Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s most popular national park, receiving the highest annual number of visitors of any park in the country. Popular visitor activities include game drives, night drives, boat cruises to the delta and Murchison Falls waterfall, nature walks, bird watching and chimp tracking. The park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into vast, palm-dotted savanna. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926, it is Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area. Murchison falls become one of Uganda’s first national parks in 1952. The 1951 film “The African Queen” starring Humphrey Bogart was filmed on Lake Albert and the Nile in Murchison Falls National Park. Notable visitors to the park include Winston Churchill, Theodore Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, and several British royals.

At Murchison falls, the Nile squeezes through an 8m wide gorge with more than 3000 cubic litres of water per second and plunges down 45m with a thunderous roar into the Devil’s Cauldron creating a trade rainbow, making it the strongest waterfalls in the world. The northern section of the park contains savannah and borassus palms, acacia trees and riverine woodland. The south is dominated by woodland and forest patches.

The park is bisected by the Victoria Nile, which plunges 45m over the remnant rift valley wall, creating the dramatic Murchison Falls, the centerpiece of the park and the final event in an 80km stretch of rapids. The mighty cascade drains the last of the river’s energy, transforming it into a broad, placid stream that flows quietly across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert. This stretch of river provides one of Uganda’s most remarkable wildlife spectacles. Regular visitors to the riverbanks include elephants, giraffes, and buffaloes; while hippos, Nile crocodiles, and aquatic birds are permanent residents.

Murchison Falls is notably blessed with over 144 mammals,556 bird species,51 reptiles, and 51 Amphibians. With a great number of African elephants, Murchison falls is impressive all year round. The aerial survey noted over 900 individuals and 1,330 and is at an increase. Historically Giraffes exclusively inhabit the northern sector of the park. Buffalo populations have spiked to over 10,000 while Uganda kobs have leaped to more than 35,000.

The park offers a range of tented camps and safari lodges to accommodate visitors.

MFCA and the adjacent Budongo Forest Reserve have 76 species of mammals such as Chimpanzees as well as Uganda’s largest population of Nile crocodiles.

The bird checklist with the shoebill as the most common along the river stretch approaching the Albert delta and many profolic bird species occupy the park. The white crested turaco, red winged grey warbler, all associated with woodland in the southern bank.

Paraa

The park’s tourism hub is located on the banks of the Nile at Paraa, which means home of the hippo in the local Lua language. Paraa’s significance derives largely from the vehicle ferry that shuttles between the Masindi road on the southern bank and the Pakwach road and the Buligi game tracks on the north. It is also the starting point for boat trips to the falls and the delta. Most of the tourist accommodation serving MFNP is also located near Paraa much of it on a stretch of riverbank outside the park 5km to the west.

The Nile & Murchison Falls

Murchison Falls boat cruise; 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. The 3 hour return trip passes a wealth of riverside wildlife on the way including resident hippos and crocodiles and visiting elephants, buffaloes etc.

Top of the falls; Visitors should be sure to visit the top of the falls viewpoint to see, hear and feel the Nile thunder through a 6m 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 falls through Fajao gorge.

Delta boat cruises; Boats also run down river 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 waterbirds, most notably the shoebill. This iconic rarity is the best sighted in the delta during the December-February and June-September dry seasons.

Sport Fishing; 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 Viewing

Buligi peninsula; 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. Expect to see elephant, buffalo, antelopes and giraffe and keep your fingers crossed for lion and 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 waterbirds offshore and distant hippos. You can also take a flight to explore the plains north and west of Paraa in a hot air balloon.

Heart of Murchison; While much of the southern part of MFNP is covered by bush and forest, a delightful tract of savannah 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 where substantial herds of Uganda kobs have attracted lions.

Forest walks & chimpanzee tracking

Kaniyo Pabidi Forest; This forest in the south of Murchison falls conservation area is home to a habituated chimp group which can be tracked with our experienced 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 king fisher, white thighed hornbill and puvel’s illadopsis. A comfortable lodge is found on site, additional accommodation is available at Masindi town 30km south.

Birding

Birding activities overlap with the wildlife viewing locations described above. Highlights include easy sightings of resident and waterbirds on the cruise to the falls, thrilling shoebill and careful searches for the rare and unique range forest species. There are 450 known bird species in the park, including the rare shoe-billed stork, dwarf kingfisher, Goliath heron, white-thighed hornbill and great blue turaco.

Hot air balloon safaris

Embarking onto a trip to Murchison Falls, then Hot air ballooning is one of the things you should not miss out on. Only 8 passengers are permitted to fly up in the balloon with an age limit for a Hot Air Balloon safari in Uganda is a minimum of six (6) years considering that the flight takes you to a height of 10,000 feet above sea level which might make younger children quiet uneasy.

Hot air balloon safaris require you wake up quite early at around 5:00am so as the day break gets you in the sky to have the best view of wild game as they wake up from their sleeping nests. The assembling team do last minute preparations like pumping air into the envelope turning it into a large balloon before you could soar high at day break. You will be given a briefing on the safety precautions, rules and regulations as you get ready to get aboard the balloon. Once aboard, the pilot will launch for set off and the blowing wind will help the balloon rise to several feet off the ground and soar above the treetops. This will give you an aerial view of the Savannah below teaming with all kinds of wildlife, including large numbers of animals that crowd the Banks of the great Nile. This amazing hot air balloon tour, normally takes about 1 hour, you are handed certificates that confirm your participation in this activity and then later, you finish off with a special bush breakfast and a bottle of Champagne. From there, you will carry on with your morning with a game drive around the park and then return to your place of accommodation. There is also a sunset balloon flight that starts exactly at 4pm however; this one does not come with any special offers like the bush meals after the ride.

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Paraa

The Nile & Murchison Falls

Game Viewing

Forest walks & chimpanzee tracking

Birding

Hot air balloon safaris

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