Murchison Falls

Murchison Falls is perhaps

This place was once world reknown for an abundance of wildlife on the river cruise up to the waterfall itself. This status was maintained up until the 1960s.

However, poaching, wars, and residual rebel activity in the country's north (bordering Sudan) resulted in the indiscriminate slaughter of much of the big game including big cats that are now no longer there.

Since those turbulent times (especially post Idi Amin and post war with Tanzania and its aftermath), the area saw a resurgence in ecosystem recovery and wildlife (and the accompanying tourism). We can attest to the wildlife sightings as our boat trip involved numerous sightings of hippos, crocodiles, elephants, cape buffaloes, water bucks, and numerous birds. In fact, it was way more impressive than our sunset cruise on the Zambezi River above Victoria Falls.

As for the waterfall itself, it dropped in multiple cascading stages where some of the river split apart and eventually rejoined partway down the overall descent of the falls. We were able to see its front side from the wildlife safari boat cruise, but our boat was only able to get us so far given the fierce current as we got closer (so we needed a telephoto lens to bring the waterfall in as well). Plus, there were lots of foam floating about (which I'm not sure what exactly the foam was). This foamy turbulent part was called the Devil's Cauldron.

Alternatively, we got a more intimate experience at the top of the waterfall, where we walked down a trail that took us right up to the rushing whitewater as it squeezed into the narrow crevice below. We felt the ground trembling from Murchison Falls' power, and the resulting mist from the turbulence often produced morning rainbows.

We tended to think the falls was best experienced from the top, making it one of the few waterfalls where it was better from its top than its bottom (as far as we were concerned).

Directions: The boat ride to Murchison Falls started from a boat dock near the Paraa Ferry Crossing. They have specific tour times (I think they do it twice or three times a day), but perhaps even more constraining was the times they run the boat ferry across the river. We happened to catch one at 12pm but the next one wasn't until I think much later in the day (like 3pm or 4pm, which would've blown our chances at a boat tour from even happening).

Our driver picked us up and rushed us over from Kampala to the boat ferry. We started at 6am, but we rushed to barely made to the 12pm ferry (causing a flat tire in the process after making it here). I'm guessing this drive should've been allocated at least 7 or 8 hours for a less stressful experience. But I have to throw in a caveat in that we took a longer and smoother way to get there. You see on the return, we took a shorter (but involved a lot more giant potholes to dodge or go through) on the way back lasting about 5.5 hours. So that's something to keep in mind when you're budgeting time on your itinerary.

As for the top of Murchison Falls, there are two possibilities. One is to combine the boat cruise with a guided (with an armed guard) hike up to the top of the falls. The second is to take a spur road leading to a car park and a short walk away from the top. The latter option was what we were able to do (though not on the same day). I can't recall exactly how far this turnoff was from the ferry crossing.

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This group of hikers left the boat tour and hiked to the top of Murchison Falls with an armed guard (with a semi-automatic weapon) as escort

Murchison Falls dwarfing Julie

Make sure you don't get too close to the rushing water!

Notice the rectangular column by the falls. That used to be a bridge (washed away by a flood back in the 60s) that connected you to an island, where you could see the rest of the Nile River join with the falls before being ejected from the crevice!

Rainbows in the mist

Hippos are common, but they might be angry if the boat gets close. One actually lunged at our boat and it was a good thing our boat took off because the hippo turned up where our boat was situated! Yikes!

Whatever you do, don't go into the water! Nile crocodiles abound.

This is a tsetse fly and they're quite common in Murchison Falls National Park. These annoying buggers do draw blood from you and can spread parasites like mosquitoes can. However, DEET is ineffective against tsetse flies, and even though it's said they're attracted to black and blue colors (thinking you must be big game), they still bit me even when I wore bright colors. So consider yourself warned!

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Fixated on the falls while trying to keep the camera still in the turbulent current

Comprehensive right to left sweep following the rushing water into the turbulent abyss with enough mist to generate a huge rainbow

Right to left sweep looking into the turbulence of the Devil's Cauldron

Looking right into the turbulent Devil's Cauldron while trying to follow the rainbow above the falls

Direct right to left sweep of the turbulent falls from an upper vantage point

Right to left sweep as shot from the very top of the falls

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TRIP REPORTS

• June 14, 2008

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