Wildlife Game Drives in Murchison Falls National Park
Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda is situated in the northern part of the country, it is an amazing destination, oldest and largest of Uganda wildlife conservation areas, Murchison is named after the great fall Murchison, it was once called the Kabalega National Park by Uganda’s president Idi Amin Dada, however following his down falls, the conservation area regained its name, the large ecosystem, is a bio diverse environment with in which several animal, plant, and tree species live in here, it is bisected into two by the Victoria Nile, forming the northern and southern banks of the national park, animal concentration lies in the Northern bank of the park and a few are distributed in the south in the Kaniyo Pabidi forest and the Budongo eco forest.
The National park is known to be having the world’s most powerful waterfall, the water squeezes itself into a 7 meter gorge slit along the rock, the thunderous fall and the pressure to pass through makes a great oozing sound whether you are at the top of the falls or at the bottom, the park was first gazette as a national park in 1927,as a way of protecting the wildlife species that call this home, it has for years faced a bug threat of animal reduction and extinction of some species from the national park like the Black Rhinos, today this is one of the few places that one can find the so called big four of the wilderness like the lions, elephants, buffaloes and leopards.
The dense vegetation of the national park, is comprised of the riverine forest, woodlands, and savannah which are habitats to wildlife existing in the national park, these include antelopes, warthogs, Nile crocodiles, Jackson hartebeests, waterbucks, Oribi, Rothschild’s giraffes, to mention, the park is home to a diverse number of birds including the prehistoric shoe bill stock which can be sighted along the banks of the river Nile, more popular birds to spot include the African fish eagles, goliath herons, pelicans, plovers, goose ducks, sunbirds, Abyssinian ground horn bill, guinea fowls.
Murchison falls national park is ranked to be one of the top destinations to do game drives on an African safari because of its great experiences, the well distributed game tracks if the park will give you a closer look of wildlife, Game drives are a great activity in the park, done in the short savannah plains dotted with wildlife species, there are three sessions to do wildlife game drives in the morning, afternoon and Night drives. Day game drives will offer you angelic sights of the park composition while the Night game drives are purposely done in search of nocturnal species, these are led through by an experienced game ranger from the Uganda wildlife authority, game drives last for 2-3 hours while enjoying the wildlife of the park., top areas to visit, include the Buligi peninsular, along the showers of Lake Albert, this place is one of the best spots to find wildlife of Murchison falls national park. Wildlife game drives in Murchison falls national park are combined together with boat cruises to the bottom of the falls.
The perfect car to do game drives in the national park is the safari 4×4 wheel car drive, it can be a super custom, Drone or an extended land cruiser, this is because sometimes the routes are dirt and not in a very perfect condition and may require the proper car, safari cars have got pop roof tops that enable views of wildlife without having abstraction and to take beautiful pictures of the African savannah wildlife.
Murchison Falls National Park can be visited throughout the year but best during the country’s dry months, these are also tourism peak seasons, between June- September and December to February. It is advisable to be prepared for the wilderness, bring light long sleeved shirts, trousers, sunscreen, insect repellents, hiking boots, and any other items of personal nature, the conservation area is located in the , approximately 6 hours’ drive along the Kampala –Gulu high way by road. Charter flights can be organized to the destination from Entebbe or Kajansi, to land at the Pakuba Airstrip.
