Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda’s biggest of its 10 national parks, located some 300km north of the capital city, Kampala. The park is named after the famous Murchison Falls that occur on the stretch of the Victoria Nile that bisects the park into two halves on its way to L. Albert. This world’s most powerful waterfalls occurs where the over 200m wide Victoria Nile contracts through a 6m rock crack in the rift valley escarpment wall before tumbling down through a 40m long canyon to flow quietly into L. Albert.

The park’s diverse habitats include extensive savanna grasslands dotted with Borassus palms on the northern banks of the Nile with acacia woodland, scrub and dry bush dominating much of the eastern section of this park. At the confluence of the R. Nile and L. Albert, is the delta where papyrus and other marshes dominate. On the southern banks of the Nile, vegetation consists of woodlands graduating into the moist-lowland forest reserve of Budongo.

Murchison Falls NP Quick Facts

  • Size: 3840 km2
  • Altitude: 619m–1292m
  • Mammal species: 76 mammals
  • Bird species: 480 birds
  • Drive time from Kampala – 320km/5 hrs.
  • Location: Northwestern Uganda

Things to do while at Murchison Falls NP

  • Take Untamed Game Drives

Murchison Falls NP offers Uganda’s epic wildlife game drive experience including up-close sightings to the 4 of the famous Big 5. Wildlife drives explore the richly stocked savanna plains on the northern banks of the Nile where thousands of Kob, Jackson’s (Lelwel’s) Hartebeest, Oribi occur along the ever-curious Common Warthog, Cape Buffalo, terrestrial Patas Monkey and Bush Buck among others.

The woodlands are tamed by herds of African Savanna Elephants, Bushbuck and Deffassa Water Buck. This park also is the stronghold of the critically endangered Rothchild’s Giraffe (a form of Nubian Giraffe) population and on drives thousands are encountered. Carnivores are well represented including Side-striped Jackal, Lion, the elusive Leopard, Spotted Hyena and several mongoose characters.

  • Bird Watching at Murchison Falls National Park

Birdwatchers will be rewarded by a checklist of over 480 species of birds occurring across the park’s varied habitats. Highlights include Silverbird, Red-throated, Swallow-tailed and Little Green Bee-eaters, Rattling Cisticola, Abyssinian Ground Hornbill, Dark Chanting Goshawk, Black-billed Wood-Dove, Vinaceous Dove, Grey Kestrel, Red-winged and Red-winged Grey Warblers, Beaudouin’s Snake-Eagle, Martial Eagle, Denham and Black-bellied Bustards, Spotted Thick-knee, Piac-piac, Speckle-fronted Weaver and more.

The park lies within the migration corridor for north-south species and intra-African voyagers including Northern-Carmine Bee-eater, Egyptian Plover, Pennant-winged Nightjar, Red-backed Shrike, Northern Wheatear, Montagu’s and Pallid Harriers etc. The wetlands around the delta not only host L. Victoria biome species including Caruthers’s Cisticola, Papyrus Gonolek but also the prehistoric Shoebill often found stalking the shallow vegetated delta edges. Towards the mouth of L. Albert congregations of African Skimmers and other waders occur.

  • Take a Boat Cruise on the Nile

The Nile launch voyages set out of Para landing, upstream towards the bottom of the Murchison falls. The boat cruise follows a quite stretch of river, lined with stands of acacia woodland and Borassus Palms bringing you up-close to herds Hippos, Nile Monitor, with Nile Crocodiles basking on the sandy banks, while the dazzling Red-throated Bee-eaters nest in the sandy cliffs, Buffalos, Elephants, Rothschild’s Giraffe and other herbivores come to drink.

The boat stops near the bottom of the falls to give you panoramic views of the two waterfalls including the mighty Murchison Falls where the Nile crush through a 6m rock craft in the escarpment wall and through a 40m canyon before peaceful flowing down to L. Albert on the rift valley floor.

Another exciting cruise would be to the Delta point, where the Nile pour its effluent into L. Albert. Here the slow-moving Victoria Nile now about 2km wide discharges its silt through a maze of papyrus before heading north into the Sudan as White Nile. This papyrus marsh is a great birdwatching area with a healthy checklist including the world’s biggest heron the giant Goliath Heron and the prehistoric Shoebill.

  • Hike to the Top of Murchison Falls National Park

The spectacular Murchison falls occur as the mighty and wide Victoria Nile squeezes through a 6m wide escarpment wall crack with a sheer force and tumbling through a 40m canyon thus creating the world’s most powerful waterfalls. A visit here, gives you great views deep into the famous Devils cauldron, a deep canyon cut through the escarpment wall by the thunderous voluminous Nile waters creating mist and permanent rainbow.

On the highest viewpoint over the canyon, you get a full perspective watching the Nile as it plunges into this canyon. With time on your hands, take a hike down to the famous Baker’s point to get a full view of not only the Murchison falls but also the Uhuru Falls.

  • Go Chimpanzee Tracking Experience

While at Murchison Falls, trek up-close and along man’s closest cousin in the nearby Kaniyo Pabidi section of Budongo Forest. This Uganda’s largest intact low-altitude forest is dominated by mahogany and ironwood species of trees and hosts the biggest number of Chimpanzee population in Uganda estimated at about 5000 strong spreads in different communities. This epic guided activity starts early towards several habituated communities of this great primate lasting up to 4-hours or more.

Other primates include Black and White Colobus Monkeys (Guerrezza), Olive Baboon, Vervet Monkey, Grey-cheecked Mangabey and the Red-tailed Monkey.

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