those were quite dramatic.

QENP is a good example of conservation efforts trying to work with local residents who were displaced when it was gazetted. 30% of entrance fees are paid to those villages, who have used the proceeds to build schools and a hospital. Inside the park there's a village that collects salt from the lakes as they dry out during this season. There are some other villages that are allowed to fish in the lakes. When neighboring cattle farmers come into conflict with lions and leopards, they usually try to poison the cats but this park has been attempting to create radio stations where herders can report problems and park rangers can come collect the cats and bring them back inside the boundaries of the park.

Peter and I also went on the channel boat launch. Again- so many elephants! There was a lone bull elephant grazing on the opposite shore as we departed. There were also numerous buffaloes and hippos enjoying the cooling shallow waters. As we floated along there was another large herd of female and baby elephants grazing and drinking water from the channel. At one point there was a medium sized crocodile basking in the sun about 3 feet away from a small group of buffalo eying it warily but still going about their business. Finally, we saw a sizable mixed flock of Maribu storks, cormants, herons, pelicans, and pied king fishers watched over by a fish eagle in the tree above.

As we were exiting the park we ran into another herd of elephants, which was a perfect way to end the day.