The Kazinga Channel is a wide, 32km long natural channel that links Lake Edward and Lake George, and a dominant feature of Queen Elizabeth National Park in western Uganda. The channel attracts a varied range of animals and birds, with one of the world’s largest concentration of hippos and numerous Nile crocodiles.
Lake George is a small lake with an average depth of only 2.4m and which is fed by streams from the Rwenzori Mountains. Its outflow is through the Kazinga Channel which drains into Lake Edward, water levels fluctuating very little.
In 2005, large numbers of hippos were killed in the channel as a result of an anthrax outbreak, which occurs when animals eat remnants of vegetation in the driest months, absorbing bacterial spores that can live for decades in dry soil.
Boat cruise safari at Kazinga channel is probably the most popular activity in the Queen Elizabeth National Park.
Boats leave the landing site below the Mweya Safari Lodge four times a day and the trip takes about two hours. You can take this slow boat cruise along the edge of the channel and see about a third of the hippo population of Queen Elizabeth Park amounting to over 1,600 hippos in total approximately. That alone is simply incredibly and those hefty creatures are simply amazing and if you are staying in the Mweya area you can hear them munching the grass at night. It’s one place in Uganda where you can find tourists in numbers.
Buffalo and elephant are seen in the afternoon sun bathing, crocodiles, monitor lizards are also virtually guaranteed. You can see the giant Nile Monitor Lizard, the biggest lizard that can be found in Africa, along with a wealth of bird life. You get to see fish eagles throwing their heads back and making the most extraordinary calls.
Visitors with great birding desire can easily spot 60 species of birds on average in the 2-hour boat trip along Kazinga Channel alone. These water birds on the channel include; the Black-beef eater, Black-rumped buttonquail, 11 different species of Kingfisher, several Falcons, African skimmer, the Great White and Pink-Backed Pelicans, African Shoebill, Yellow Billed Stork, Great and Long Tailed Cormorants, Open-Billed Stork, Saddle Bill Stork, Darters, Black Crake and Jacana.
You will also get a chance to see men from the fishing village of Kazinga on the opposite shore of the channel to Mweya, setting out in their flimsy boats for the night’s fishing. They go out at night to avoid the hippos which graze on land at night and spend the days in the water.
It’s also interesting to watch elephants and the goats interacting, not something you see in your average “Western world” wildlife park. These goats are not wild so they run home just before it gets dark, but it’s amazing to see them suddenly remember an urgent appointment back in the village, and they all make their way home.
The boats at the Kazinga channel boat come with expert Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) ranger guides who narrate the creatures’ stories. You can rent a smaller boat through the Mweya Safari Lodge and take a private boat ride, the boats are covered and have the most comfortable time along the Kazinga Channel.
There were no crocodiles in Queen Elizabeth Park and Kazinga Channel for eight to ten thousand years. It is only since the middle of the last century that crocodiles reappeared in Queen Elizabeth Park as paths opened for them from the Semliki River to Lake Edward and beyond.
