Full Day tour activities in Murchison Falls Park

Full Day tour activities in Murchison Falls Park

Day 9: 6th December 2018

Today's map

Well, we had another fairly early start today, with a 6am breakfast, ready for a 6.30am start to our game drive. After a very long day yesterday, we wanted a bit of a lie-in! We had a packed lunch again, another full day out ahead.  We headed off into the park and one of our first encounters was with two elephants, one of whom was feeling quite stroppy. So, we had to watch from a little distance, then dash past, she spun around to glare at us and flapped her ears, but didn’t charge.

Shortly after that we came across a bit of a traffic jam, with a group of Chinese tourists having a pee while a Land Rover towed a bogged Land Cruiser out of some soft sand.

We saw loads of giraffes, this park has a really healthy population of Rothschild giraffe, and the Uganda Wildlife Authority has been working hard to conserve them since they were listed as endangered in 2010. They wander in groups ranging from a few animals up to one group of 29.

A gruesome but interesting scene we came across was a fairly fresh carcass of a Ugandan Kob (antelope) which was being picked over by several vultures and one Maribou stork. The stork was much bigger than the vultures, but he had to wait his turn. Some of the vultures were getting really enthusiastic, and jamming their heads right inside the ribcage.

We were also lucky enough to see some Patas monkeys, these are ground-dwelling monkeys who live in the open savannah. At first they were running quickly, but then they sat under a shrub and did a bit of grooming, so we could grab a photo, very kind of them!

We went to the Paraa Safari Lodge to get a cold drink at about 11am, it was very nice to sit in the shade by their pool, and have a soda. We had a look in the gift shop and the foyer – an old colonial style building with creaky wooden floors. They had nice gardens with lizards, birds and squirrels. The bill for our 3 drinks was 20,000 Ugandan shillings, not far behind 2 days worth of drinks at our lodges (the Nature Lodges group).

We had our picnic lunch down at the boat ramp while we waited for our Nile cruise at 2pm, with an audience of warthogs and the odd Maribou stork.

We also saw something floating by in the river, which looked suspiciously like a dead hippo. Andrew spotted it because of some sudden splashing, which could have been a croc having a go.

The toilets had been closed while the office staff were at lunch, unfortunately when they got back at about 1.40pm they said the toilets were shut due to “no water”. So it was a mad dash back up to Paraa Lodge for a loo break before the 3 hour cruise! The boat for our cruise was quite small but comfortable. We were the last ones onboard, but got good seats anyway.

The cruise up the Nile towards Murchison Falls was very pleasant. We saw a lot of birds including African fish eagles, African darters (look like a snake swimming because only their head & neck shows), malachite kingfisher, red-throated bee-eater, Ruppell’s starling, and pied kingfishers, and their nest holes in the cliff face.

African Darter

 African Fish Eagle

Malachite Kingfisher

 Red-throated Bee-eater

Ruppell's Starling

Nest holes

We saw some groups of elephants on the banks, and in the edge of the water (they climbed out as one of the other boats got quite close).

Also a crocodile just in the shallow water, who sank very quickly as we approached. Then we were lucky enough to see a croc sleeping on the land, tucked in behind the base of a tree. He stayed there for a little while, then got up and marched into the water. The crocodiles here seem quite shy.

When we got a close as we were going to the base of the falls, we were still some distance away. The current was very strong, and the engines were working hard at that point. Their was a lot of foam floating on the water, and you could see the currents swirling. Some of the passengers got out at that point to climb up to the top of the falls, and the rest of us enjoyed the ride back downriver to the jetty, doing  bit more wildlife spotting on the way.

Black and White Colobus Monkey

Ronald had got some good intel on the location of the elusive lions, so on out drive back to the lodge we agreed to have one last try at finding them. Another guide had told Ronald exactly which tree he had left them under in the late morning, and as lions rest during the heat of the day, they should still be there. So we headed straight there without any messing around, and took the required turn off the main track onto a certain minor track, and there they were – three lionesses tucked into the bushes around the base of a tree.

One of them was right in under the bushes, and you could only see a patch of tan fur. The other two were sleeping in the grass, and were much more visible. They both woke up and looked at us, one stood up, stretched like a house cat, and walked a few metres away into the long grass. She laid down there and basically disappeared.

There's a lion in there somewhere!

Amazing how she became invisible, even though we knew exactly where she was – we realised we could be surrounded by lions and not know it! That was the successful end of our last game drive in Uganda!

Before dinner we sat on the rooftop and had a well deserved drink.