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We have been impressed by the numbers of visitor arrivals this last season. Thank you to all those who read our information anywhere and stayed, passed-by. We have entered our low season and wish to invite you again for our up to 50% discount offers on accommodation and wildlife safaris looking to the elephants and other wildlife. The camp is open all the time to provide you accommodation, meals, coffee and community tours.
After our humble establishment in 2015, now you can find a number of services at the campsite including;
We are working on more service areas to ensure we can continue to meet more of our clients’ expectations.
For more information about the Elephant center campsite and how you can get there, please read more about us on this website or contact us
Website: www.theelephanthome.com,
Email: info@theelephanthome.com,
Tel: +2650780278010 / +265706581477
Thank you all, for the support!!
If you’re planning to add Queen Elizabeth national park on your Uganda trip, you should better allocate two nights for this park alone if you want to enjoy it. This will give you a full day of exploring as you look for wildlife on the game drives and boat cruise. Queen Elizabeth is located in western Uganda 417 km from Kampala and it takes 6 – 7 hours drive. From Kampala, the Park can be accessed through two road directions, either through Mbarara-Masaka road, through Fort portal-Mubende road or by air, flying from Kajansi-near Kampala to Kasese airstrip . Though Queen Elizabeth national park is one of the most preferred national parks of Uganda, it is rarely visited as a sole attraction but taken on a relatively longer trip covering other attractions such as other wildlife parks, the primates, the Rwenzori mountains, the communities or the gorillas. On most trips, Queen Elizabeth is best explored in two nights three days alone or on a longer trip. If you want to explore the park, you will have to give it the same, two or more nights of your Uganda trip. Uganda being a small country and the park being connected on good roads from many places, you can arrive to this park from different locations of the country basing on your travel plan. For example most people arrive from Rwenzori mountains national park, Kibale forest national park, Murchison falls national park, Bwindi impenetrable national park, Mgahinga, semuliki, Lake Mburo, Kampala or even from Entebbe on the same arrival day. In this article, I have ignored your time at other destinations in Uganda focusing on your time at Queen Elizabeth national park and spending your holiday at the Elephant home. This is how you can plan the two nights – three days at this park.
On day one, you will arrive to the Elephant home. Depending on the starting point of today’s journey and the kind of activities you will be engaged in anywhere on your way, you will arrive at the campsite any time between 10:00am and 7:00pm. The check in time for the Elephant home is 10:00am but if they didn’t have any guests who spent a night before, you can check in any time earlier. Arrive to lunch or dinner. If you arrive early enough, you may choose to engage in some community or camp activities. These include a village walk, basket weaving workshop, traditional dance or a self-guided walk at the site looking for birds, butterflies, insects and some wildlife spoors in the forest at the site. For groups, we can set a campfire to sum up the evenings.
On day two, after an early cup of tea at 6:30am, you will set off to the park on your first game drive in the on the northern parts of the park along the Kasenyi track. This is the best time for opportunities to view the cats in action. Later, return for breakfast; in the afternoon, take a boat cruise on the Kazinga channel to see herds of Buffalo, Hippo and other animals at the edge of the channel as they cool off. It is a paradise of birds. Depending on the season European migrant birds like the terns and gulls congregate here in large flocks. You will return to dinner and overnight later in the late afternoon as you sport some game on your way back to the elephant home.
On day three, after an early breakfast, it is the best time to head to the next destination. Depending on your plan and direction, the next destination could be Bwindi, Lake Bunyonyi, Kibale forest national park Kampala or any other part of the country. From the experience, most people like to go either to Bunyonyi (257km) if they are going south or go to trek in the Rwenzori foothills (48km) at the Ruboni community camp on Nyakalengijo gate of Rwenzori mountains national park. Here you have options of one day community treks in the natural forest, trekking on the local hills (25000m) or trekking in the park from one to eight days.
You have several travel options that will lead you to or from the Elephant home as your base for exploring this park, is located on the main tourist route from north western to south western part of Uganda. You can use public transport or private transport. For private transport arrangement, the Elephant home can recommend a tour operator or you can contact any tour operator of your choice and they will easily give you a quote. On request the campsite can arrange private transport.
Please contact the Elephant home on info@theelephanthome.com for a quote covering anything ranging from transport, game drives, boat cruise, accommodation, meals, community activities or transportation.
More value awaits you during your next visit to Queen Elizabeth national park if you stay at the Elephant Home!! We recommend people who want to travel budget as they will find this very pleasant. Besides, none budget travelers who want to explore the community have also found The elephant home appropriate, since it is located within the community. Your stay at this lodge gives you the following advantages;
When you stay at the elephant home, you get an opportunity to focus on your holiday at the price of your choice. Besides, staying here or taking any of the community tour activities supports the indigenous communities that live next to the park, and conserve the wildlife all their life. If these community members don’t get alternative livelihoods from tourism, they are forced to encroach on the park wildlife for survival. you can check some of the conservation partnerships that we have created in the community to enhance conservation and community development.
Please contact us to book your place for the next trip to Queen Elizabeth national park. Our contacts are;
Tel: +256 706581477
Email: info@theelephanthome.com
Or you can book through UCOTA office in Kampala on;
Tel: +256 772657700
Email: ucota@ucota.or.ug
Rwenzori Mountains stand at a height of 5109m above sea level. Making Rwenzori the third highest mountain on the African continent. However, being none volcanic like the other two highest mountains Kilimanjaro and Kenya, this height makes it the highest block mountain on the African continent. The highest point of mount Rwenzori, margarita peak, stands at the boarder of Uganda and democratic republic of Congo being dissected by the two countries. Margarita peak can be reached on the fourth day of trekking from the base camp. The Rwenzori peaks trek can either be done through the central circuit route of Nyakalengijo gate or through the Kilembe southern route. Rwenzori mountain gateway is located in Kasese, 437 km west of Uganda’s capital Kampala and it normally takes you up to six hours from Kampala driving on a good tarmac road. Various marrum roads will lead to the trail head of the mountain. For those not interested in driving, one can fly to Kasese airstrip from Kajansi – near Entebbe and it will take up to one hour to get to Kasese airstrip.
Besides reaching the peaks, Rwenzori has other alternative trails that can be trekked without reaching the high peaks. These include the nature walks that take you one day in and you return to the community, the Mahoma trail loop that takes two nights and three days south of the central circuit, the Buraru chimp trail and other short walks in the kilembe gate southern gate and the central circuit that takes seven days.
Rwenzori Mountains, also called the rainmaker was put on the world map on 24th May 1888 by explorer henry Stanley. The 996km2 Rwenzori has been described as the most challenging yet most interesting mountains in Africa. The mountain is a range of 120km-long and 65km-wide. This range holds multiple peaks that can be climbed including margarita peak. The terrain of the mountains is dominated by great scenery, bogs with beautiful yet challenging vegetation, unique vegetation and the Glacier Rivers. After being gazzeted into a national park in 1991, Rwenzori Mountain is a world heritage site since 1994 and a ramsar site since 2008. Rwenzori Mountain is also called the mountain of the moon, as named by Ptolemy, the alexandrine geographer in 150 AD.
Trekking experience required:
Though trekking of the Rwenzori can be very demanding, it is on record that the experienced guides and porters sourced from the indigenous communities are a great resource to the trekkers of these mountains. This unique manpower has further been trained by the park, national outdoor leadership school, the service providers such as the Rwenzori mountaineering services and the Rwenzori trekking services. Other climbing experts have also been sourced to train them at different times to address special needs of trekking this mountains. As a result of the great effort, training and skills acquired, people of all ages from 8 to 78 years have been recorded climbing Rwenzori up to margarita peak without a problem. Sometimes, those who may not feel confident to climb to the highest of Rwenzori start to do acclimatization trips on the shorter hills in the community or in other mountains of Uganda. Some people have done acclimatization one Mgahinga volcano climbing in south western Uganda, Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda or the Ruboni community hill climb trail at the base camp. This then gives these trekkers the confidence to take the bigger mountain challenge and the results have always come out very good for them.
The trekking seasons:
Rwenzori Mountains can be trekked through the year, given the good infrastructure that has made the rivers passable even during the rainy season. The best trekking season for Rwenzori is about 6-7 months per year. The seven months are distributed in two seasons; December – March and June – august. During this time, it is nice dry and sunny on the mountains, unlike the remaining months that are rainy. However, with variations in the weather and change of seasons, sometimes it may be hard to speculate when the rain or the sun will come. Being that this timing is also influenced by the holiday season from the source of clients, this has remained the traditional Rwenzori trekking season.
Attractions in the Rwenzori:
Rwenzori Mountains is mainly a scenery and vegetation park. However, some unique wildlife can be rarely spotted and they vary basing on the altitude attained. These include; Chimps, monkeys, rock hyrax the Rwenzori Turaco – endemic, the antelopes, other birds, insects and the elusive three horned chameleon that can be found at the lower altitudes of the forest zone. There is also mountain elephants though hard to see since they stay away from vicinity due to the long experience of poaching them. One can also spot the foot marks and dung of these Elephans, especially in the bamboo zone on the Mahoma trail. Other attractions include the mountain glacier lakes and the greatest of all attractions is Snow at the equator. Of course Rwenzori is not only about wildlife. It is also famous for the unique culture of the Bakonzo people. These are a mountain people mainly adapted to living on the mountains. They live on the foothills where they do all their livelihoods from farming to building homes. During the village tours or just socializing, one can meet a number of cultural encounters in this Bakonzo society.
The accommodation facilities and special equipment:
Rwenzori Mountains have improved accommodation huts for both the tourists and porters/ guides. All of the camps are housed by wooden huts, apart from the wilderness camps that have open campgrounds and latrines. The key equipment required for trekking Rwenzori are in two categories; for those climbing the high peaks and those doing the trekking without the peaks. Basing on this, your travel agent will need to make for you the rightful packing list for your trip. For peak climbing, the common equipment will include ice axe, crampons, snow glasses, gaiters, climbing rope, carabinas, gloves, water proofs and worm layers, harnesses, good hiking boots, warm clothing warm sleeping bag, rain gear and a few others as you may know or as they will be on your packing list. Other common equipment will include but not limited to sleeping bag, sleeping mat, walking shoes or rubber boots, rain gears etc. Most of these equipment can be found at the base camp for hire at a set price. However, it is much better to come with your own if you can. Especially the personal items like walking shoes, climbing boots, sleeping bags are better brought if you have some space. Alternatively, it is better to clear with your agent before the journey, to confirm if specific equipment can be available for hire. Other equipment like the cooking ware will be provided within the trekking price if you have paid for a local chef to come along on the trek. It is important to confirm on what is catered for within the price and what is left out so as to avoid inconveniences.
Trail status:
The trail in the Rwenzori is one of the most challenging management issues due to the steep terrain and soft soils/ vegetation. In areas where there is no bog, there is step or rocky grounds. In the wetlands also, there are tufts of special vegetation that makes the trekking quite challenging when you reach these bogy areas. The park management and service providers have worked tirelessly to address this challenge as a way of giving a good holiday to the trekkers. Given the fragile environment, much humidity and also to keep the mountain ecosystem, this status can’t be addressed permanently thus making Rwenzori a unique trek. The trail is very safe for every trekker after being reinforced by board walks on the wetlands / bogs, ladders by the steep places, the parties go with ropes in case they need them on at the steep places, most rivers have been bridged with modern bridges to a good quality standard. The park ensures the camps and trails carry a limited number of people per day, especially during the busy seasons. This is so that the groups don’t go beyond the daily carrying capacity of the trail and other infrastructure.
Porters and guides:
On the trekking package, each tourist gets two porters and one guide. Basing on the guide availability and the seasonal timing, sometimes two tourists from the same group may get one guide. The guide will basically carry nothing apart from his personal ware and equipment. Each porter will carry 25kg. This will be including 12.5 kg of tourist luggage and 12.5kg of other luggage including personal belongings. This means, each tourist will be allowed 25kg of luggage. Any luggage more than that may require extra porters or you will choose to leave the extra luggage in the safe stores of the service providers at the basecamp. The difference between tourist’s luggage and other luggage is simple. Tourist luggage is the personal tourist items that they came with and or need on the mountains. The other luggage is the items of general use needed by the party or the porters. This may include; gas energy, food supplies, charcoal, cooking equipment, climbing equipment, safety equipment etc. I know strength and fitness is important for climbing the Rwenzori. The truth is, climbing any mountain requires confidence and determination. These two matched with a good diet and helpful people, you can also make it!!! Please ask any other specific questions and our team shall dispense the rightful answer. For more detailed and technical information about Rwenzori Mountains, you can visit the Uganda wildlife Authority website and see a page about Rwenzori by clicking here.