Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls National Park is situated in north-western Uganda, stretching inland from the shores of Lake Albert, around the Victoria Nile, to the Karuma Falls. The park forms the Murchison Falls Conservation Area, together with the neighboring 748 square kilometers Bugungu Wildlife Reserve and the 720 square kilometers Karuma Wildlife Reserve. The park is Uganda's largest national park, covering an area of about 3,893 square kilometers, and is bisected by the Victoria Nile for about 115 kilometers from east to west. The Murchison Falls is inside the park, where the Nile flows through a narrow gorge just 7 meters wide before dropping 43 meters. Also, within the park is the Karuma Falls, where the 600-megawatt Karuma Power Station is located. Murchison Falls National Park and the adjoining Bugondo Forest Reserve are home to 76 mammal species and the largest population of Nile Crocodiles in Uganda. The park is home to over 450 species of birds, among them the rare Shoe Billed Stork, the Dwarf Kingfisher, the Goliath Heron, the White-Thighed Hornbill and the Great Blue Turaco. The protected area has been a Lion Conservation Unit since 2005. The park is also home to giraffes, and Rothschild's Giraffes were transferred here in 2016 and 2017. The Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda's most visited national park, with the highest number of visitors of any park in the country each year. Among the popular activities are game drives, night drives, boat trips to the delta and Murchison Falls, nature walks, bird watching and chimpanzee tracking.