Reviews of Murchison Falls (From 8 Acclaimed Safari Experts)

Expert

Philip Briggs –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Philip is an acclaimed travel writer and author of many guidebooks, including the Bradt guides to Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa.

10 people found this review helpful.

Thundering Waters and Smirking Shoebills

Overall rating

4/5

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I don’t recall who it was that described Murchison Falls as the most spectacular thing to happen to the world’s longest river en route from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean, but I’d have to agree with them. This truly spectacular waterfall sees the Nile funnelled explosively through a narrow cleft in the rift escarpment to form a plume of foaming white water so loud you can barely hear yourself think.

Mind you, the launch trip from the park headquarters at Paraa to the base of the waterfall is pretty spectacular in its own right: giant crocodiles lurk menacingly from the sandbars, hippos grunt away in the shallows, and more often than not you’ll see a few elephants or buffalos come down to drink. I’ve had mixed luck with game drives through the undulating borassus grassland north of the river, but buffalo, Jackson’s hartebeest, oribi, Uganda kob, the localised Rothschild’s giraffe and the unusual patas monkey are more or less certain, and more often than not I’ve seen lion and elephant.

Like most Ugandan parks, Murchison Falls is a wonderful bird destination, with pride of place going to the oddball shoebill, a large and eagerly sought slate-grey papyrus dweller that I’ve seen perhaps a dozen times along the Nile here. The far south of the greater Murchison Falls Conservation Area now incorporates a reliable chimpanzee-tracking site in Budongo Forest, which also hosts several unusual forest birds including East Africa’s only population of Puvel’s illadopsis (quite easily located by call).

The latest development in Murchison Falls is the opening of the remote Kisangani Sector as a low-volume tourist area used mainly by the brand-new Papa’s Camp. I was privileged to spend a couple of nights in this wonderful wilderness area in November 2023, and was blown away by the remote location and beautiful landscape, which runs south from a forested stretch of the Nile upstream of the main waterfall. Here, we saw large herds of giraffe, buffalo, kob and elephant, along with a lioness up a tree – something I've never before seen over a dozen or so previous visits to Murchison Falls NP.

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Expert

Ariadne van Zandbergen –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Ariadne is a renowned African wildlife photographer whose work is featured in many well-known guidebooks and magazines.

10 people found this review helpful.

Murchison Falls National Park – Where the Nile Tumbles Down the Rift Valley Escarpment

Overall rating

4/5

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Although the wildlife viewing is excellent in this park, it is the scenery that really gets to me. There are rolling grassy hills studded with borassus palms and teeming with plains animals, papyrus swamps inhabited by the sought-after shoebill, and forests that provide refuge to chimpanzees. But, the main feature in the park is the Victoria Nile. A highlight of any visit is a boat trip up the Nile to one of the most spectacular sights of water pushing through a cleft in the escarpment: Murchison Falls. Gliding on this mighty river is an unforgettable experience: there are hippos snorting everywhere, elephants playing in the water, and lots of waterbirds along the shore. The afternoon boat trip is great for spotting animals coming to drink. Once we even saw a leopard from the boat. The main antelope in the park is the Uganda kob and big herds of them inhabit the grassy plains north of the river. If you watch these antelope carefully, you won’t have any problems spotting lions. The kob’s alarm signal, a high-pitched whistle, is unmissable. Then it’s just a matter of following their gaze.

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Expert

Tim Bewer –

US

Visited: August

Tim is a travel writer who has covered 10 African countries for Lonely Planet's Africa, East Africa and West Africa guidebooks.

8 people found this review helpful.

Safari Along the Wild Nile River

Overall rating

3/5

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Uganda’s largest national park features on most safari itineraries because of its mix of beauty and wildlife. Four of the Big Five are here (only rhinos are absent, but they can be seen at the Ziwa Rhino and Wildlife Ranch on the drive from Kampala), and lion and leopard sightings are pretty common. Most of the typical large safari animals are also present alongside an impressive 450-plus species of bird. You can even visit habituated chimps in the adjacent Budongo Forest reserve. Besides wildlife drives north of the river (there isn’t much wildlife to the south), there are two things every visitor should do at the park. First is to take a boat trip up the Nile River. You’ll travel past plentiful hippos, crocodiles and buffaloes before stopping near the base of the park’s awesome namesake waterfall. But you can only really appreciate the power of the falls from the top, and going there is the other must-do. The mighty river explodes through a tiny gap in the rock and drops 43 meters into a narrow gorge. It’s far from one of the world’s biggest waterfalls, but it’s definitely one of the most impressive.

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Expert

Stephen Cunliffe –

ZA

Visited: Multiple times

Stephen is a travel writer and avid conservationist whose work appears in prestigious magazines such as Africa Geographic and Travel Africa.

7 people found this review helpful.

Thundering Waterfalls and Decent Wildlife

Overall rating

4/5

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Like Kidepo, this park in northwest Uganda is a beautiful and wild place with plenty of wildlife still remaining. In my opinion the ultimate highlight must surely be the boat cruise up Africa’s longest river to view the mighty Nile as it thunders through a narrow cleft in the rock and tumbles down the waterfall from which the park takes its name. En route to the falls I’ve seen lions, elephants, huge crocodiles and innumerable pods of hippos, not to mention an outstanding array of waterbirds strewn across the riverbanks. Game drives can also be productive, although animals tend to be skittish and poaching is still a problem away from the tourist areas. I try to remind myself that my presence (along with other like-minded tourists) is bringing in valuable revenue and slowly helping to safeguard the future of this stunning park and its wild denizens.

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Expert

Mike Unwin –

UK

Visited: September

Mike is an award-winning wildlife writer, former editor of Travel Zambia magazine and author of the Bradt Guide to Southern African Wildlife.

5 people found this review helpful.

A River Runs Through It

Overall rating

4/5

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This highly rewarding national park – which lies some six hours’ drive northwest of the capital Kampala – is both Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area, occupying just under 4,000 square kilometres in the far west of the country. It is named for the impressive cataract formed where the waters of the Victoria Nile squeeze through an eight-metre-wide gorge on their way downstream to Lake Albert, the shores of which also lie within the park. The park is bisected from east to west by this river, and it is from the southern side that a loop road offers access to the top of the falls. However, this southern sector, which consists primarily of dense bush and can be plagued by tsetse flies, is relatively unproductive for other wildlife. The northern sector, by contrast, consists of more open savannah and the game viewing is excellent. During my recent visit, elephant, buffalo and the localised Rothschild’s giraffe were all abundant, while antelope in impressive numbers included hartebeest, waterbuck, kob and the largest population of oribi I’ve encountered anywhere in Africa. The park has a good reputation for predators, with both lion and leopard being seen daily during my visit (although not by me), and spotted hyena calling at night.

Perhaps the park’s most rewarding activity is a boat cruise on the river, with various options departing from beside the ferry crossing. Head east, upstream, for general riverbank game viewing, including large numbers of hippos and crocs, plus a great view of the falls. Head west, downstream, for your best chance of seeing a shoebill, perhaps Africa’s most sought-after bird, and a denizen of the papyrus swamps at the Lake Albert Delta. Birdlife is extremely rich throughout the park, including in the adjoining Budongo Forest reserve to the south, where there is also chimp tracking and a full range of other primates.

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Expert

Lizzie Williams –

ZA

Visited: Wet season

Lizzie is a reputed guidebook writer and author of the Footprint guides to South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

4 people found this review helpful.

A Thunderous Waterfall on the Mighty River Nile

Overall rating

3/5

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To see the Nile squeeze through an impossibly narrow seven-metre gap, a requisite of this park is to take the three-hour boat trip. At first the sludgy brown river was placid and we were steered from shore to shore through hippo pods and past sandbanks with some pretty content-looking crocodiles (thanks to an ever-present menu of Nile Perch). But the river soon gathered momentum and we were faced with the sight of a ferocious wall of white water dropping some 40 metres into the deservedly named Devil’s Cauldron. I didn’t find game viewing in the rest of the park especially rewarding, but nevertheless, saw plenty of Uganda kob, as well as hartebeest, giraffe and buffalo in the palm-dotted hills, and I imagine wildlife is naturally drawn to the river in the dry season. It’s the fury of the Nile that is the park’s greatest appeal.

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Expert

Charlotte Beauvoisin –

UG

Visited: July

Charlotte lives in Uganda and is a writer, blogger, volunteer and promoter of birding, conservation and responsible tourism. She writes for Fodor’s, Horizon Guides and Bradt, and runs an award-winning blog.

2 people found this review helpful.

Not To Be Missed!

Overall rating

5/5

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I’d heard such amazing reports about Murchison Falls, ‘the world’s heaviest waterfall’, that I was worried whether the famous waterfalls would live up to expectations. Spoiler alert: they did.

The light spray from the waterfalls and the force of the River Nile pounding the hard rock beneath your feet at the Top of the Falls make this an experience for all the senses. The half-hour walk to the Bottom of the Falls gives views of both Murchison and Uhuru Falls, one of my favourite spots in Uganda.

Boat rides upriver and down to the Delta are perennially fabulous (with sundowners or fishing rod in hand) and make Murchison’s heat bearable in the dry season. Look out for the shoebill, colonies of bee-eaters and the country’s biggest Nile crocodiles, some measuring 5m in length.

I preferred the park when the little ferry shuttled between the north and south river banks but I admit that the bridge and roads built by the oil industry (boo) mean you can stay anywhere in the park and not worry about being ‘caught on the wrong side’ come nightfall.

2 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes No

Expert

Alan Murphy –

AU

Visited: May

Alan is a travel writer and author of over 20 Lonely Planet guidebooks, including the guides to Southern Africa and Zambia & Malawi.

1 person found this review helpful.

Spectacular Falls & Diverse Wildlife

Overall rating

4/5

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While the boat trip to the base of the magnificent Murchison Falls is touted as the best way to see them, in fact the falls are better viewed from on top. Roaring through a narrow cleft in the rock, it is the best waterfall I’ve seen in East Africa. You can drive to the top of the falls, or catch the boat and hike up.

Apart from the falls, there is plenty of wildlife, including four of the Big Five (no rhino). There are also a lot of antelope easily seen, including Uganda kob, hartebeest, oribi and bushbuck. And there are extensive driving tracks allowing you to explore large areas of the park.

A decent array of accommodation in or near the park caters for most budgets.

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