Murchison Falls National Park

SIZE: 3840 sq km

LOCATION: In the northwest, approximately 90km from Masindi

TOURIST ACTIVITIES: Game viewing, bird watching, launch cruise and chimp trekking.

WHEN TO VISIT: Any time of the year    

Murchison Falls National Park is Uganda's largest national park protecting a chunk of virgin African savannah crossed by the mighty Nile River.

The park is named after the spectacular Murchison Falls, where the world's longest river explodes violently across a narrow cleft in the Rift Valley escarpment to plunge into a frothing pool 43 metres below.  The lush borassus grassland to the north of the Nile River harbors elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, lions and various antelope species plus a variety of bird species.

Southeast of the park, Rabongo Forest harbors a sizeable chimps population and other rainforest habitats.

River Nile hosts one of Africa's densest crocodile and hippo populations, and a dazzling variety of water birds including the world's most accessible wild population of the rare shoebill.