Mweya Peninsular
A thick grass cover with rich vegetation characterized by candelabra and thorny shrubs is Mweya peninsular. It’s good to stroll with a guide as the sign posting can cause you to miss your route back home even if it has several tracks for game drives. The trees and little shrubs in this location make game viewing quite a difficult pastime.
Still, you could appreciate the well-known Kazinga channel launch cruise. Two hours riding on water along the well-known Kazinga waterway. Also a motorized water vessel, the Kazinga vessel with 20-seat capacity will be interesting for you to ride. It runs two rides a day, however during the select seasons the visitor demand causes the rides to rise to maximum three turns. The evening rides run from 3pm to 5pm and the morning shift runs from 11am to 1pm. Mweya Uganda Wildlife Authority offices handle bookings for the boat cruise. Though you can drive there, the cruise tours start from the staging site under Mweya peninsular, a short distance from the lodge.
Apart from the amazing views of peak Rwenzori above the sea, Mweya peninsular is among the very good sites to sight a leopard in the shrubby thickets. Visitors to this location claim that Mweya Peninsular is the focal point for the northern park’s natural splendor.
What can history tell about this amazing travel destination of today?
Evidence points to it as a human settlement location circa 5000 years ago. As Stanley, the explorer, reported back home, he arrived at Mweya Peninsular in 1889 and observed only smoke or formless nothingness. He kept proving that most likely the bush clearing fires produced this smoke. At this point Mweya had about 81 homes and a lot of livestock and goats.
But most likely this happened before Fredrick Lugard arrived at Mweya Peninsular when he returned in 1891 discovered the houses had been deserted. It is claimed that the Rinder pest outbreak in the area caused the area to be closed for human habitation. Later in 1952, it was proclaimed gazette for wildlife and renamed from Kazinga National Park to Queen Elizabeth national park following the queen’s visit to Uganda.
The primary place visited by tourists in Queen Elizabeth national park is Mweya village, which today has an estimated 400 persons/population. The population of the area is comprised of people living in communities. One cannot, however, know how they coexist with the wild society of lions, leopards, elephants, buffaloes, hippos, among others.
The opulent Mweya Safari resort with its view of the Mweya Peninsular overlooking Kazinga Channel draws not only visitors but also the animals. The resort lies on the farthest northern edge of Mweya Peninsular. It has a quite amazing perspective of the nearby Lake Edward.
To keep in mind; the main reason is always nature; so, the entire planet can align with conservation. In 2006, there was a heated controversy in the news covering the Madhvani Group of Companies’ proposed construction of a golf course in Mweya within the ecological community of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Currently even in the national park, Madhvani owns and runs Mweya Safari Lodge. But the environmentalist prevailed against the Madhivani Group of Companies since golf’s popularity would draw a lot of visitors but would upset the harmony in the mweya’s ecosystem. Maybe the animals might migrate to different locations with time. The environmentalists won over Madhvani Group of Company about this issue in the same year (2006), in July. A research was conducted on the tourist to help determine the power from the action from the first class stakeholders to this kind of change; most of the tourists where opposing the golf course idea.
At Mweya Peninsular, you can also participate in other fascinating events including:
Mongoose monitoring conducted on foot at Mweya Peninsular. Leading the way across the paths, a guide tracks the mongoose. This exercise entails observing and learning from the wild Mweya peninsular activities of these rodents. There are three hours involved here. Along with a few wild animals like baboons, warthogs among others, this exercise will allow you to learn about several birds.
Community walks allow you to visit the area close to Mweya safari lodge. Since the residents of this neighborhood are quite fluent with English, you can also have a brief interaction with them since communication will proceed without problems and you may learn a lot from them.
Before engaging in any activity within Queen Elizabeth National Park, what should you know?
- No eating in the wild or during activities
- Not trash in the park.
- Making too much noise could alert the wild cats, hence it’s preferable not to do so.
- Keep silent; you’ll see more
- Avoid pursuing wild animals.
- Lastly, do as advised by the tour leader.
How one gets there?
Mweya peninsular is situated 20 km west of the road leading from Kasese town to Mbarara. Katumguru town may be traversed by all kinds of vehicles between Mbarara and Kasese. Additionally someone can pay a one-way ticket to Mweya safari lodge by hiring a private taxi to get him or her at merely 30, 000.
Accommodation includes;
Among others, Mweya safari lodges, Mweya hostels,Jacana safari lodge, Park view safari lodge.
