Lake Mburo National Park
Lake Mburo National Park is one the most accessible park from Uganda’s capital Kampala. The park is about 2 to 3 hours from the capital, meaning you can get there in a gif. Lake Mburo National Park is also the smallest game park in the country with an approximate area of 370 Square kilometers. Lake Mburo National Park gets its name from the famous lake Mburo that is found in the premises of the park. Lake Mburo is part of the other 13 lakes in the area joined by a swamp forming a 50 km long wetland.
Lake Mburo national park was first gazetted as a hunting area in 1933 but was filled with the Banyankole pastoralists and later upgraded to a game reserve in 1963. The herdsmen kept evading the space until in 1983 when it was finally made a game park for tourists to thrill while on a Uganda Safari. The forest and wetland cover has played a vital role on the wellbeing of the animals that have their habitat in the game park.
The story of the park dates from olden tradition and it’s believed that the park started from two brothers’ mburo and kigarama who lived in the low savannah territories. Kigarama got a dream that a lot of rain would fall and cause a great flood but when he shared his dream with his brother, Mburo decided to down play it. Kigarama on the other hand decided to relocate into the neighboring hills while Mburo stayed put and within no time the heavy rain fell making the place to flood hence Mburo drowning with all his property. The locals believe that the water from this flood made up the park’s famous lake, Lake Mburo.
Lake Mburo has over 68 mammal species and over 350 bird species in the game park. These creatures live in the park’s well green endowed vegetation that includes savannahs, bush lands, the wetland and a few acacias. The animals in the park include but not limited to zebras, antelopes, eland, impala and klipsinger, probiotics, leopards, hyenas and topi warthogs, buffaloes, hippos, water bucks, reed bucks crocodiles, topis and many more. This park is the best place for you to sight the elusive cat – the leopard.
The park has both land and water animals so guests of the park get to enjoy game watching both on game drives and boat rides in the park. The park doesn’t have lions, elephants and Rhinos which are the three animals that make the big five and though that may seem like a disappointment, it makes the park safer and more enjoyable because of the absence of lions. Tourists are able to walk in the park with no fear of being attacked by any of the carnivorous creatures.
For you who are bird watching enthusiasts the bird species in the park are some to die for, the species include paprus yellow warbler, saddle billed stork, rare shoebill stork, brown chested wattled plover, great snipe, hornbill, African fish eagle, saddle billed stork and white winged warbler.
Activities that are done in this park are mainly game drives, boat rides, horseback riding, nature walks and community tours. Most guests to Lake Mburo National Park visit the park for a top up experience to mountain gorilla trekking. Since it’s on the way to western Uganda tourists have a pit stop at the park on their way to on their way to south western Uganda to either Bwindi National Park or Mgahinga National Park for a mountain gorilla trekking experience.
Mountain gorilla trekking is one of the most sought after safari activities and it can only be done in 3 countries in East Africa, Uganda being the top one.
