Lake Mburo National Park is a great destination in Uganda strategically located along the Kampala-Masaka-Mbarara highway, 20% of the park’s habitat is occupied with water formed by 5 lakes within the park including Lake Kiretwa, Lake Misherwa, Lake Mburo, Lake Nakivali, and lake Ruma, these combined together with the swamps and rivers form a large wetland area considered an important birding site of Uganda. The park’s past has been eliminated several times due to tsetse fly invasion and local community poaching, there have been several attempts to relocate animals here successfully by the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The biodiverse national park is Uganda’s smallest savannah park covering an area space of approximately 370 square kilometers in the Kiruhura district of western Uganda.
The park is underlined by Precambrian metamorphic rocks dating back to over 5 million years ago, the history of Lake Mburo National Park is quite intriguing on how some of these lakes were formed, it is said that a long time ago, there were 2 brothers Mburo and Kigarama so one day as they Mburos brother had a dream that there would be heavy rains and floods which he told his brother about, however, he did not listen and continued to the same region, rain found him there an drowned him to death, to date the park is called after Mburo and the water hence the Lake Mburo. Small as the park is, you will be surprised by how much you can see in the beautiful variety of biodiverse environments including forests, and vast savannah grasslands, it is home to a number of wildlife species including zebras, defassa waterbucks, impalas, bushbucks, hippos, elands,topi, Jackson hartebeest, oribi, Uganda Kobs, giraffes and over 300 species of birds recorded here to date.
The national park grows a forest and, woodland, and best to do activities due to the absence oflarge mammals like elephants in the conservation area, many activitiesare done in the park including guided nature walks, which are done anytime led by an experienced guide from the Uganda wildlife authority, this will get you to learn so much about the park plant and animal species. Nature walks begin at 7:00 a.m. and last for at least 2 hours, these are arranged at the salt lick,Through Rubanga forest, where there is a collection of animals.
Day and night game drives, will allow you to immerse in the wildlife of the national park, drives are done using 4*4 safari cars through the well-distributed trails of the park, these are done in sessions, in the morning, afternoon, and evening time, the park is one of the few regions where night game drives are allowed in search of nocturnal species expect to see buffaloes, giraffes, hippos playing in the ponds of the park and olive baboons lined up along the trails.
Horseback riding in Lake Mburo National Parkis an initiative of Mihingo Lodge, this is one of the most amazing things to do while in the national park, it is a close way of getting near wildlife as the animals feel more comfortable around horses than the vehicles, hours are awarded to riders depending on their levels of experience but are even beginners are allowed, it takes 2-3 hours through the amazing trails of the park, expect to seezebras, waterbucks, elands, Uganda Kobs among others.
Cycling in Lake Mburo National Park is experiential, riding through the park is safe as there no large mammals to be scared of, and through the trails expect to see a variety of species, rides take place mostly at the salt lick trail to enable you to view animals of the park.
Lake Mburo national park can be accessed by road, it takes approximately 6 hours drive to the national park, there are stop overs at the equator for picture moment and the Igongo cultural center which will have you indulge in the culture of the people of western Uganda. The best time to the national park is during the dry season between the moths of December, January, February and June, Juy August and September. This said the wet season is equally amazing to go to the national park as both present a unique set up.