Driving in The National Park of Uganda

Uganda has ten national parks where wildlife that is flora and fauna are protected. These national parks are distributed around the country but they are located in the remote areas of the country.  There are a lot of tourism activities that are done in these national park in order for the tourism to enjoy that is a game drive, nature walk, special animal tracking, hiking, boat rides, research encounters and many more.

However, we shall not look at all of the tourism activities; we shall look at a game drive in the national parks. A game drive normally involves driving around by 4×4 safari car watching the different animals, birds and other attraction in a national park.

Not all national parks hold game drives since some of them have very fragile lands that can be adversely be affected by the car driving and its related problems.  There are only five national park where one drive that is queen Elizabeth national park in the southwestern park of Uganda, Murchison falls national park in the west, Kidepo national park in the northeast, lake Mburo national park in the west and Semliki  national park in the west.

Driving in the national parks of Uganda is not the usual driving on any road you may know, there are some measures and guidelines that are put in place to follow

First of all, game drive normally starts at 7:00pm and ends at 7:00pms beyond that you are prohibited to drive in the national parks in Uganda. However, there are night game drives but these are supposed to be under close supervision from the game ranger.

Game drive is 20 us dollars per private vehicle during day and at night is 100 us dollars. If you are using Uganda wildlife authority vehicle a game drive is 30 us dollars per person during day and at night is 40 us dollars per person.

The national parks in Uganda have marram and raged road so one is supposed to have 4×4 car hire vehicles that can make one have a somehow good game drive in the national park as you view the animals.

While taking a driving in the national parks of Uganda, the car should not exceed the speed of 50kms/hr. This is done to avoid accidents in the parks as they are always animals marauding around the parks that can easily be knocked down while over speeding.

In addition to the above, overtaking is not allowed in the park. There is no need of rushing, one has to take his/her time and enjoy viewing the animals.

National parks have demarcated roads for vehicles to pass through so while driving in the national parks, one should not go off track. By going off the roads, you affect the vegetation in the park and you can as well knock down the animals that are always hiding in the vegetation.

While driving in the national parks always keep in mind that game/ animals are given first priority as you have to drive careful in order not to knock down any because if you do so, you are considered an offender. There are always penalties given to offenders in the national parks.

All in all driving in Uganda national parks is very adventurous and exciting as you view various exotic animals like lions, buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, zebras, leopards, hyena, birds and many more.

The vehicle being driven in Uganda national parks should always be in very good condition, it should not be emitting any fumes out of it.  These national parks are fragile, the fumes can greatly affect the environment and in the end affecting the animals.