8 great reasons to visit Murchison Falls

-“Oh, no! Not again!”, I thought to myself.

It was so early even the birds weren’t awake and I had just turned my alarm off. At least that is what it felt like. In reality, I could hear a choir of different tunes load and clear outside the walls of my banda at Red Chili Rest Camp in Murchison Falls. What almost brought tears to my eyes, was the familiar sound of strong wind as a backdrop to the birds.

A small hiccup to our Murchison Falls visit

And just as thought, before I made it into the shower, I heard thunder rumble in the distance. Walking out of the shower a few mintes’ later, the dark sky had opened and it rained heavily. Precisly like the morning of our game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park!

Travelling to Uganda in April, the wettest month of the year, we knew we would experience some showers. However, out of the 14 days we travelled around The Pearl of Africa, we only woke up to rain on 3. Two of of them being the days of our game drives.

Half an hour later, sipping on a large mug of boiling hot instant coffee on Red Chilli Rest Camp’s roofed terrace, I tried to shake off my gloomy mood. Telling myself the rain usually vanishes as quickly as it starts and that perhaps the lions and leopards here don’t hide in damp weather.

Was visiting Murchison Falls worth it?

So, what happened? Was the visit to Murchison Falls National Park worth it despite the wet start? Definitely. The days here became a true highlight of my tour, and here you get 8 great reasons to why you should add a visit to Murchison Falls to your Uganda itinerary as well!

1. It is Uganda’s largest national park

Measuring close to 4000 sqm, Murchison Falls is Uganda’s largest national park, established in 1952. It is located north-west of Kampala and is easy to combine with other important attractions on a round-trip.

According to Google Maps, it takes approx. 5 hours to get here from the capital, but mind; always allow extra time when travelling around Uganda. Especially driving into our out of Kampala takes its time due to traffic.

If you continue reading, you will understand that Murchison Falls hosts plenty of things to do. I recommend staying for at least two nights, giving minimum one full day to explore.

Do you have limited time and money is not an issue? Not the most sustainable was to travel, but there is actually a small airfield inside the park you can fly to.

2. Game drives (even on rainy mornings)

What most people visit Murchison Falls for. Safari! Or game drive if you want to use the correct term. Murchison Falls did not escape Idi Amin’s gruesome regime and massive slaughtering of wildlife in the 1970’s. Luckily great efforts have given fruits, just like in the other areas of Uganda we visited, and the park now boasts with spectacular animals. It is home to 70-something species and among them are 4 of the big 5: elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard.

The first two of the biggies, we saw in plenty during our two days in Queen Elizabeth National Park. The one missing, rhino, we had planned to see in Zziwa Rhino Sanctuary enroute Kampala the next day. Being a proper cat lady, I really hoped to get a glimpse or two of the cats on our Murchison Falls game drive. But what about the weather?

Half an hour after schedule we were in the car hoping for the best. The dusk light and grey weather made photography a bit tricky, but it did not take long till we encountered our first antelopes. Majestic Defassa waterbucks, elegant Uganda kobs, tiny bushbucks, and one new to us: the odd-looking Jackson’s Hartebeest.

As the rain lifted little by little, we criss-crossed the stunning landscape on muddy dirt roads. There were buffaloes, primates, loads more of various antelopes, birds, and our first real life giraffes. But no sight of neither lions nor leopards.

3. Big cats!

Heavy rain and mud roads are not the best combination. Most of the few cars I saw had 4×4 (maybe even all of them? I’m no expert on cars) and still, we saw several getting stuck that morning. One to the extent it needed help of a road truck! To help the two stranded passengers, our kind driver Justus, offered to help – we had plenty of space in the car after all.

And as the German mother and daughter climbed into our van, our luck took a 180-degree turn!

Not only did the rain stop and we could finally push open the pop-up roof to get better views. But soon Justus got a phone call and promptly turned the car around. Was it? Could it really be?

Yes!

My dream came true. Not only one, but three: a lioness with two cubs were sitting on the green, green grass in front of us. She had no interest in working as an unpaid model and quickly turned her back to us and slowly moved towards the bushes. The cubs, on the other hand, stayed put for a little longer before following their mother.

A short, yet magical, moment that I will cherish forever!

Driving back towards our camp, Justus suddenly stopped the car and reached for his binoculars. He had noticed that all antelopes in a miles’ radius had stopped grassing and looked intensely in the same direction. What could it be?

Not mastering the (simple) skill of looking through binoculars, I zoomed in with my camera instead. And there they were.

Two lionesses strolling through a flock of Uganda Kobs and Jackson’s Hartebeests. Apparently full and no danger after all, as the antelopes quickly resumed their grassing.

We kept scouting the trees for lounging leopards without luck. But hey! We had seen two lion cubs and three lionesses, so no complaints!

4. Giraffes as far as the eye can see

Travelling to a country with so many beautiful furry creatures, one I was especially looking forward to seeing in real life was giraffes. Mountain gorillas, elephants, and lions. Off course I was excited to see them too. But there is something with this tall, elegant animal, which fights by twisting their long, slim necks together that always have attracted me.

And wow! The giraffes were really showing off in Murchison Falls! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Murchison Falls is definitely the place to visit if you, like me, are keen on seeing Rothschild’s giraffes!

8. Red Chilli Rest Camp

This one might not be a reason to visit Murchison Falls itself, but when you have decided on going there, I highly recommend staying at Red Chilli Rest Camp. Especially if you do not have a huge budget for accommodation.

Red Chilli Rest Camp is a budget style camp site with a great vibe and excellent location for both game drives and afternoon cruises. Choose between roofed safari tents with shared bathrooms, bandas (cottages) with shared bathrooms, or ensuite bandas. There are also places to pitch your own tent if that is your mode of travelling.

Whether you choose to stay in a tent or a banda, the place you will spend your time is at the roofed restaurant and bar area. This is where you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and not to mention a sundowner with epic views! Here you will meet people of all types sharing travel stories.

Be aware; you may come across some local residents at Red Chilli, and advice is not to store ANY food in your tents! I did not encounter hippos nor warthogs on site and made sure to keep my distance to the baboons (they have large teeth!).

6. Cruising on the Nile

Exploring the source of the Nile in Jinja by Lake Victoria are well known by most travellers to Uganda, and Nile cruises in Egypt are world famous. But did you know you can go cruising on the Nile in Murchison Falls National Park too?

The Victoria Nile runs through Uganda from its source in Lake Victoria. After plunging through the Murchison Falls it ends in Lake Albert where the Albert Nile takes over and run into South Sudan and becomes what is known as the White Nile. In Khartoum, the White Nile meets the Blue Nile, and forms the grand Nile that runs all the way to Alexandria by the Mediterranean ocean.

So yes, afternoon cruises on the Victoria Nile are one of the highlights of things to do in Murchison Falls. The boats leave from Paraa, just a couple of minutes’ drive from Red Chilli Rest Camp – a good option for an afternoon activity after a morning game drive and lunch.

Not only is it a relaxing 3-hour voyage, but also a great opportunity to see more wildlife. We didn’t see more cats or giraffes, but we spotted an elephant, plenty of hippos – both in the river and on shore, waterbucks, warthogs, and no less than six crocodiles.

7. The world’s most powerful waterfall

The Victoria Nile cruise goes upstream until it meets the waterfall that has given its name to the national park. Murchison Falls is the most powerful waterfall in the world and an impressive sight. About 300 cubic metres of water pushes through a less than 10 meter wide gorge every second! The large two-storey sightseeing boat had to stop 500 metres from the bottom of the falls due to the massive currents.

To get a closer view of the falls you should also visit the top of the falls. Just be prepared to get soaked! It is possible to book a cruise that includes hiking up along the waterfall to the top, but the easiest way is to drive there. We dropped by the top of the falls when leaving the park next morning. Even for a Norwegian who is used to big waterfalls, Murchison Falls is spectacular!

8. Bird watching

Interested in birding? Boasting of no less than 450 different bird species, Murchison Falls is also a place for you. As in Mabamaba Swamps by Lake Victoria, the swamps where Victoria Nile runs into Lake Albert is one of the best places in the country to see the rare Shoebill Stork. We did not go bird watching here, but beautiful feathery creatures were to bee seen everywhere. In Red Chilli Rest Camp, on the game drive, and on the afternoon Nile cruise.

A wonderful 2-day visit to Murchison Falls

As you can see, there are plenty of good reasons to visit Murchison Falls National Park. Two nights with one full day, like we had, should be a minimum. Having more time, you can opt to go for afternoon game drives and longer boat cruises into the delta. If you do not plan to go chimpanzee tracking other places in Uganda, it is also possible to do that here.