Kazinga Channel is a 40km long natural channel that connects the wetland fringed Lake George and Lake Edward in the biosphere park of Queen Elizabeth National Park. The channel is a popular highlight on all tailored Uganda wildlife safari experience, offering rewarding boat cruise safari expereince to encounter a diversity of both game and an excellent birdlife. The shallow and slow moving channel boasts the highest concentration of wildlife including the densest population of hippos, crocodiles, elephants, buffalo and more.
Kazinga channel bisects Queen Elizabeth NP into two unique and contrasting habitats. On the channel’s eastern banks, extensive woodlands and grasslands hide the riverine forest valley of apes of Kyambura gorge known for its incredible chimpanzee trekking experiences. The western channel banks are flanked by the game-rich grasslands of Kasenyi that offer rewarding game drive experiences where you get close to a wide range of iconic African game. South of Kasenyi grasslands is a scenic landscape poked by a dozen explosion crater lakes.
Boat Safari Experience Options on the Kazinga Channel
Kazinga Channel offers a variety of boat cruise safari options aimed at different interest from wildlife viewing cruises to dedicated boat cruises and to leisure cruises to catch sunrises and sunsets. Here are the few;
Wildlife-viewing Boat cruise Safaris
Kazinga Channel is known for its highest concentration of wildlife including the densest population of hippos, nile crocodile, elephant and more game that come to drink at the channel. Scheduled boat cruise trips sets off from Mweya jetty to follow along the channel’s shoreline towards the mouth of Lake Edward, offering close-up views of hippo pods, Nile monitor and Nile crocodile.
The channel banks also attract large herbivores including large herds of savanna elephants, cape buffalo while the shy giant forest hog and leopard are becoming a popular sighting while on a boat cruise safari. Once in a while lion, leopard and hyena is spotted.
The Kazinga Channel is a prime birding hotspot where a checklist of over 110 species comprises of waterfowl and water associated species occur. This impressive checklist includes, African Skimmer, African Spoonbill, Grey Heron, Yellow-billed Stork, Saddle-billed Stork, Egyptian Geese, Great Cormorant, Pink-backed Pelicans, Great White Pelicans and more. The channel also hosts millions of Palearctic migrants that winter here between September and April.and an excellent birdlife
Specialized birding cruises will need to explore further north of the channel and near Lake George to seek the elusive Lake Victoria biome species local in the papyrus stands. These include among others the Papyrus Gonolek, Caruthers’s cisticola, White-winged Swamp Warbler and even the Shoebill, which is a mega tick.
The woodland stands host the African Fish Eagle, Gabar Goshawk, African Darter, Palm-nut Vulture, Malachite, Pied and Giant Kingfisher.