Top Things To Do In Murchison Falls National Park

Top Things To Do In Murchison Falls National Park : Murchison falls national park has got the best safari activities that are done by the tourists on the Uganda safari. Murchison falls national park is located in the north western part of Uganda, and the park covers an area of about 3840 square kilometers, and it was established in 1952. Murchison falls National Park is famously known as the largest national park on a Uganda safari. The park has got the variety of the vegetation where the wildlife inhabits from including the woodland, riverine forests, savannah grasslands and among others.

Top things to do in Murchison falls national park.

Game drives.

Murchison falls national park offers the tourists with the great opportunity of the game drive safaris. This is where the tourists explore and encounter the wildlife in the park with the great views of the wildlife species including the animal species and the bird species. Game drive safari takes place from the 4WD safari vehicles, the game drives in Murchison falls national park are categorized into the 3 that is the morning, afternoon and the night game drives.

Morning game drive.

Morning game drive in Murchison falls national park takes place very early in the morning after taking breakfast. This is the best time that rewards the tourists with the best views, because during the morning time that’s when the animal species in the park can be active and not in the places. During the morning game drive the tourists can have the chance of viewing animal species like the big four of the big five mammals including the lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants. And other animal species to be seen includes the giraffes, Uganda kobs, Jackson’s hartebeest, bushbuck’s warthogs and many others without leaving bird species.

Afternoon game drive.

Afternoon game drives in Murchison falls national park are done during the period of after lunch, the afternoon game drive is not as rewarding as the morning game drive the reason being the big cats like the lions, leopards will be in their hidden places and other animal species due to the constant heat that is present in the park, so viewing them can be difficult.

Night game drives.

Night game drives in Murchison falls National Park starts when the travelers are done with taking their dinner. These takes place when the tourists are sited in the open roof 4WD vehicles with the help of the spotlight torches and the presence of the park rangers. Night game drive in the park majorly rewards the travelers with the opportunity of spotting the nocturnal animal species present in the park like the hyenas, lions, civets, bush babies, leopards, night jars and others. During the night that’s when the travelers get to spot the hippos as they are out of the water and allocated along the lake shores.

Boat cruise.

Boat cruise is the major safari activity in Murchison falls national park that is such interesting and attractive to various tourists. In the park the boat cruise is done in two different ways that is the boat cruise upstream to the bottom of falls, and boat cruse downstream to the Victoria Nile delta that stretches to shores of Lake Albert. Boat cruise to the bottom of the falls is done in two phases that is morning phase that starts from 9:00 am and afternoon that starts from 2:00 pm and each phase takes a period of 2 to 3 hours.

Then the Nile delta boat cruise is as well done in different phases and where each phase takes 4 to 5 hours. Nile delta boat cruise starts from Paraa landing site where the tourists get the chance to spot the Murchison falls, beautiful landscape, hippos, crocodiles, elephants, Uganda kobs and among others, without forgetting bird species including the African fish eagle, grey headed kingfisher, blue headed coucal, African jacana, prehistoric shoebill stork, yellow footed kingfisher and among many others.

Guided nature walks and hiking.

Guided nature walk and hiking are such excellent safaris in the Park where the visitors get the opportunity to encounter the wildlife in the park on foot with the aid of well experienced park guide/ranger. In Murchison Falls National Park the nature walks takes place in Kaniyo Pabidi and Rabongo forest where the tourists enjoy the presence of being close to animal species and primates like the black and white colobus monkey, red tailed monkeys, chimpanzees, bird species and others.

Murchison falls national park as well as got another attractive walk that takes place at the top of the falls, at the top of the falls, the visitors use almost 45 minutes or 1 hour to reach the falls, as they are hiking the visitors enjoy the safari activity as they have the breathtaking views of the scenery, hearing the sparkling of water, enjoying sighting the waters of the Nile on the 7 meter distance.

Bird watching.

Murchison falls national park is the charming birding destination with the number of over 450 recorded bird species that includes the Albertine rift endemic birds, migratory, acquatic birds and savannah birds. Most of the bird species in Murchison falls national park can be spotted during the game drives, boat cruise to the bottom of the falls and Victoria Nile delta, nature walks and hiking. Birding watching offers the tourists to sight the bird species like the pied kingfisher, weaver birds, Abyssinian ground hornbill, yellow fronted tinker bird, black billed barbet, shoebill stork, and black headed lapwing the list is endless.

Chimpanzee trekking.

Chimpanzee trekking in Murchison falls national park takes place in Budongo forest known as the biggest mahogany forest in the country. Chimpanzee trekking starts with the briefing followed to do chimpanzee trekking from the park guides, then after the briefing visitors can be put in different groups and each group allocated to a chimpanzee family to trek. Chimpanzee trekking takes a period of about 30 minutes to 4 hours regarding to the location of the chimpanzees as they keep going deep in the forest looking for food. Along the way to trek the chimpanzees the visitors can be rewarded with sightings of animal species, tree species, bird species, butterflies and others.

Once the chimpanzees are found, tourists are given one hour to be with the presence of the chimps while observing their behaviors, habits, watching them feeding, playing, making nests, that’s the time the tourists take them pictures and videos and among others.

Best time to visit the park.

Murchison falls national park can be visited at any time thought the year, but the best time to visit the park is during the high season or peak season in months of June to September and December to February. During the dry season that’s when the park has less or no rainfall. The vegetation in the park can be thin and short hence easy spotting of the animal species, during the dry season that’s when the variety of animal species tend to surround the water bodies in the park to take drinking water that gives visitors the chances of easy viewing and taking nice pictures. Again, during the period that’s when the park trails and roads can be passable and not slippery like rainy season.