Murchison Falls National Park is the largest park in Uganda, featuring most prominently the world’s most powerful waterfall- the Murchison falls. The 3,840sqkm park area presents a mesmerizing wonder of experiences, and is spanned through by the Victoria Nile which divides the grandeur into two: The Northern and Southern sectors. You will experience all this on your Murchison Falls National Park safari.
Murchison has been long labelled the traveler’s dream because of the glow of scenic landscapes and nature that are painted across this vast wildland. Just like other parks, wildlife sightings are inevitable; most notably the four of the big five which include elephants, buffaloes and the big cats such as lions, leopards which add their unique touch to the ecosystem. The park derives its luxury from the combination of different ecosystems that are decorated with large sums of both wildlife and scenery, rewarding you with more than nature and pleasure. A deeper look into the park’s ataraxy reveals hidden insights and unveils the hidden tunes of mother nature on a platter of happiness. The birds, butterflies and insects create a paradigm of diversity, variety and color!
The Murchison falls boat cruise.
The Murchison falls boat cruise along the Nile to Murchison falls is one of East Africa’s top spectacles. Murchison is strategically located along the world’s longest river. At first, the river is calm with a mirror-like smoothness. But a few meters in its flow, a depression occurs, giving raise to the fabled Murchison falls. Right there, you sense the shear power of the water squeezing through a tiny chasm that is 7 meters wide. The flow of the river attracts many animals that come to drink and rid themselves of the sun’s heat. This Big game is what anyone intending to visit this area would not want to miss out on.
The park gives you an opportunity to experience the strong eye-catching waves of the Victoria Nile, the Murchison falls; a fascinating 7m narrow gorge in the rift valley cliffs plunging 45m into the ‘Devil’s cauldron’. This 45m plunge drains the last of the river’s energy transforming the torrent into a broad placid stream that flows slowly across the rift valley floor towards river Nile. The river below the falls provides one of Uganda’s finest wildlife spectacles. Regular visitors to the riverbank include elephants, giraffes and buffaloes while hippos, Nile crocodiles and aquatic birds are permanent residents.
“The African Queen” a 1951 film starring Humphrey Bogart was filmed on Lake Albert and the Nile just right below Murchison falls. Notable visitors of the old times in this area are H.E Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States, Sir Winston Churchill, and Earnest Hemingway among others. Visitors should be sure to visit the Top of the fall viewpoint to see, hear, and feel the Nile thunder through a 7m-wide gorge. The site can be reached by vehicle but it is more rewarding to disembark from the launch to climb up to the Top of the fall through Fajao Gorge.
The launch voyage upriver from Paraa to see the Murchison Falls exploding through the cliffs at the head of Fajao Gorge is the park’s oldest and most popular excursion. However, visitors have lived to be a testimony of this experience; left bereft and wanting more. The 3 hour return trip passes a wealth of riverside wildlife on the way, including resident hippos and crocodiles and visiting elephants, buffalo, etc.to bring to your attention, it’s not only the aquatic and terrestrial memories that fill your mind. It’s a dimensional experience all round with different sorts of bird songs cheering up the liveliness of the area; different pitches; sizes, beautiful colors astonishing features. A birder wouldn’t want to be left out of the scene; the park has over 450 bird species.
Boats also run downriver from Paraa to explore the Nile Delta where a maze of channels threads between wetland islands that choke the river’s exit into Lake Albert. These are rich in water birds, most notably the shoebill. This iconic rarity is best sighted in the delta during the December-February and June-September dry seasons. Share the fun with family and friends as you head to the world’s longest river to engage in a guided sport fishing expedition. The river below Murchison Falls provides an exciting challenge for anglers with the record for Nile perch landed with rod and line standing at a hefty 108kg.
Game drives Murchison and cruises: Game viewing at Murchison falls National Park safari.
The park’s prime game viewing area lies on the Buligi Peninsula, a triangle of grassland bounded by the Victoria Nile entering Lake Albert, and the Albert Nile flowing out if it. Sighting animals is not a fiction but worth experiencing while there. One is expected to see elephant, buffalo, antelopes and giraffe and keep your fingers crossed for the big cats that rule the jungle; lions and their counterparts leopard. The game track network converges at Delta Point where the Nile flows north out of Lake Albert; this is a convenient place to stop for refreshments and view water birds offshore and distant hippos. Well, the experience may not simply revolve around animal sighting s alone; there’s much more to that; beauty of the scenery, eye-catching as you refresh the mind with the air breeze blowing over the landscape. Visitors can also take to the air to explore the plains north and west of Paraa in a hot air balloon.
While much of the southern part of MFNP is covered by bush and forest, a delightful tract of savanna rolls down to the river from the Rabongo road in the very center of the park. Vehicle tracks have recently been opened in this area, which thanks to substantial herds of Uganda kobs, is becoming known as a prime location for lions. The ‘Heart of Murchison’ lies 20km east of the Masindi-Paraa road.
Nature walks on a Murchison falls at National Park safari.
We haven’t had it all with the Natural experience. The park further presents an opportunity for forest lovers to make their way through the park on a guided Nature walk. This forest in the south of Murchison Falls Conservation Area is home to a habituated chimp group which can be tracked with experienced forest guides. Kaniyo Pabidi Forest is an essential birding site due to the presence of Albertine Rift endemics and other ‘restricted range’ species including the chocolate-backed kingfisher, white-thighed hornbill and Puvel’s illadopsis. A comfortable lodge is found on site, while additional accommodation is available at Masindi town, 30km south. Birding activities overlap with the wildlife viewing locations described above. Highlights include easy sightings of resident and waterbirds on the cruise to the fall, thrilling shoebill sightings in the Nile delta and careful searches for rare and restricted range forest species in Kaniyo Pabidi Forest.
Among all, what wraps up the experience as splendid is denoted by an opportunity to engage with the community with a strong cultural background and integrity, the Luo and Bunyoro communities. Unique features about their dressing, feeding mention them; focusing on their ways of life.