Murchison falls national park is one of Uganda’s first national parks in 1952.it lies in the northern end of the albertine valley it was first gazette in 1926, its Uganda’s largest and biggest conservation place covering an area of 3840km and home to 76 species of mammals and 451 bird species. The park previously known as Kabalega Park has a variety of tourism activities like hiking top of the Murchison falls, boat cruise on the Nile, chimpanzee tracking in budongo forest, fishing, game drives and nature walks. It’s endowed with a lot of flora and fauna. The park is bisected by the striking river Nile the largest river in Africa with splendid waterfalls flowing to the great Lake Albert.
The park is named for its famous magical falls where the river Nile explodes through a cleft in the rift valley escarpment falling into a frothing pool of 43m below. During idi Amin dada reign in the 1970s the name of the park was changed to kabalega falls named after the king omukama of bunyoro kitara kingdom kabalega. This did not last for long and the name was reverted back to Murchison falls after the down fall of idi Amin dada.
The park has abundance of flora and fauna, mammal species for example elephants, leopards, buffalos, hippopotamus, waterbucks, oribis, warthogs, loins, kobs…. its composed of a variety of birds like comorants, bee-eaters, fish eagles, king fishers among others.inorder to tour the parks most wildlife, one used to cross the ferry, the ferry used to carry a maximum of eight cars per trip. Crossing this ferry used to take place all day from 7am to 7pm.scheduled as 7:00am, 9:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 6:00pm, and 7:00pm east African time.it costs 5000 Uganda shillings for passengers, motorcycles and light vehicles 20,000 shillings or above depending on the weight and size of the vehicle, special ferry crosses used to be at an additional cost compared to the normal fares. The ferry crosses from north to south and from south to north of the river, it bisects the park flowing from east to west. Payments are made across a both near the landing. Fortunately, due to government effort in order to improve on tourism roads and different connectivity, now there is a very good bridge on the Victoria Nile in Murchison Falls no more timing for the ferry crossing and one can only have a program at ease as one can imagine.
Besides ferry crossing that used to be, there are several activities and sites to enjoy wile in this park, there is chimpanzee tracking, nature walks in budongo, fishing on the banks of river Nile, game drives to get to see some of the big five. Birding along the river Nile, boat cruises, among other activities.
The Murchison falls can be accessed by a number of routes by road, it takes about five hours drives from Kampala to the falls. There are a couple of chatter flights that can be organized from Entebbe airport to the airstrips in the park. A variety of accommodation is provided facilities such as lodges, and camps near the park and inside the park for example para safari lodge, budongo Eco forest lodge, there are more accommodations in within the near towns before you can get to the park.
In conclusion, ferry crossing used to be a must do once you want to get to the either side of the park easily, used to act as a short way rather driving and winding through the park.so most important is to know its fares and time of movement, but now all our tourism prayers have been answered.
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