An itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park
Having a good and affordable itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park is the best way to start your safari experience at Murchison Falls National Park. In the northwestern part of Uganda, Murchison Falls National Park stretches from all the Lake Albert shores, cutting through the Albertine area and taking in the well-known Bunyoro escapement, which is part of the western arm of the Great Rift Valley. Murchison Falls national park also encompasses the Karuma game reserve and Budondo forest reserve, which all combine to form the Murchison Falls conservation area. In Uganda, Murchison Falls National Park is the largest conservation area with a lot of animal and bird species favoring visitors who come for bird watching, game drives, and then bot cruise safaris on the river Nile within the Murchison Falls National Park.
Depending on which company you have decided to book with, an itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park starts at Entebbe international airport, and this is where the company safaris driver guide will pick you up in the morning and then start the road trip to the Murchison Falls National Park. Some of the visitors, depending on the time that they have arrived at the Entebbe international airport, decide to spend the night in one of the best safari lodges and hotels in Kampala city before making the morning drive to Murchison Falls National Park. Kampala City features a lot of activities and the city also has excellent hotels and restaurants favoring all categories of travelers, whether budget travelers, luxury travelers, or midrange travelers.
From your hotel in Kampala in the morning, the itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park continues with the driver-guided pick-up from your hotel after breakfast and then starting the journey to northwestern Uganda—Murchison Falls National Park. From Kampala to Murchison Falls National Park is about 5 hours and the road trip is associated with a lot of interesting features that you will not skip, including the countryside market vendors as you pass through several and the wonderful local people on your way to Murchison Falls National Park. This is one of the reasons why the itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park using road transport is so fantastic and rewarding. However, visitors can as well decide to use the services of the domestic flights that are available at the Entebbe international airport or at the Kajjansi airfield. The park has some nice airstrips such as the Pakuba airstrip and Chobe airstrip that have made it possible for the park to allow the entry of domestic flights, especially for visitors who don’t like traveling long distances.
If you’re interested in taking the shorter route to Murchison Falls National Park, it is best that you use the Kampala-Masindi highway, which is short but also rewarding to visitors with so many interesting views. Enjoy the landscape and varied vegetation types as you drive to Murchison Falls National Park; other visitors use the Kampala-Hoima road and then connect to Murchison Falls National Park. Almost all the itineraries to Murchison Falls National Park involve visitors passing through the Ziwa rhino sanctuary to track the rhinos before they continue to Murchison Falls National Park. After seeing the rhinos, visitors will have lunch, and then take nature walks in the sanctuary. At the same time, the sanctuary offers visitors bird watching safaris because it is home to over 350 species of birds, with the most commonly sighted bird species in the sanctuary being the Abidims bustard and blue-spotted dove.
After exploring the Ziwa rhino sanctuary, we will resume our safari itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park, whereby now in the evening you will drive to Masindi town or drive straight to Paraa lodge or Karuma falls, or drive and go to the Chobe safari lodge. Reaching Karuma falls is so rewarding, and you will get time to stop at the bridge and take some pictures. Karuma is along the Kampala-Gulu highway and from here you will stay at your lodge, relaxing as you wait for your next day’s activity according to your safari itinerary. As per your itinerary for Murchison Falls National Park, in the morning you will brave the wild for the game drive safari, where you will be able to see a lot of animals, and this will stay up to midday when you return to the lodge for lunch.
Once you’re done with lunch, you will go on the boat cruise safari and ride up to the bottom of the falls, where you will disembark and start hiking to the top of the falls to get the amazing views before you return to the lodge. You can travel to Kaniyo Pabidi in the middle for your chimpanzee tracking in Budongo woods early in the morning. Before entering the backwoods to look for chimps, you will be informed for a maximum of 30 minutes. The chimps’ following movements will last for a maximum of 4 hours, after which you will proceed directly on a boat trip down the Nile River westwards to the Albert Delta, the point where the Nile meets Lake Albert. The boat trip will provide you with the opportunity to witness a variety of animals such as cape bison, hippos, elephants showering from the water, and a variety of water birds. The prehistoric shoebill stork can be seen around the shores of Lake Albert during this boat excursion.
Having finished the boat excursion on your itinerary to Murchison Falls National Park, you will return to the Chobe safari stop and take a walk about the area, such as visiting the Chobe runway, where you will see numerous animals such as Rothschild’s giraffes, warthogs, and washout bison, to name a few. Then, in the early part of the day, you’ll look at and start the road back to Kampala, having eaten at the Chobe cafe. You’ll follow the Luwero course and explore the Luwero Triangle, where Uganda’s current legislature sent off a fight that cleared its fuelling technique, and after that you will drive back to Kampala and finally to Entebbe international airport to end your itinerary for Murchison Falls National Park.