Murchison Falls National Park is regarded as the largest ecosystem of Uganda and oldest conservation area. Wildlife Game Drives in Murchison Falls National Park are a great way to see wildlife in the wilderness. The park is known for the famous for the great Murchison falls after which it is named, the park was initially called the Kabalega national park before the down fall of Uganda’s president Idi Amin Dada, after the fall, the park regained name Murchison falls, it is bisected in to 2 by the Victoria Nile flowing into the Lake Albert. The national park is managed by the Uganda wildlife authority together with the Bokoro and Bugungu national game reserves.
Game drives in Murchison Falls National Park are the best thing to do while in the park, it used to be a place to see all the so called big five of the wilderness until in the early 1980’s when the Rhinos went extinct as a result of poaching, there have been several conservation policies that have led to the continued growth of animal population, the park has got a well distributed game tracks to see wildlife, most of it is in the northern part of Pakuba animals to see here include the Rothschild’s giraffes, waterbucks, Lions, elephants, hyenas, jackals Jackson hartebeests, oribi, warthogs to mention a few, along which are birds on a lucky day you will be chanced to see the so called big five of the wilderness.
Stretching along the floor of the great Albertine rift valley region, you will experience the vast wildlife of the park, game drives are done in the early morning at 6:30 am in search of wildlife, and these are active most during this time they predators do come out to hunt while the others are out to graze, the afternoon time when the sun has calmed down, and evening from 4:30pm east African time which ends in sundowners, Murchison falls national park is among the country’s places where doing night game drives is allowed with the guidance of the Uganda wildlife authority team in search of nocturnal species of the park. Drives take 2-3 hours or can consider taking a packed lunch to the park to spend the whole day.
Other park activities include boat cruise to the bottom of the falls, these are often done together with the park game drives in the conservation area, these set of at the Para dock passing through the granite walls river, watching the plunge fall of the water is such an amazing experience, expect to see water birds like the African fish eagles, shoe bill stock, Chimpanzee tracking is done in the Budongo forest, chimpanzee are said to be man’s closest relatives, sharing up to 98% of the human DNA. The mahogany forest is one of the few places of Uganda to see Chimpanzee. The park has been regarded to be an important birding site of the country. It is an amazing wonderful place hosting over 300 bird species.