An Entertaining Wildlife Cruise on the Kazinga Channel

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We’d reached the halfway point – Day 6 of my Uganda Highlights tour. What began as my quest for shoebills quickly morphed into a regular maelstrom of butterflies, frequent big game sightings, and – as luck would have it – some fine feathered friends. Uganda had made a very positive impression thus far, and the afternoon promised to continue that trend. We were scheduled to spend a couple hours on a boat, seeing all the birds and other wildlife Queen Elizabeth National Park could offer.

A Morning Drive

We started our day with a big game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park, during which we spotted more birds than big game. Not entirely unexpected from a group of birders, eh? The weather wasn’t particularly good, a bit dreary to start the day. But we were able to stand through the vehicle roofs during the drive, which I thought was great fun.

Sometimes we have long days in the vehicles. I appreciate any time I can stand up, honestly. But also I felt like a total safari pro, taking my photos out of the vehicle like a champ. (It really did not improve the quality of my photography, btw.)

After a pleasant drive, and some ensuing drizzle, we headed back to our lodge for a brief birding interlude. We had an actual, honest-to-goodness, not-stuck-in-a-vehicle break for a little while, which doesn’t happen often. So… that was weird. It was a time to relax, re-charge camera batteries, connect to wifi. Ya know, normal activities. Or go birding around the lodge. Stuff like that.

After the Intermission

By early afternoon we loaded up in the vehicles again for the day’s big adventure! We were headed back through Queen Elizabeth National Park to our wildlife cruise.

The Kazinga Channel connects Lake Edward and Lake George. And it is home to a great diversity of wildlife, but there especially seems to be quite a lot of hippos. So we’re going to embrace the theme.

Note: Registration for the afternoon cruise happens at a particular lodge, but rooms there weren’t available during our tour. And while our lodge was pleasant and had excellent staff, it was a fairly long haul from the Kazinga Channel. Of course, for us, it just meant additional opportunity for wildlife viewing. But if you’re ever contemplating this cruise, there’s something to be said for convenience…

We were some of the last people to board the boat before heading out on the water. At the dock, there were smaller boats called The Sunbird and The Kingfisher. How appropriate! Alas, our boat was called The Hippo. Clearly fate had failed us somehow.

It wasn’t a huge boat, with probably about 20 people on the bottom level with us. A couple folks operating the boat were pointing out some critters, but our birding guide was enthusiastically spotting almost any species we laid eyes on. We were easily the most fervent birders on the boat.

Honestly, it’s possible we were the only birders on the boat. Many people, oh horror of horrors, did not even have binoculars!

I’m really not sure if we were amusing or annoying to the other folks on our deck. I’m pretty sure we were, at least, mildly entertaining.

Don’t Rock the Boat, Babies

The only unfortunate aspect of this type of tour is that it is, generally, a tourist operation. Meaning that we could share the boat with whatever random tourists registered for the activity. And that sounds rude, maybe, but in this particular case we were sharing the boat with a large group of very inebriated young travelers.

They were obnoxious, but in a totally different way than our group of over-zealous birders was obnoxious. In a “harassing the wildlife” way, which is not cool. Don’t be that guy, okay? Don’t upset the hippos because you want to see them move. Nope, don’t make predators lose their catch. Don’t be an utter tool.

I’m a very. nice. person. So I definitely did not wonder if passengers could be thrown overboard. That would be wrong. Probably too many crocodiles? Probably, yes.

But our guide did berate them, which was fairly amusing. He was probably their age, but he shamed them all the same. And he did so with conviction!

All the Sights You’ll See

The group of fellow passengers is only worth noting because it was the only dark spot on an experience that was otherwise fan-freakin-tastic. Really, it was just one exciting new critter after another.

A great view of a saddle-billed stork? Sure, got that.

Basking Nile crocodiles? Yep, several of those.

A fish eagle enjoying it’s freshly caught meal? As you wish.

And African skimmers resting on a sandbar. Hippos breaching the water, mouths agape. Wading birds and shorebirds foraging along the banks. Bee-eaters and kingfishers alighting on the vegetation. Oxpeckers riding the backs of disinterested cape buffalo.

And elephants, standing unobscured along the water’s edge, providing a rare (for me) photographic opportunity. A picture of an elephant that isn’t behind some sort of shrubbery? I’ll take it!

I’m sure someone with actual photography skills would have a field day here. I’d love to do something like this again, just for the practice. Or maybe I’d actually refresh my camera knowledge before I traveled again.

Well, probably not. But I might.

I believe these cruises can be booked privately or for smaller groups. I could see that being appealing. The intentionally disruptive behavior of the folks on the upper deck was alarming and frustrating, primarily because the tour operators did not quickly discourage their intentional attempts to agitate wildlife. It does make me wonder how that type of behavior is normally addressed, without the presence of an outraged birding guide.

Regardless, it was a fantastic opportunity to observe all sorts of wildlife – both little birds and big game. The views generally were clear, some were very close, and there were very few lulls in activity once we got further into the channel. It’s certainly a rewarding addition for any wildlife safari in Queen Elizabeth National Park.