Travelers seeking to satisfy their sights while on safari have something to smile about after Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) unveiled a high ground clearance game drive vehicle.
The new 30-seater vehicle will give tourists on game drives in any of Uganda’s many national parks which boast of a variety of wildlife, a better vantage point for animal sightings.
UWA adds this to a fleet of five 50-seater executive buses that are already being used to move large groups of tourists to the parks in the countryside.
Bashir Hangi, the Communications Manager at UWA says the new game drive vehicle will enhance the experience of the visitors in the national parks
“This is a bigger vehicle specially designed to ensure visitors have a good viewing experience. It is something that we badly needed. We are happy that we finally acquired it and we plan to acquire more,” Hangi told Plugged.
In 2018, UWA acquired five executive tour buses in a bid to bolster domestic tourism, and to address the problem of access to national parks by providing means for pool transport.
The buses, in addition to a safari truck operating under Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), cost the wildlife body more than Ushs 2.8bn provided by the World Bank under its Competitiveness and Enterprise Development Project (CEDP).
Uganda has 10 national parks, 12 wildlife reserves, 13 wildlife sanctuaries and five community wildlife areas.
To access these parks which are very distant from Kampala, tourists have a range of options; private vehicles, safari vehicles offered by tour companies or vehicles owned by UWA.
Some of the parks like Kidepo Valley National Park in Karamoja sub-region, Queen Elizabeth National Park and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (both in Southwestern Uganda) have access roads that prove impassable especially during the rainy season.
The kind of experience that the tourist gets while on a trip to these destinations is dependent on the kind of vehicle they opt for. Trucks and SUVs reserved for off-road routes are ideal for these trips.
Asked whether the new vehicle will be available for hiring to private players and where it will be deployed, Hangi said these modalities are still being worked on.
