Katara Lodge

an imperfect safari area, but with some great activities

Katara Lodge is located in the Queen Elizabeth National Park area of western Uganda.

Set on a prominent ridgeline on the fringe of the national park, the lodge is centred on thatched main building, leading out to a swimming pool area, with spectacular views to the west.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Katara Lodge is in seven detached cottages, each with a private indoor bathroom and a small verandah with more of those big views.

Activities

Katara Lodge provides access to the following activities …

• Vehicle safari
• Motorboat safari
• Chimpanzee tracking
• Community projects

Of the 30-50% of visitors who choose to explore beyond Bwindi Forest, almost everyone heads north by road to first pass through this Queen Elizabeth area.

The usual stay duration is just 1-2 nights, which can be extended to 3-4 nights if you also include the Ishasha Sector to the southwest.

Seasonality

Queen Elizabeth National Park is usually best visited during the May-Sep and Dec-Feb dry seasons, when the grasses are lower and wildlife is clustered along the lake.

However, these factors are significantly lesser here, where the climate is heavily influenced by the surrounding tropical forests.

Getting around

Up to around 2015 getting around Uganda was something of a mission. The only real option was to travel by guided overland safari, which might sound great, but the reality was that most of the hard miles were on relatively uninteresting main roads rather than interesting safari areas. It was both tiresome, time consuming and, for smaller groups, surprisingly expensive.

Fortunately there is now a reliable schedule of light aircraft flights connecting the main safari areas, operating out of the hub airport at Entebbe and visiting Bwindi Forest, QE, Kibale Forest, Murchison Falls and Kidepo Valley.

However we are big fans of overland safari when done in the right areas, so we now maintain a fleet of safari vehicles out in the Western Rift Valley, which enables us to connect by road between Bwindi Forest, QE and Kibale Forest, as an optional inset to a flying safari.

The Queen Elizabeth National Park area can therefore be connected by light aircraft, usually in a clockwise loop, usually in from Bwindi Forest and out to Kibale Forest or Murchison Falls. There are multiple airstrips in the area to serve the various lodge locations.

QE is also the middle stop for the overland segment driving north from the gorilla areas of Bwindi Forest (5 hours) and departing north to chimpanzee areas of Kibale Forest (3 hours).

a natural savanna safari stop between Bwindi and Kibale