The Entebbe Botanical gardens are located in Entebbe Town Uganda on shores of Lake Victoria. The gardens are less than 5 minutes’ drive from Entebbe International Airport and about 34 km from Kampala City, the capital of Uganda.
It was established in the year 1898 and is the oldest national Botanic Garden in Uganda set on a 40 hectares plot of land. The Entebbe Botanical Gardens are legendary grasslands that sit on the northern shores of the gigantic Lake Victoria which is the largest tropical lake in the world crossed by the Equator which is usually encountered by travelers on a Uganda safari.
The gardens house a collection of species of plants of the tropical, sub-tropical and temperate zones, besides several shrubs and other plants regenerated naturally over the years.
The collection as of 1998 numbered 309 species, 199 indigenous to Uganda, 122 with known medicinal value and 110 exotic.
The diversity of friendly spider types with their ‘hi-tech’ cobwebs will have already sent you thinking about your creation. The red tailed, the vervet and the beautiful Colobus monkeys soaring high in the branches above the natural, cool, ever flowing forest springs will be going on with their daily duties unbothered by your presence.
All of this will present a breathtaking scenery that you would never catch anywhere with just one stop. The variety of scenic views is enriched by the great diversity of plant and animals life.
A walk along the beach and out into the open wood and grasslands will have exposed to your eye not less than 32 different bird types, some of which may include; the Pink-backed Pelican, Yellow-billed Stork, Eastern Grey Plantain-eater, Yellow White-eye, Purple-banded Sunbird, African Jacana, Lesser Jacana, Yellow-billed Duck, Glossy Ibis, Black-and-white-Casqued Hornbill, Senegal Coucal, Little Stint, Little Weaver, Striated Heron, Ruff, Gull-billed Tern, White-winged Tern, Klaas’s and Diederik Cuckoos, Northern Crombec, Tambourine Dove, Cameroon Sombre Greenbul, Little Grey Greenbul, Water Thick-knee, African Open-billed Stork, Malachite Kingfisher, Blue-checked Bee-eater, Common Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Black Crake, Long-tailed Cormorant, Crowned Hornbill, Woodland Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, the Africa and Red-billed Firefich, Madagascar Bee-eater, Egyptian Goose, Black-headed weaver, Slender-billed Weaver, Yellow-backed Weaver, Black-headed Gonolek, Ruppell’s Long-tailed Sterling, Grey-Headed Sparrow, the Spur-winged Lapwing, endless list.
Being strategically located, its close in proximity to the ‘entrance’ into this country,that is the Entebbe International Airport.
Three minutes drive from the airport and you are already in a welcome environment that will take away all your jetlag and initiate you into Uganda’s well known hospitality.
On your way back home, the extra time before you catch your flight, you can have some time spent in the gardens and you can be sure of carrying with you that everlasting impression which you will share with your pals back home.
