Caves in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Caves in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

Bat caves in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth National Park is the perfect destination for hiking and nature walk safaris in addition to exploring the best adventurous crater lakes found in the forests.

Maramagambo Forest National Park is a popular destination that is well known for bat caves in the whole of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Placed and situated under the shaded canopy of Maramambo forest is well placed the Bat cave. The bat cave place was well designed with a clear viewing platform to call it a room that would enable the visitors to see the bat in their cave from the distance. The bat cave is also associated with the python which is normally spotted around this bat cave as it tries to feed on these bats.  Visitors can as well do a lot of several other activities including the cultural community experience of the Nyanz’ibiri community.

Tucked beneath the shady canopy of the Maramagambo Forest is the “Bat Cave”. The cave has a viewing room built through funding from the Center for Disease Control in which visitors can observe the bats as well as the pythons that live alongside them… did you know that these serpents live amongst their prey?!

For a more cultural cave experience, how about a trip to the historic cave at Nyanz’ibiri community, where a local guide will explain to you how it was once used for offering sacrifices and cleansing misfortunes… and as a hiding place during Uganda’s rule by Idi Amin.

Maramagambo forest reserve is in Bushenyi district and it is been ranked as the largest forest in east Africa. The forest reserve is part of Queen Elizabeth national park and it is in conjunction with Kichwamba escarpment starting from the convergence of Lake Edward of kazinga channel. Maramagambo name was got from a story of some young people who went to the forest and took long to find their way out of the forest and by the time they were got, they were all speechless due to the fact that they were tired thus the name ‘maramagambo’ meaning someone who is speechless.

Although a lot of wildlife can be spotted in this forest, it is famously known for bat experience, it is also home to about 7 primate’s mammals including the chimpanzees, and other wildlife animals such as the forest elephants, the giant forest hogs, the African buffaloes, the bush pigs, pythons, the rare Bates’s pygmy antelopes among others.

Before 2008 the forest used to receive a number of visitors that would come to enjoy it gifted beauty in the jungle epically the bat viewing experience but due to news that spread all over the world about two Netherland travelers who visited the bat cave and they acquired the Marburg virus from the bat cave, a lot of negativity has been put on the forest although it was closed for some time until the management constructed a viewing point for the bats that travelers cannot get in contact with them as well the pythons that feed on these bats. On this note, there are rare visits that are taken to this forest and very few travelers consider it on their visit to the Africa although it is the largest forest in east Africa.