A boat cruise on Lake Mburo regularly launches from the Rwononyi jetty at 08:00 and takes a two-hour ride around the eastern banks of Lake Mburo. In addition to the charming scenery and simple pleasures of floating in a boat surrounded by wild things, the launch trip reliably provides good sightings of hippo, crocodile, buffalo, waterbuck, bushbuck, and otter. Among the more conspicuous waterbirds birdwatchers may encounter riding the Mburo boat cruise are the African fish eagle, shoebill stork, pied kingfisher, and various egrets, herons, Ross’s turaco, Narina trogon, and the elusive African finfoot.
How much is the boat cruise on Lake Mburo?
A two-hour boat cruise on Lake Mburo in a small boat of 4-8 people capacity costs about $25 per person for foreigners and 30,000 Uganda Shillings per person for nationals. And a bigger boat costs about $30 per person. Prices are subject to capacity.
What else to add to your boat cruise
In addition to a boat cruise on Lake Mburo, you can explore the expanse of the park on a game drive, horseback safari, biking safari, and, most exciting of them, the guided walking safari. Lake Mburo National Park’s uniqueness allows you to enjoy wildlife viewing without missing the big savannah game players.
Guided Walking Safari
Guided walks are a major highlight of visiting Lake Mburo and a great addition to your boat cruise. A walking safari in Lake Mburo National Park allows you to surprisingly get very close to wild animals, like the impala and zebra herds, on foot.
An armed expert ranger leads you off the beaten path through amazing savannah landscapes till you find yourself among a herd of calm ungulates.
If you’re a sucker for breathtaking landscape views, take the walking trail to the viewing platform that overlooks a salt lick about 2km from Rwonyo camp — it’s an excellent place to view the vastness of the park and a wide variety of animals.
The Rubanga Forest trail, in the southeastern part of the park, is an exciting walk for nature lovers and, particularly, birders. Other rewarding walking trails in the park include the salt lick trail, the lake shorelines, and the trail to the hilltop viewpoint.
Game Drive
Game viewing at Lake Mburo may not match the other big safari parks, but the park’s slow pace and small size make for a moderately rewarding private safari game drive. The park is small enough for a game drive to find some of the common animals among the 68 mammal species present in the park, including zebra, impala, topi, eland, bushbuck, buffalo, warthog, leopard, hyena, and jackal.
Although the quality of game viewing along the park’s popular tracks is irregular, particularly during the wet season, tourists can view substantial concentrations of impala, zebra, waterbuck, topi, and buffalo within a 4-km radius.
A short game drive on Lake Mburo National Park’s savannah plains is a worthy addition to a boat cruise on Lake Mburo. And even more captivating are the late evening, night game drives that bring you closer to the night hunters like the elusive leopard, hyena, and the nocturnal animals like the bushbabies. Guided night game drives in the park set off at 18:30 and can last for four hours.
Horseback Safari
If driving in the comfort of a 4×4 safari truck does not impress you, hop on horseback after your boat cruise and explore the savannah wild on the back of an animal. Other ungulates are more friendly to a human on a horse and tend to stick around in amazement. So you may get closer to them than expected — a unique way to experience Uganda’s wild wonders.
Horseback rides usually last four hours, hailing out of the Mihingo Lodge stable with an expert instructor. Even kids can join in the fun with ponies and then later join the sundowner to watch the golden sunset with a wine glass at the hilltop viewpoints.
Birding
If you’re an ardent birder, Lake Mburo National Park’s acacia woodland and wetlands are excellent birding spots to find the more than 300 bird species recorded around the park. After your boat cruise, you can explore the park’s avian diversity in the comfort of your vehicle, by bike, or on foot. And to make bird spotting simpler for beginners, the park has viewing platforms constructed within the Rubanda forest and by salt-licks.
Lucky birders will come across the prehistoric Shoebill in the Waruki and Miriti swampy valleys, and also, the trail to the Rwonyo jetty provides some great sightings. Common bird species include the Rufous-bellied heron, bateleur, black-bellied bustard, and the Lake Mburo endemic red-faced barbet.
Biking
After your boat cruise on Lake Mburo, burn off some calories on the savannah game tracks and into the park’s surrounding communities on a mountain bike. Rwakobo Rock lodge, on the northern edge of the park close to Sanga gate entry, maintains a good fleet of mountain bikes and offers excellent guided rides through the park’s savanna plains and surrounding communities.
Biking through the local communities will introduce you to the local lifestyle and culture and allow you to get off the beaten path into the Mburo wilderness.
When is the best time for the boat cruise?
Because most travelers would rather avoid the high chances of drenching in the rain during the wet seasons, the best time for a boat cruise safari on Lake Mburo is during the drier months of June to August and December to January.
However, the wet seasons from March to May and September to November still offer excellent wildlife viewing because the animals will be gathered in large numbers. You can still take the boat cruise any time of the year and still enjoy this small savannah park.
How to get to Lake Mburo National Park
By Road: The Park can be accessed by road, it is approximately a 3-4 hour drive each way from either Kampala/ Entebbe. The park can be accessed from various main gates, which include Kyanyanshara Gate linking you to Mihingo Lodge, Akagate Gate, and Sanga Gate, which leads you to Rwakobo Rock Lodge.
By Air, you can also opt for a Flying Safari to Lake Mburo National Park via charter and scheduled flights from Kajjansi and Entebbe International Airport. Operators of these routes include Aero Link Uganda and Fly Uganda, among others. This, however, needs to be booked in advance, given the fact that the routing is mostly determined by the number of travelers aboard the flight, their destination, and weather. You will fly to the Airstrip in Mbarara, and the flight trip is about 45 minutes, and then you will drive to Lake Mburo National Park. The flight costs range from USD 300 per adult one-way.
Where to stay
For the luxury traveler who wants to immerse themselves in exquisite wilderness amenities, Mihingo Lodge is a perfect choice for a price of about $175 per person per night. Rwakobo Rock, Acadia Cottages, Mburo Eagle’s Nest, and Lake Mburo Safari Lodge offer mid-range accommodation priced at about $90 to $160 per person per night, including meals.
For budget travelers, Hyena Hill Lodge in the west of the park, Rwonyo Rest Camp, and Lake Mburo Campsite provide comfortable accommodation for $50 per person a night.
What to Pack
- Light clothes, such as a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of trousers
- A raincoat to cater to the erratic rainfall
- A hat that shades your head from excessive sunlight
- Sunglasses
- Sunscreen
- Camera
- Binoculars
- Basic first aid box
- Insect repellent for mosquitoes and other biting insects
- Drinking water and energy snacks
