Best Time for Game Drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park is one of the fabulous parks with diverse habitats ranging from tropical forests and marshes to classic savanna plains. The park is home to over 95 mammals and 10 Unique primates, making it a top game viewing destination in the country. Travellers and wildlife enthusiasts intending to conduct game drive safaris in the park always ask about the best time for game drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park would be.

This article will give you an insight based on different months of the year that are condusive for any traveller to visit the park. This park is one of the country’s strongholds with the highest concentration of mammals, making it famous and drawing visitors from different parts of the world. The park has two climatic seasons with 2 dry seasons and 2 rainy seasons. The dry season occurs from June to September and December to February, while the rainy season occurs from March to May and October to November.

What is the best time for game drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park

The dry seasons

Travellers and several travel experts agree that the best time of year to visit Queen Elizabeth National Park is during the dry season. The months of June, July, August, December, January, and February are considered to be the dry season. During this season, the park receives intermittent rainfall during the dry season, making it an excellent destination to enjoy most of the park’s activities.

The roads leading to the park are dry and passable during the dry season; therefore, the trekkers’ speed is unaffected. Additionally, game tracks inside the park are dry and non-slip, allowing them to traverse most of the park and boosting the likelihood of sighting more animals.

During dry seasons, the park’s vegetation is short and thin, making it easier to observe the animals. More still, there is a scarcity of food, forcing constant movements of animals throughout the park, increasing the chances of spotting them.  Additionally, visitors can observe several park animals attempting to quench their thirst and graze on the new vegetation along the channel while on a boat excursion.

The rainy season

Even during the rainy season, Queen Elizabeth National Park is open for game drives at any time of the year. Few tourists visit Queen Elizabeth National Park during the rainy season because it is not the best time of year to engage in game drive activities. Due to the low number of visitors to the national park, this is the reason as to why the rainy season is also referred to as the low season.

In Queen Elizabeth National Park, the rainy season occurs in March, April, May, October, and November. There is a lot of rainfall during the rainy season, which makes game drives unpleasant for visitors. The roads leading to the park are in terrible condition, the game pathways are muddy and slippery, and the tall, dense vegetation makes it difficult to see the park animals.

Due to heavy rains, the wet seasons do draw some visitors, but those who do so benefit a lot. This is because most of the lodges offer discounts to clients that lower the travel cost, mainly benefiting budget travellers whose budget is always tight. Lucky visitors may come to the park when the game tracks are a little dry because the park doesn’t get a lot of rain every day.

The game drive experience in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Queen Elizabeth National Park offers morning, evening, and nighttime game drives. For safety concerns, UWA ranger guides lead the nighttime game drives; the daytime game drives are unguided. During game drives, visitors are driven to various parts of the park where the animals typically gather.

Top site areas for day game drives include the Ishasha sector, Mweya Peninsula, and Kasenyi plains, among others. Wildlife species to see include the famous tree-climbing lions, leopards, lions,bushbucks, warthogs, elephants, side-striped jackals, waterbucks, buffalo, giant forest hogs, sitatunga, topi, cape buffalo, hippos, spotted hyenas, olive baboons, and other primates.

For those who wish to witness nocturnal wildlife, the night game drive offers an additional park experience. When nocturnal animals are out searching for food, especially predators, the activity is carried out during the dark hours. Only the Mweya peninsula, which lies between Lake Edward and the Kazinga Channel, is used for night wildlife drives in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

During night game drives, park rangers and guides use powerful spotlights to see lions, leopards, serval cats, genets, hippos, and civets, among others.  Other non-nocturnal wildlife species to see include buffalo, elephants, and antelope species, which will be seen sleeping. Since the night game drives involve armed park rangers, this means that they are not free, so visitors should make appropriate plans.

Accessing Queen Elizabeth National Park for game drives

Queen Elizabeth National Park can be reached in 1:30 minutes by plane for affluent tourists or those who detest long flights. Flights to the park are arranged by airlines such as Aerolink Uganda and Bar Aviation Uganda. The flights depart from Entebbe International Airport or Kajjansi Airport and arrive at Mweya Airstrip or Kasese Airfield.

There are two ways for visitors to enter the park via road transport from Kampala. The first route is from Kampala/Entebbe via Masaka, Mbarara, Bushenyi, and Kasese. The second way to go to the park is from Kampala and goes through Mubende, Kyenjojo, Fort Portal, and Kasese. Visitors can drive through Kihihi and Kanungu to get to the park from the Buhoma sector of Bwindi.

Accommodation on a game drive safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park

There are many accommodation options both inside and outside Queen Elizabeth National Park, so visitors don’t need to worry about where they will stay while on a game drive safari. Tourists stay where they can afford, and these accommodations range from low-cost to mid-range to luxury options. Thes facilities include Elephant Hub, Mweya Safari Lodge, Jacana Lodge, Kazinga Channel View Resort, Kingfisher Lodge, Elephant Hub Lodge, Elephants Plain Lodge, Red Chilli Hideaway, Pumba Safari Camp, Kyambura Gorge Lodge, Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge, Ishasha Wilderness Camp, Katara Lodge, and are a few of the lodging options available on a game drive safari.