The size of Murchison Falls National Park
The size of Murchison Falls National Park is 3,893 square kilometres, making it the biggest national park in Uganda. At the size of 5,072 square kilometres, the park combines the contiguous Karuma and Bugungu wildlife reserves that straddle the districts of Buliisa, Nwoya, Kiryandongo, and Masindi in north-western Uganda.
Murchison Falls National Park is actually bigger than the Republic of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean, which is only 2,040 sqkm.
The size of Murchison Falls National Park makes it the largest game park among the 10 national parks in Uganda. Seven of these are excellently nestled on the western arm of the east African rift valley. Murchison falls is in the Murchison Conservation Area. This covers the Bugungu and Karuma wildlife reserves, spreading inland from the shores of Lake Albert, the Victoria Nile up to Karuma.
Murchison Falls National Park is bisected by the Victoria Nile from the east to the west, for a distance of about 115 kilometers (71 miles). Here, the waters of the Nile river flow through a narrow gorge which is only 7 meters (23 feet) wide. This then plunges 43 meters (141 feet) down, forming what is termed as ‘the world’s most powerful waterfall’.
The bisection of Murchison Falls by the Victoria Nile resulted into having two parts of the park, that is, the northern and the southern part of Murchison Falls National Park.
Both parts (north and south) are connected by a ferry that crosses from the south to the north, and vice versa. This happens at an interval of every 2 hours, during day and it docks at Paraa.
Tourist activities in and around the park
Due to a wide size of Murchison Falls National Park, there are diverse tourist activities one can do. There are beautiful sceneries and a variety of wildlife species. Such activities one can do include hiking to the top of Murchison falls, bird watching, boat cruises along the Victoria Nile, wildlife game drives, visiting Karuma falls, sport fishing, chimpanzee tracking, guided nature walks, and cultural and community visits among others .
Visitors to Murchison Falls National Park always combine it with rhino tracking at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, chimpanzee trekking in Kibale National Park, which is home to 13 primates. You can also go for a game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park or the amazing mountain gorilla trekking safari in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.
How to get there to Murchison Falls National Park
By road, there are a number of routes that can be used to reach Murchison Falls. The journey, which is about 305 km, may take approximately 6 hours from Kampala the capital of Uganda.
The park has five (5) gates which give you access. These include Chobe, Wankar, Tangi, Bugungu, Mubako and Kichumbanyobo gates.
By Air, Murchison falls has three (3) air fields which are accessible and two of these are within the park. Pakuba Airfield is located in Nwoya district, on the northern side of the park, and it serves both Pakuba and Murchison Falls National Park.
It takes about 1 hour to reach Chobe Airfield on the eastern side of the park, from Entebbe International Airport. There are airport shuttles that are arranged to Chobe Safari Lodge. There is also the Bugungu airstrip which is a domestic airstrip located on the western side, within the park.
