US
50-65 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Aberdare National Park by WW
We enjoyed it the 3 times we were there but Treetops, The Ark and Outspan (we were there another time for a business conference) were just adequate accommodations. Even though The Ark was more upscale, the game experience wasn't great. I don't like being captive by having the animals come to the hotel water holes.
ES
20-35 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
The Uganda's National Park: The Queen Elizabeth
It is going to be 4 years since we went to Uganda, July 2008, our second destination in Africa in the south hemisphere. Our first destination was Botswana the year before and it made our trip: Kalahari, Okawango (Moremi), Savuti, Chobe river, Victoria Falls, all a "must-see".
This time we were thinking about the high mountains of central Africa. First option was Kilimanjaro, but we couldn't; so we thought about the Mountains of the Moon. We tried to arrange a hiking up to those mountains but we didn't have enough days for it. Finally we chose Uganda because all its highlitghted places: Virunga NP, Lake Bunyonyi, Bwindi Impenetrable NP, Rwenzori Mountains, Lake Victoria and Queen Elizabeth Park.
We went by our own with a driver and the Bradt guide under the arm. We entered the Q.E.N.P. by Ishasha where the climbing lions live, crossing tea plantations. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky and we couldn't enjoy the beauty of these feline although we saw a variety of animals: buffalos, impalas, monkeys, elephants, antelopes, and the screams of hippos in the river... When we arrived to the camp, we met a dutch guy who showed us the climbing lions on his videocamera. That's safari, luck.
We headed towards our cottage, typical round house with three beds with mosquito net and a oil lamp. The accomodation was fair for our budget and the toilettes I don't remember, but when you are in safari...
Next day we headed to Mweya, where the Q.E.N.P. headquarters are. The trip was a tough one due to the condition of the track. It rained and the dirt road was very muddy. Finally we arrived Mweya. We couldn´t afford the Mweya Safari Lodge, but it looked great. Actually we went there for a delicious dinner and for a whisky on the rocks, all of it for a very reasonable price. If I remember well, the whisky was 2 euros. We lodged at the Mweya Hostel which was simply ok, just for sleeping. That afternoon we took the boat that goes along the Kazinga channel, an extremely recommended activity. We watched lots of animals: hippos, buffalos, elephants, cocodriles, antelopes and, over all, birds, lot of them, it was a great spectacle. And the sunset over the Lake Edward, superb.
Next day, we took a loop around the Q.E.N.P. with no luck again, no felines sighted. We exited the park and we headed towards the close Kyambura Gorge where we enjoyed watching the chimpances jumping from tree to tree and the hippos bathing. And we left behind the Q.E.N.P. stopping at the equator line enjoying a fresh Nile Special.
Conclusion: we enjoyed being at Q.E.N.P. although we weren't lucky with felines. It is a very easy-to-handle park.
Here you can take a look of one of my videos there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI_aDSUC6vk
US
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Kruger National Park by Tommy
Kruger is an excellent place to view the bush from your car. Obviously, this takes away from the authenticity and vibe of the experience and is comparable to Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. However, Kruger is a great place to view game (although you often have to train your eyes for hours on the bush to see anything) and to get a quick taste of South African wildlife. Birding is somewhat difficult because you will be confined to roads.
US
under20 years of age | Experience level: first safari
Review about Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Game Reserve by Tommy
Great park for seeing rhinos but not so much for any more of the big 5. I would recommend it for photographers as the views are amazing.
NL
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Fantastic wildlife experience in an overly complicated park
Queen Elisabeth National Park is one of the most popular safari destinations in Uganda, but still you can go there and have the feeling you were one of the very few people around. The park offers many activities, from Jeep safaris to bird watching and chimp tracking. I started my day in QE with the latter, but days before actually getting there, I had to go through an overly complicated process of bureaucratic steps, arrangements and phone calls to make my reservations. It was almost as if they just made things as difficult as possible, so that you would just get so frustrated that you'd simply book an all inclusive arrangement at a tourism agency. Which, as a simple budget backpacker, I obviously didn't want.
This continued as I arrived at the chimp tracking site on a motor taxi. As it turned out, my reservation hadn't come through at all. Luckily I was able to take somebody else's place. Then there was the problem of my transport. I didn't have my own car, even though that's usually a requirement for the Chimp tracking safari, since the tour guide has to bring us to a yet to be defined location in the park (and of course the company doesn't have its own transportation). Unfortunately none of the at least six people I spoke to over the phone to try and make a reservation, had the courtesy of telling me this. Again luckily, I was able to drive along with another tourist who did have his own car.
The Chimp tracking safari itself turned out to be amazing. Our tour guide, Stephanie, lead us through a lush piece of rainforest in the beautiful Kyambura gorge, sharing all sorts of information with us about the things we stumbled upon. The site wasn't the ideal place in Uganda to do Chimp tracking (this is most likely Kibale Forest NP), and we were aware of the reasonable possibility of not finding any chimps at all. After a three hour walk uphill, downhill, through bushes and pools of mud in the middle of the jungle, our guide finally spotted several chimps in the distance. Before that, we had already seen a wide range of tropical birds, hippos, baboons, crocodiles, velvet monkeys and an elephant. Even without the chimps it would've been worth the $50. Our guide was an absolute genius and the scenery was beyond beautiful
Almost every other activity happens all the way on the other side of the park, which is about an hour and a half away by car from the chimp tracking site. In the meantime you drive through scenic pieces of savanna, where elephants play games with each other, gazelles graze freely and baboons block the road just to take the piss out of you. Passing the main gate, you arrive at the Mweya peninsula, where you can find a tourist information office, a gas station, a cute restaurant/bar and a wide range of hotels and hostels. I can't judge any of these accommodations as I haven't spent a night in any of them, but the general opinion seems to be that they are remarkably good and well priced for national park standards. The scenery around here is once again brilliant, as you're surrounded by beautiful nature on one side and the stunning lake Edward and the Kazinga channel on the other side.
At the end of the afternoon I went downhill to the shores of the channel, to do the Channel launch trip. This is being done in a standard type touring boat in groups of about 20 people. This was an absolutely amazing experience not many other moments during my time in Uganda can compete with. From the upper deck of the boat I was able to see loads of elephants, hippos, African buffalos, crocodiles, gazelles and monitor lizards on the shore of the channel, living in peace with each other and not caring the slightest bit about us tourists coming so close. Our tour guide was a slightly nervous, but funny man, who enthusiastically provided us with tons of information about literally everything that moved around us. Lastly, seeing the sun setting above the horizon over Lake Edward was a very nice bonus.
Going back wasn't as much a pain in the ass getting there, but only because the staff of the fancy Mweya Safari Lodge were so kind to help me getting a taxi and use their phone to call him, even though I wasn't even a guest of theirs. The taxi brought me to the village of Katunguru, near the main entrance next to the freeway, seperating one side of Queen Elisabeth from the other. From there I was able to take public transport back to civilization.
All in all, Queen Elisabeth National Park provides some of the best tourist attractions in the whole country, for better prices than your average safari in Kenya or Tanzania. It's a major hassle to get there, and dealing with all the complications and the bureaucracy isn't easy if you're on a tight budget, but there's no doubt it's very much worth it.
NL
under20 years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Uganda by Thije Kor
Uganda has several safari destination throughout the country. I haven't experienced much of that aspect of the country, but as far as I have, I can safely state that on some levels it can easily compete with the better parks in Kenya and Tanzania. It may not have such a diverse and big concentration of impressive wildlife as, say Masaai Mara, it also isn't packed with so many tourists and the prices are quite reasonable in comparisation. For birdwatchers Uganda might actually be the best country to visit in the whole of Africa. I am not one myself, but visiting Uganda made me very much aware of the beauty of birds for the first time in my life.
35-50 years of age | Experience level: over 5 safaris
Review about Mikumi National Park by Sheikh. Ghulam Sarwar
On the way to Zambia, the main roads is passing through the Mikumi park.
NL
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Mokala National Park by Harry and Grace Mateman
A new park a believe. Excellent accommodation and restaurant. We saw animals we didn't see in Kruger (tsessebe and sable antilope). Only dirt roads in the park.
NL
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Review about Marakele National Park by Harry and Grace Mateman
There is a unfenced tented camp, beautifully situated at a lake where we stayed a couple of days. You can drive up the mountain for a lovely view, or drive into the bush to see rhinos and other animals from nearby (watch my video of Marakele at youtube). Mix of dirt and tar roads.
NL
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
Quiet park with nice accommodation, good destination for a couple of days.
We spent 3 nights with a hired 2wd car. We stayed at a cottage at Leokwe camp (Mapungubwe East), which was very well equipped. There are some baobab trees and beautiful rocks in the camp and there is even a small swimmng pool. There are no fences at Leokwe camp, so wildlife can come to your doorstep. We saw klipspringers and many birds while having breakfast. In the evening we heard some noise in the dark ant saw a african civet, an animal we had never seen before. When we stayed here in februari 2010 we saw a couple of elephants near our cottage.
There are not many roads suitable for 2wd, but some more for 4wd. Now, as two years ago, we didn't see much wildlife in the eastern part of the park. You can go to the treetop hide and watch bee-eaters at the Limpopo river and a little further view the confluence of this river with the Shashe river. At the reception we were told that there were lions seen in this part of the park, we can hardly believe that, as several cows were roaming free in the park. Conclusion: in the eastern part of the park you won't see many wildlife, but the secenery is fine and you'll get "bush vibes".
In the western part we saw many more animals, especially from the Maloetswa hide.
We spent two mornings at the hide (and were all allone then) and saw a lot of animals and birds coming for a drink. In our video you can see what animals we saw within a couple of hours. The big five however was only represented by elephants (and there are a lot of them in the park). The tented camp at the western part also is unfenced and is situated in lovely open forest.
There are more campsites in the park which we didn't visit.
The weather was dry and very warm (in februari even warmer).
To travel from the eastern to the western part of the park you have to go out the gate at the reception as there is no internal connection between the two parts.
You can drive thorugh a graded road (20 km) or take the tar road to Pont Drift (40 km). We would not recommend the graded road for 2wd cars. Though when we drove this road two years ago we saw many elephants along this road.
When you have booked an accommodation you must check in at the reception at the eastern part of the park. Recently they have opened a small restaurant near the reception where you can have a meal. But remember from the reception to Leokwe camp the distance is 14 km, so it takes you at least half an hour to get back in time.
If you wish you can book a walk or drive at the reception.
