Top things to do in Semuliki National Park. Semuliki national park is located in Bwamba County in Bundibugyo district in western Uganda boarding Democratic Republic of Congo. It was established in 1993 and it’s among Uganda’s newest park with amazing activities such as Semuliki National Park Hot Springs, Cultural Encounters, Game Drives, Hiking and Nature Walks, Chimpanzee Trekking and bird watching. It’s rich in flora and fauna with tropical rain forest. The parked is controlled and managed by Uganda wildlife authority and seats on an area of 22km2

The park lies in the Albert Nile rift valley and Lake Albert is to the parks north. It also borders River Semuliki and river lamia which are watering places to many animals, Semuliki National Park also has two hot springs namely Mumbuga hot spring which attracts so many shorebirds and provides salt licks for animals and Sempaya hot springs which are Semuliki’s most famous attractions in the park

Top things to do in Semuliki National Park are different things visitors can engage in when they visit the park the most areas of interest are Sempaya hot springs, Sempaya Ntandi road, Semuliki River and Toro- Semuliki wildlife reserve.

Bird watching.

Semuliki national park has over 441 bird species. Sempaya and Ntandi offer excellent bird watching these include the Nkulengu Rail, Yellow-throated Nicator, shoebill stork, Yellow-throated Cuckoo, Piping Hornbill, Red-billed Dwarf Hornbill, Black Dwarf Hornbill, White-crested Hornbill, Black-casqued Wattled Hornbill, Red-ramped Tinker bird, African Piculet, White-throated Blue Swallow,  Northern Bearded Scrub Robin, Forest and Grey Ground Thrushes, Leaf-love, Lemon-bellied Crombec, Brown-crowned Eremomela, Blue-headed Crested Flycatcher, Ituri Batis, Red-billed Helmet -Shrike, Swamp Palm Bulbul, Lemon-bellied Crombec, Maxwell’s Black Weaver, Blue-billed  malimbe, Chestnut-breasted Negrofinch, Orange-cheeked Waxbill , Capuchin Babbler,   R Pale-fronted and Chestnut-breasted Negro finches, Maxwell’s Black Weaver, Blue-billed,ed-eyed Puff-back, Black-winged Starling,  Crested and Red-bellied Malimbes, Grant’s Bluebill. But the area around Kirumira River is also good for birding.

Cultural Encounters.

The Batwa’s hunter gatherers lifestyle attracts visitors because of their music and dance performances at Ntandi. These make handcrafts for sale they are planning on building them a cultural village so that they demonstrate on how they used to live in the forest back then.

Game Drives.

With 53 species of mammals recorded in the park. Game drives in the park take places in the morning afternoon oh at night. With luck you might see pygmy hippopotami, leopard and bush pig, glimpse elephant, water chevrotain, buffalo,sitatunga, white-bellied duiker or dwarf antelope but the park has got so many other wild animals like waterbuck, crocodile Ugandan Kob, African buffalo, Leopard, Hippopotamus, Mona monkey, water chevrotain, bush babies, African civet, African elephant, bush pigs among others. The are 305 species of trees recorded of which 125 are restricted to this park alone.

Semuliki National Park Hot Springs.

The male hot spring are worth visiting while on your safari visit to Uganda. The hot springs are called Sempaya divided into male and female hot springs, the guides will explain to you how these hot springs came up. At the male hot spring you will find grey-cheeked mangabeys and black and white colobus monkeys then the red-tailed monkeys. A hike through the forest leads you to the female spring which has a boiling geyser where eggs and green matoke can be cooked and enjoyed by hungry visitors.

Hiking and Nature Walks.

There are many routes in the park one being red monkey trail 11km in eastern border to Semuliki River where DeBrazza’s monkey can be spotted along this route. Sempaya natural trail is 8km this introduces you to primates and then the hot springs of Semuliki national park this route takes you 2-4 hours best in the morning or afternoon and lastly the Kiruma trail which runs through the heart of the forest to Semiliki River which is 8 hours round trip and it’s good for birders

Chimpanzee Trekking.

The primate walk being in Toro-Semliki game reserve. The visitors are briefed at the researching camp and you walk towards Kijura observation point where you continue tracking chimpanzees. The trail can take u up to 4-6 hours as you chimpanzee tracks, on the way visitors are expected to see birds, elephants, buffalos and lions