3-Day Queen Elizabeth National Park Safari with Kazinga Channel Cruise

After breakfast, we will set off on the southbound road.

Stop to see the Royal Drum Makers, stand on the Equator and be in both hemispheres at once, and thereafter proceed to Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Continue through savanna grasslands, seeing banana plantations and herds of Ankole cattle with their incredible long, curving horns. Queen Elizabeth hosts a large variety and volume of wildlife. The park shelters 95 mammal species, while the bird list is 612 species long. Animals include hippos, lions, buffaloes, leopard, spotted hyena, and the elusive giant forest hog. The primates include chimps, black and white colobus monkeys, blue monkeys, black-faced red colobus, red-tailed monkeys, and olive baboons.

After checking in and having some time to relax, head for a late afternoon game drive.

Spot elephants, waterbucks, warthogs, hippos, and others.

After breakfast, go for a morning game drive onto the rolling plains, where you can view lions, giraffe, hartebeest, buffalo, and elephant, as well as many of the other mammals of the park. For the birders amongst you, these areas support the secretary bird, black-chested snake eagle, tawny and martial eagles, carmine and swallow-tailed bee-eaters, to name just a few.

In the afternoon, take a boat trip along the Kazinga Channel, which gives you the opportunity to view wildlife up close: hippos huff and spray merely a foot away from the boat, while buffalo linger in the shallows. The shores of the channel are also home to an array of birds, including pink-backed pelicans, pied and malachite kingfishers, saddle-billed stork, and many others.

After this wonderful afternoon, enjoy a slow drive back to the lodge.

Head to Kampala and make stops at the Mpigi Royal Drum Makers.

Here, you will be able to watch the ceremonial drums being crafted using methods passed down through generations.

There will also be time to stop at the Equator for photographs, and you will arrive in Kampala in the early afternoon.

Transfer to your hotel or to the airport for your flight back home.