Top Things to Do & See in Murchison Falls National Park : Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s most visited safari destination on Uganda Wildlife Safaris, located in the northwestern part of Uganda. The park is a UNESCO world heritage site that was established in 1952 and covers an area of about 3890 square kilometers which makes it the largest and oldest Uganda National Park. More so, Murchison Falls National Park is composed of various vegetation types including woodland, riverine forests, grasslands, and swamps which are habitats for various wildlife species including animals like the big 4 of the big 5 mammals, primates, and over 450 bird species.
Top Things to Do in Murchison Falls National Park
Game Drives in Murchison Falls National Park; This is the most done activity in the park that offers a chance to view the endless plains of the park and enjoy great views of wildlife species. Game drive safari is recommended to use 4 WD safari vehicles and they are categorized into three sessions.
Morning Game Drives; The morning game drive is the most rewarding in that visitors will get an opportunity to view animals. The morning game drive offers great wildlife viewing since the morning hours animals can be more active and big cats can be on the hunt during that time. The big cat mammal includes; leopards, lions, and spotted hyenas, other species to see include; elephants, waterbucks, giraffes, Uganda kobs, warthogs, Jackson’s hartebeests, bushbucks, Oribis, waterbucks, giraffes many more.
Afternoon game drives: This activity can be conducted after lunch and offers few viewers of animal species because animals can be in hidden dens due to the hot sun. Therefore, spotting wildlife species might be difficult.
Night Game Drives; This is also a remarkable activity that starts after dinner and visitors are escorted by park rangers. Along the night game drive visitors will get a great chance to view nocturnal animals like hyenas, civets, lions, genets, bush babies, night jars, porcupines, leopards, and grazers like elephants, waterbucks, hippos as well as enjoy the beautiful scenery under the stars many more.
Boat cruise in Murchison Falls National Park
The boat cruise is quite impressive and is done in two sessions morning and afternoon which can be done at the bottom of the falls and downstream to the Victoria Nile delta stretching to the shores of Lake Albert. All sessions take 4 to 5 hours to ride. Both boat cruise starts from the Paraa Jetty landing site and gives you a chance to view mighty Murchison Falls, stunning scenery, waterbucks, warthogs drinking water along the shore, and aquatic bird species such as African Jacana, Prehistoric shoebill stork, Saddle bellied stork, Goliath heron, Open billed stork, Yellow-footed kingfisher, Senegal thick-knee, Swamp flycatcher, Blue-headed coucal, Grey-headed kingfisher, African fish eagle, Giant Kingfisher among others.
Birding in Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park is a true haven for birders since it hosts more than 450 bird species recorded including –migratory birds, Albertine rift endemic birds, water birds, and savannah birds. Bird species in Murchison are best sighted during the game drives, nature walks, and boat cruises to the bottom of the falls and along the Victoria Nile delta. Birds to the lookout on the birding tour include; White-browed sparrow-weaver, Shoebill, Squacco heron, Red-throated bee-eater, Palm-nut vulture, Malachite kingfisher, Goliath heron, Giant Kingfisher, Eastern grey plantain-eater, Blue-headed coucal, Denham’s bustard, Long-toed plover, Yellow-billed stork, Pied kingfisher, weaver birds, silver bird, Yellow-fronted tinker bird, Long tales nightjar, Veracious dove, black-headed lapwing among others.
Chimpanzee Trekking in Murchison Falls National Park
Chimpanzee trekking in Uganda is more rewarding in Kibale Forest National Park and other places to chimp trek in Uganda include; the Budongo forest for chimpanzee tracking. Chimpanzee tracking starts with a short briefing about rules and regulations. After the briefing, you will be allocated to the assigned tracking group and the tracking experience can take about 30 minutes and 5 hours depending on where the chimpanzee’s movements. Once the chimpanzees are found one hour is allowed for visitors to spend with them in their natural environment to learn about their lifestyle, and habits, feed, breastfeed, hunt, take photos, and record videos, Top Things to Do & See in Murchison Falls National Park
Nature walks in Murchison Falls National park
In Murchison Falls National Park nature walks can be done in Kaniyo Pabidi and Rabongo forest where visitors will get up close and personal with wildlife species including primates –black and white colobus monkeys, Red tailed monkeys, chimpanzees as well as birding.
Best time to visit Murchison Falls, National Park
Murchison Falls National Park can be visited all year round though the best time is during the dry season of June to September and December to February. The dry season makes easy access roads to the park and hiking trails will be passable and a high concentration of animals can be viewed around the water holes, Top Things to Do & See in Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park can also be visited in the wet season especially by birders because fruits can be in plenty attracting numerous bird species and lodges becomes low rate during the wet season.
