Lake Mburo N/Park is one of the smallest parks in East Africa, located in Kiruhura District of Western Uganda covering an area of 260sq.km.
The area around this Lake was declared as a controlled hunting area by the Uganda’s colonial government in 1935. However, there was a severe outbreak of sleeping sickness by tsetse flies during the 1940s. In 1950s, a certain program was put in place to rid the area of Tse Tse flies which led to the death of most of the animals.
By the 1960s, pastoralists started to return to the area which was later declared as Lake Mburo Game Reserve to completely protect wildlife that had stayed and in 1983, the region gained National Park status suitable for a safari.
Since then, the park has been in position to rejuvenate and host a number of animals such as Impalas, Zebras, buffaloes and close to 300 bird types despite it being a small park and having witnessed unparalleled threats of survival. The lake forms a wetland system which draws the attention of a number of hippopotamuses, crocodiles and water birds. The park provides tracks everyone to follow which allow for excellent game viewing opportunities.
The Park is named before the beautiful Lake Mburo which with a combination of 13 other lakes in and around the park forms part of an extensive wetland and swamp system.The lake has more woodland, made of acacia and euphorbia trees dotting the entire rocky Savannah vegetation lining the vast papyrus swamps and lakes around. The water bodies act as homes for over 350 bird species like the rufous bellied heron, coqui, bateleur, francolin, grey crowned crane, brown chested lapwing and black bellied bustard making Lake Mburo a birder’s paradise.
The lake also accommodates variety of herbivorous and carnivorous animals, huge herds of elands, bushbucks, zebras, buffaloes, Topis and Impalas and can often be seen wandering and grazing the grasslands. You can’t miss the crocodiles, hippos, waterbucks and other semi-aquatic animals which found their home on the shores of Lake Mburo like warthogs, otters, weasels, mongoose and African civet.
ACTIVITIES IN LAKE MBURO NATIONAL PARK.
You will enjoy a number of activities like game drives and horseback tours and boat voyages on the banks of Lake Mburo. There is also an opportunity for walking leading to the viewing platform near the salt lick at Rwonyo via Rubanga forest and the top hills for a clear view of the lake and Savannah.
Guided game drives.
The park has unique wildlife which includes grazing animals like the Impala whose existence is only restricted to this park in the whole of Uganda. The park is also a residence for last Ugandan population of elands, Hyenas, leopards, African antelopes, buffaloes, Burchell’s Zebras, hippos and warthogs. There is also probability of seeing crocodiles, hippos, reedbucks and waterbucks in the same area.
Birding.
The park has over 315 different types of birds like the rare shoebill stork, paprus yellow warbler, African finfoot, saddle billed stork, brown chested wattled plover, carruther’s cisticola, tabora cisticola, great snipe, Abyssinian ground hornbill, African fish eagle, saddle billed stork.and white winged warbler. The area is filled by Acacia species, Olea species and Boscia species. The swamps in the park hide secretive papyrus specialists like the black, yellow and red papyrus gonolek.
Cultural tours.
At the lodge, you will be taken on a cultural excursion to meet the local people during a village walk. There are different village walks to the local communities offered by different lodge around Lake Mburo NP.
These people grow crops and graze their long horned cows and one of the activities to try out is the milking of cows.
Boat cruise.
You will watch the fauna and flora of the lake and the animals that come to the water mostly during the dry season.There are also a number of crocodiles, antelopes, hippos, buffaloes and three types of otters.
Birds such as malachite Kingfishers, Blue headed Weaver’s, Rufuos long tailed, African fish eagles, hammerkops, pied Kingfishers, herons, rare shoebill, cormorants and pelicans.
