The Queen's Land

We rose early in Bunyonyi and hit the road for the long drive to Mweya Lodge, the base for our time in Queen Elizabeth National Park. While the actual road mileage was fairly reasonable (240km), the physical time on the road was significant (over 6 hours) as the majority of the trip was off the paved roads and on dirt that was under construction to someday be 'tarmac'd.'

The park, which rests on the southern edge of the equator, is a huge flatland surrounded by tall hills and cliffs with many craters and lakes in the large valley, the most notable being Lake George & Lake Edward as well as the connecting 40km Kazinga Channel. Pretty interesting fact that this water eventually makes its way to The Nile, in the northwestern corner of the country. Mweya Lodge sits on a peninsula that ends at the confluence of The Channel & Lake Edward, and from the lodge we enjoyed water views in all directions.Though we just spent a few days enjoying safaris in the park we were very lucky to see an amazing array of animals. Just during our drive into the park we saw elephant, waterbuck, kob, warthog, buffalo, baboon, and even a lion. We saw large cats every day, two of those experiences being the absolute highlights of our time in the park. One being our first night in the park where we were lucky to see not one but two leopards – the female spending more than five minutes with us in the plain-open before she sauntered off into the jungle. The other, on the following evening, where we enjoyed sunset beers with a pride of eight active and playful lions. They wrestled and growled and even jumped up on an ant hill just a few feet from the car. Absolutely spectacular. Aside from these amazing cats, the park is filled with most other expected safari creatures, though it lacks zebra and giraffe. There were so many waterbuck, kob & warthog that we took to calling them hamburgers, frenchfries and meatballs, respectively. 

The majority of our 6 hour drive to QEP looked like this

As we crested the final hill, we were awarded with this gorgeous view of the valley of the park

And saw many animals just on the main road, as we made our way to the lodge

Saw a baboon or two

And even a small herd of elephant

The park is littered with so many craters – some with water, both fresh and salt, and some dry

And finally we made it to the lodge for a late lunch

To get there we drove out, nearing the end of this peninsula – Lake Edward on the left and the Kazinga Channel on the right

From our lunch table we were able to spot waterbuck, hippo and even elephant across the channel

The big treat for our first official game drive was this female leopard

Kristin viewing from the car

We spent the last few minutes of daylight with her – our guide lit her up with the headlights in hopes that she would stand up and give us a show

All as the sun set in front of us 

A show she did give us, as she approached the car

And slinked off into the brush as the final rays of sun dropped below the horizon

Back at it the next morning in hopes of catching some similar excitement to our evening with the cats

There were many of these eagles all around the lake – they look very similar to our bald eagle, but they have white on the tail and are called Fish Eagle

We were also lucky enough to stumble upon this National Geographic event

And did find some cats in the morning, but as we discovered lions are particularly lazy during the days

We visited one of the craters for lunch – in this one, the villages harvest salt

And I spotted a unicorn

After lunch we headed over to Lake George and saw the local fishermen getting a little too close to the hippos (for our comfort at least)

These are the boats they fish from – very tippy and flimsy when compared with a hippo jaw

And it's not few, but many that brave the waters every day

Kristin and me above one of the salt water craters – this one where the injured waterbuck go to heal

After lunch we boarded a small boat for a water game drive along the Kazinga Channel

And saw tons of hippos keeping cool in the water

Along with tons of waterbuck

Hippos upon hippos upon hippos

A risky proposition to lounge in the water, though they didn't seem to mind

Even a few baby hippos – we learned that a mother with has a male baby must take  and hide him from the group and raise him alone or else the father hippo will kill the baby

We got very up close and personal with these big guys

And even saw some of the looming danger

Kristin aboard the boat looking up at a fishing village on the channel – villagers swim and bathe in the water just meters from hippos and gators

More boats that brave the water for their catch

Back in the car for an evenings game drive – a drive that ended up being the highlight of our trip

It started off slow with a kob here and there

As well as a handful of these big waterbuck

Amd buffalo of course

And as the list got amazing, we found our pride of 8 lion

And enjoyed beers, peering our of our safari vehicle, snapping pics

One of the few young males we saw sauntered on over

Followed by many others in the pride

And they growled and wrestled just 30' from the car

And continued to give us just an incredible show

As the sun dropped more and cast beautiful orange light on them

We were shocked by how much they disappeared once they lay down in the tall grass

This young lady may have given us the best show of all

And I snapped pics as long as I could until the last light – this one with the aid of some headlights

Following a huge thunderstorm in the evening, we woke to continued rain for the morning so chilled out at the lodge and each got some massages

But when the sun cleared we headed back out to try and find our pride again

With the rain, the animals were not easy to find, but we did stumble on this elephant herd escorting a 4 month old baby through the bush

As well as a few meatballs

And just as the evening was wrapping up, we found a few of the pride – this male limping from injuries likely sustained on the previous evening's hunt

Sunrise over the Kazinga Channel – the view from our bed

Our final morning we packed up, and drop out for one last viewing

And found this huge herd of elephant

Looking for the big cats we honed in on some clumped kob

It was difficult to find them, but we spotted this beauty in the trees – apparently when they gorge themselves it's more comfortable on their bellies to be in the air

After a very successful few days in Queen Elizabeth National Park we head out across the equator

But not first without this goofy shot