My recent visit to Lake Mburo National Park was totally unplanned. A friend of mine was heading there to shoot videos for his travel show and asked if I could tag along – an offer I couldn’t turn down.
And luckily for me, my spontaneous adventure turned out to be one of the most memorable trips I’ve taken in recent memory.
Lake Mburo National Park, as I found out, is one of the best national parks to visit in Uganda because of its many unique characteristics: idyllic lake shores (12 lakes surround the park), wide range of wildlife, undulating hills, striking rocky outcrops, as well as the spectacular swamps and grassy valleys.
What’s more, this is the only national park in Uganda that is a hop, skip and jump away from Kampala. Lake Mburo is only 228 kilometres from Kampala and the easiest national park to get to if you are coming from Uganda’s chief city. And once you get there, you will be smitten by the park’s mesmerizing natural wonders – and on a very low budget.
Getting to Lake Mburo
After a three-hour drive on the smooth Kampala-Mbarara highway, we turned left and started the final 22-kilometre lap on a dirt road that led us into the park and eventually to the magnificent Mihingo Lodge, which is perched high on a rocky outcrop – high enough to offer its guests clear views of the numerous rolling hills that stretch into infinity.
And the short journey from the main road to Mihingo Lodge is a terrific adventure, an unguided game drive of sorts. Along the way we were rewarded with sightings of grazers such as zebras, bushbucks, impalas, warthogs and buffalos that were grazing side-by-side with herds of cattle that belong to the fabled cattle-keeping communities of Kiruhura district.
The tranquil Mihingo Lodge
Mihingo Lodge greeted us with absolute silence save for the occasional sounds of birds singing away in the jungle. The lodge was established 10 years ago by a German couple who visited the park in 2001 and discovered “an exciting rocky outcrop high up on the crest of a ridge.”
Ralph and Suni reveal on the Mihingo Lodge website: “As we reached the top, there in front of us was the most breathtakingly beautiful view down to the valley below. We sat in awe on the hot smooth boulders and thought, Wow! Just imagine if we could build a lodge here.”
Today, the lodge has 12 luxury tented rooms that are set about 50 metres apart to ensure that guests enjoy maximum privacy. Each tent has a spacious balcony as well as its own bathtub and a shower where warm water is aplenty.
Spending two nights in the privacy of my tented room was awe-inspiring, even though the baboons that kept dashing across my front lawn kept reminding me that I was in the jungle, not in a city hotel.
But baboons are harmless creatures and I was glad that at least carnivorous residents of Lake Mburo National Park such as lions, leopards and hyenas respected my privacy.
Safari on mountain bikes
At sunrise the next day, we had a delicious breakfast in the restaurant before jumping on mountain bikes to explore the jungle outside the park. Even though it was outside the borders of the park, our early morning ride rewarded us with up-close encounters with a variety of wildlife, including zebras, buffalos, bushbucks, waterbucks, warthogs and impalas.
And a guide was on hand to help us understand the behaviors of some of the animals. The bushbuck, for instance, is a very shy animal, the reason most of them ducked into the nearby bush as soon as they saw us approaching.
Buffalos move in families of about 20 individuals and can smell an intruder from a distance. They are peaceful animals – as long as you don’t provoke them – but they are also the most lethal fighters in the jungle.
“When they decide to attack they never stop fighting until they are sure that their adversary is dead,” offered Richard, our guide.
After about two hours in the jungle, we were satisfied enough with the game viewing so we rode back to the lodge where we spent the rest of the day enjoying the serenity and serendipity of Mihingo Lodge and its surroundings.
The horse safari
After a good deal of relaxation, the following day we were in for yet another exhilarating adventure. My first time riding a horse was really memorable because I did it in the jungle, among herds of zebra and a variety of antelopes.
Much as the game drive and mountain bike safari had been amazing, the horse safari turned out to be the most fulfilling adventure in the Mburo wild as we watched zebras and some antelopes looking curiously – albeit keeping their distance – at the other animals that were carrying humans on their backs.
Warning: “The maximum weight that you can be to ride our horses is 100 kg, but most of our horses cannot carry more than 85kg. Please do not be offended if we have to weigh you as we must ensure that our horses are not damaged by carrying people who are too heavy as this can seriously damage their backs,” says Mihingo Lodge.
More and more animals
As noted earlier, Lake Mburo National Park is one the best places in Uganda to view a variety of wildlife. Aside from the more commonly seen animals such as antelopes, buffaloes and zebras, among others, the park is also home to klipspringers, which only live on rocky outcrops.
Also resident in the park are topis, reedbucks, oribis, vervet monkeys, crocodiles, hippos, baboons and many types of mongooses.
Lake Mburo is also said to have a very high concentration of leopards, animals which favour the jungles here because of the availability of thousands of their favourite prey: the impala.
Bush pigs, hyenas, small jennat cats, the endangered Rothschild’s giraffes, the nocturnal bushbabies (longtailed galago) and a lone lion are some of the other animal species in Mburo. On a night game drive, one is sure to see animals that cannot be seen during the day – animals such as bush pigs, genet cats, white-tailed mangoose, leopards, spotted hyenas and the only lion in the park.
Birding enthusiasts may also want to know that Lake Mburo National Park is of special interest for over 350 bird species, including the rare African finfoot and white-backed heron.
