Murchison Falls National Park

Expert Reviews (8)

447 Murchison Falls Safaris

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Expert

Tim Bewer –

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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Bush Vibe:

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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

Lizzie Williams –

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

Wildlife:

Bush Vibe:

Scenery:

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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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