Murchison Falls Safari
Track rhinos on foot at Ziwa, watch the entire Nile force itself through a 7-metre gorge, and cruise the river past hippos and crocodiles in Uganda's largest national park.
- Duration
- 3 Days / 2 Nights
- Group size
- 2-8 people
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Best time
- Jun-Sep & Dec-Feb (dry season)
- Ideal for
- Families & first-time safari-goers
- Destination
- Murchison Falls National Park
Your Journey, Day by Day
- 1Day 1 of 3
Kampala to Murchison via Ziwa
Morning drive north, 4-5 hours via Masindi. Break the journey at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, the only place to see wild rhino in Uganda. The country’s own population was shot out by the early 1980s, and every animal here descends from a handful of southern white rhino reintroduced in 2005. You track them on foot with a ranger, which brings you closer than any vehicle would. Lunch, then into the park for the Top of the Falls, where a short trail delivers you to the edge of it: the entire Victoria Nile, a river you could not throw a stone across, forced into a seven-metre cleft in the rock and dropped 43 metres through it. You feel the ground move.
On-foot rhino tracking at ZiwaLunch in MasindiTop of the Falls viewpointMeals:Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Paraa-area lodge - 2Day 2 of 3
Buligi Game Drive & Nile Launch
A dawn game drive on the Buligi circuit, the tongue of open grassland between the Victoria and Albert Niles and the richest ground in the park: elephant, buffalo, Jackson’s hartebeest, oribi, Uganda kob, lion, and the Rothschild’s giraffe for which Murchison is the global stronghold. In the afternoon, a three-hour launch cruise upriver to the base of the falls, past hippo pods, crocodiles lying open-mouthed on the sandbars, and a dense shoreline of waterbirds; the boat holds station in the spray below the cataract before turning back. A sunrise hot-air-balloon safari or an evening night drive can be added.
Dawn Buligi game driveRothschild’s giraffeAfternoon Nile launchBase of the fallsMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Paraa-area lodge - 3Day 3 of 3
Murchison to Kampala
An optional early cruise downstream to the Nile Delta, where the river breaks into papyrus channels before emptying into Lake Albert, the most reliable place in the park to find a shoebill standing motionless at the reed edge. Then the return journey south with lunch en route, arriving in Kampala or Entebbe in the late afternoon.
Optional Nile Delta cruiseShoebill in the papyrusScenic returnAirport drop-offMeals:Breakfast, LunchOvernight:Departure
What's Included
- Park entrance fees & Ziwa rhino tracking
- 4x4 safari vehicle with driver-guide
- Lodge accommodation (2 nights)
- Game drives & Nile launch cruise
- Meals as specified & bottled water
Not Included
- International flights
- Uganda visa
- Hot-air-balloon safari (optional)
- Drinks
- Tips & personal expenses
