Lake Mburo National Park is the smallest savannah national park that is located in the western part of Uganda. The national park was gazette in 1983 and has an area cover of 370 square kilometers and is dominated by savannah vegetation, acacia woodland, swamps and many more. The national park is a home to wildlife species such as zebras, waterbucks, reedbucks, sitatungas, leopards, impalas, bushbucks and duikers, different bird species such as shoebill stork, black bellied bustard, saddle billed stork and red faced barbet among others.
ATTRACTIONS OF LAKE MBURO NATIONAL PARK
LAKE MBURO
Lake Mburo is a water body for both fauna and flora. Its bank is filled with animals as well as birds. Hippopotamuses and crocodiles are permanent residents and buffalos come to drink water in the dry season.
RWONYO REST CAMP
The rest camp is the center for tourism activities within the park. The camp is a starting point for game drives, forest walks, nature hikes and quad biking.
RUBANGA FOREST
However small it is the forest which is found on the eastern side of Lake Mburo gives a taste of the tropical high forest with a closed canopy and viewing platform for the tourists. It’s a home to a number of forest birds such as green pigeon, harrier hawk, narina trogon, grey-backed cameroptera and double-toothed barbet among others
GAME TRACKS
The national park has a number of tracks on the eastern hinterland of the park where you can spot a number of animals and birds. The hill top view offers a panoramic vistas of the park and the 5 lakes.
ACTIVITIES OF LAKE MBURO NATIONAL PARK
GAME DRIVES
The game drives in Lake Mburo national park are done in the morning and afternoon in a 4WD safari vehicle. While on the game drives you will spot animals such as bushbucks, reedbucks, bush duikers and zebras. Birds such as kingfishers, herons, and black bellied bustard and many more. While on the morning game drives you will follow different game tracks such as zebra track, kazuma track and kigambira loop which are all rewarding.
BOAT TRIPS
While on a Uganda Boat safari at Lake Mburo you will have an amazing boat cruise. The boat cruise sessions are scheduled in two phases that is the morning boat cruise that starts at 9am and the afternoon boat cruise which starts at 2pm and each session takes 2 to 3 hours. While on the cruise you will spot animals like hippos, crocodiles in water, buffalos, waterbucks, and warthogs as they are drinking water on the shores, bird species such as cormorants, kingfisher, herons, rare shoebill and pelicans.
GUIDED NATURE WALKS
The tourists get a chance to explore the national park on foot with an armed park ranger as well as a guide. While on the nature walk you will follow different trails to the salt lick where animals come to lick the salt, trails to kazuma hill where you will view a number of bird species. Animals such as waterbucks, zebras, hippos and warthogs among others.
SPORT FISHING
Sport fishing is carried out at mazinga where visitors take part in the activity after obtaining a sport fishing permit from the Uganda wildlife authority. During the sport fishing activity, you will have an experienced guide who will help during the process. The lake has 6 species such as cat fish, tiger fish, lung fish and tilapia among others but the most common specie is tilapia fish.
HORSE RIDING
This is another adventurous activity within Lake Mburo national park where tourists get to view a number of animals on a horse. During the Uganda horseback safari you will ride across the savannah plains where you will get to spot animals such as buffalos, zebras, warthogs and elands as well as bird species.
CYCLING
Tourists can explore the park on bicycles and are guided by the game rangers to protect you from danger. While on the cycling activity, you will follow the established routes which go through the open plains of savannah grasslands, swampy valleys and the forested hills where you will get close encounter with the animals and birds.