Semliki National Park is one of Uganda’s newest Parks having been gazetted in 1993 which host 194 sq. km of East Africa’s only lowland tropical rainforest. The national park is located in the far west of Uganda Bwamba County within Bundibugyo district on Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Spreading over a land area of 220 kilometers (85 sq. mi). Semuliki National Park has a high diversity of plant and animal species together with microhabitats being located at the junction of several climatic and ecological zones. Most of the Park’s vegetation is majorly medium altitude moist evergreen to the semi-deciduous forest. For game viewing tours, the park has got over 60 mammal species and more than 400 bird species for bird watching safaris. The park’s dominant mammal species include forest buffaloes, leopards, hippos, Mona monkeys, water chevrotains, bush babies, civets, elephants, and the pygmy flying squirrel. Primate safaris are also done to the presence of eight primate species including red-tailed monkey, Vervet monkey, blue and De Brazza’s monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey, olive baboon, black and white colobus, and Chimpanzee together with over 300 butterfly species.
Semuliki valley national park is home to 400 bird species 216 of which including the lyre-tailed honey guide forest ground thrush and sassi’s olive greenbul are true forest birds. There are also other 12 unique bird species, which are extremely limited in East Africa but can be seen by tourists spending a few days in the Park and these include Western bronze-napped pigeon, yellow-throated cuckoo, piping hornbill, red-sided broadbill, xavier’s greenbul, capuchin babbler, yellow longbill, blue-headed flycatcher, red-billed helmet-shrike, crested malimbe, pale fronted antpecker and chestnut-breasted negro-finch among others. 4×4 car hire Kampala offers the most affordable, reliable and trusted cheapest way to rent a car in Uganda
What to See And Do in Semuliki valley national park
Scenic Drive
Game viewing is excellent in the open savannah grasses of Semuliki Valley national park. Even without entering inside Semuliki National Park, a scenic drive around it brings you closer to the marvelous beauty of the Park’s surrounding. A drive to Sempaya hot springs makes you come across the Rift Valley towards Congo, its also fringed by forest where you can even stop and have a look at the monkeys and birds while no incurring any park fees since its found outside the Park. Swamp greenbul and various forest hornbills are also worthy scanning while at the patch of fig and palm forest about half way between Sempaya and Ntandi.
Sempaya Hot springs
This is the most popular attraction in Semuliki National Park and a safari to the national park without visiting the hot springs is surely incomplete. A Short guided walking trail from the Sempaya Information Centre lead you to the cluster of hot springs at Sempaya. This eye-catching site has its largest geyser spouts up to 2m high from a low salt sculpture opening. Be cautious of the emerging water from the hot spring that has a temperature of more than 100 degrees Celsius with hot surrounding pools. While on the trail to the hot springs through a patch of the forest you can encounter red-tailed monkey, grey-cheeked mangabey and black and white colobus that are very common at this point as well as interesting birds like the forest hornbills, blue-breasted kingfisher, red-rumped and yellow-throated tinker bird, Frasier’s ant-thrush and honey guide greenbul. There is another hot spring, which is more of a broad steaming pool than a geyser; it is located on the far side of the swampy clearing that can be reached by a boardwalk.
Red Monkey Trail
This is a wilderness trail through the Eastern margin of the Park to the Semuliki River. It also offers exposure to a variety of localized birds than the trail to the springs. In addition to the red monkey trail, you can as well see a variety of monkeys, crocodiles, buffalo, and elephant on the River.
Kirimia River Trail
This 15km trail runs North from Kirimia on the main Bundibugyo road to the banks of the Semuliki River, crossing the Kirimia river twice as well as passing a succession of forest-fringed oxbow lakes. The guided day hike covers the first four kilometers up to the first crossing of the Kirimia River and passes through the secondary and riparian forest which is a residence to several monkey species like the African Piculet, long-tailed hawk, red-sided broadbill, black-faced rufous warbler and lemon-bellied crombec. In addition to these, there are other 20-30 bird species associated to oxbow lakes environment but they are unlikely to be seen elsewhere in any other park.
Birding
Excellent bird viewing sites at Sempaya and Ntandi enable the viewing of these incredible birds like white-crested hornbill, red-billed dwarf hornbill, piping hornbill, yellow-throated nicator, great blue and ross’s turaco. The close quarters of Lake Albert are always associated with the great shoebill stork. Water birds can also be tracked during forest walks.
Cultural Trails
The Batwa trail is the main cultural encounter at Semuliki National Park. The Batwa had been dependent on Semuliki forest for food, shelter, medicine, and tools due to their lifestyle of hunter-gatherers. Due to the decline of this dependence on the forest because of tourism, the Park offers an alternative source of income to the Batwa through allowing them to display their cultural history to tourists through music and dance performances at Ntandi. In addition to this, they also produce beautiful handcrafts for sale.
How to get to Semuliki valley national park
From the capital Kampala to Fort Portal, which is the sub regions biggest city, there are two major roads; Kampala-Fort Portal via Mubende and Kampala-Fort Portal via Masaka, Mbarara and Kasese. There are 59km from Fort Portal to Semuliki National Park and further 6km to reach the Park headquarters at Ntandi. The first route via Mubende is shorter from Kampala with 180km driven for about 4-5 hours compared to the second one that has 465km (7-8 hours) though it offers a more adventurous experience even before reaching Semuliki National park as you can have a stop to Lake Mburo National Park, Kyambura Wildlife Reserve, Rwenzori Mountains National Park or Queen Elizabeth National Park around Kasese. Both private and public means of transport can be used to Fort Portal and any public transport heading between Fort Portal and Kasese can drop you there. For those who would prefer to use private vehicles to the park, a 4WD vehicle is recommended especially in the wet season.
Accommodation/ Where To Stay
There are not many accommodation facilities in and around Semuliki National Park however, there are several lodges and hotels in Bundibugyo and Fort Portal which are both budget and luxury/up market. Semuliki safari lodge in Semuliki valley is one of the luxury lodges and Ntoroko game lodge at the shores of lake Albert that can accommodate both luxury and budget guests. Others include Kirumia guesthouse located 10km from Sempaya gate along the Bundibugyo highway and Bamuga campsite approximately 3km from the Sempaya gate
Semuliki National Park with its unique primate species, big and small wild game numerous bird species, eye-catching hot springs at Sempaya, swampy, montane and lowland vegetation species plus the unique culture of the Batwa make your tour activity package in the park complete. These enable you to enjoy hiking and nature walk, game drives and game viewing, bird watching, monkey trails, hot spring tour, River trails and cultural encounters with the Batwa.
