A walking tour at Lake Mburo National Park is a bucket-list adventure and a key highlight to include on your Uganda Holiday Safari while here. Most suitable for all family, age and interest groups, walking tours offer a rare opportunity where you come up close to a variety of wildlife while – on foot!
The absence of big cats and large herbivores, including elephants, makes Lake Mburo National Park a haven of guided walking tour adventure. While the park’s gentle terrain and scenic landscapes, wildlife-rich woodlands and knowledgeable ranger guides make these experience memorable.
About Lake Mburo National Park
Lake Mburo is Uganda’s smallest of the savanna parks, yet the most scenic, endowered with panoramic landscapes of rolling hills, acacia-dotted grassland valleys and wetland-hemmed lakes. This woodland-dominated park is also a wildlife haven, supporting Uganda’s largest populations of plain zebra and Impala with eland, waterbuck, cape buffalo, Nubian giraffe, and a great array of birdlife.
Walking tour at Lake Mburo National Park – Encounter the giraffes and zebras on foot!
Encountering and approaching up-close a tower of giraffes in Lake Mburo is the most sought-after experiences while on the walking tour. On foot, you grasp a full picture of how elegant, majestic and graceful this tallest land mammal is!
Nubian (Rothchild’s) giraffes were only introduced here in July 2015 to diversify wildlife species across Uganda parks. And from a group of 15 individuals introduced, the giraffe population have increased to over 100 individuals today. Lake Mburo was chosen for its highest diversity of acacia tree species, a staple diet for the giraffe. The introduction of giraffe, was also for its ecological importance of taming the rapid growth of this acacia-dominated national park.
The zebra with their stripes are another characterful species to encounter while on a walking tour here. Watching herds up-close reveal complex social structures and behavior from; defensive stallions, to various formations, to curious youngsters and more.
The up-close encounter experience of wildlife on foot offers great photographic moments for having closeups and eye-level shots.
Ranger guides on a walking tour
The ranger guides leading you on these walking experiences are what makes these wanderings into the wilderness rewarding. They are information powerhouses, combining cultural, scientific, geology, ornithology – while attaching meaning and significance of the natural surroundings and landscapes.
Armed with vast knowledge of the bush, ranger guides are your guardians and teachers, bringing you into a safe-viewing distance of various wildlife across your paths. They will share of the ancient stories connected to these lands, point out medicinal plants, interpret and identify, tracks, signs and bird calls.
How to prepare for walking tour in Lake Mburo National Park
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Best time and average duration of walking tours
Walking tours in Lake Mburo National Park are offered all-year-round adventure with daily Morning and Evening schedule plans. This timing corresponds to the cooler hours of the day when its best to walk the wilderness with the skies red and light, is soft and excellent. The guided walks lasts between 1-2hrs duration.
That said, walking tours will leave at any time of the day depending on the local weather.
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How physically fit should one be for a walking tour
Adventurers to the walking tours should be in a good shape and reasonable fit, able to walk a considerable distance. It should be noted that, guided walks in the wilderness do not follow gazzetted trails or tracks, but rather, natural ancient contour lines paved here by local wildlife.
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Cost of walking tour
The cost of walking tour activity in Lake Mburo is 25USD per person in addition to 40USD park entrance fee for foreign visitors.
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Where do walking tours begin
Daily walking tours at Lake Mburo NP start from any of the park visitors’ receptions of; Sanga, Nshara, Kanyina-Nshara and Rwonyo, where guides are picked and payments made.
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Dress code and packing essentials for the walking tour in Lake Mburo National Park
A right dress code is essential for a rewarding walking tour experience therefore, for the walk;
- Carry a light backpack for your camera gear, raincoat, water bottle, any personal medication, snack or energy bar
- Sunglasses are essential for your eyes while a hat and sunscreen will help you with that strong African sun
- Carry and be gentle on the sprays, as from our experience we’ve seen strong aromas attracting various insects instead!
- Avoid “shouting colors” on a walking tour and instead go for blend-in In the wilderness, colors of Red and black absorb heat faster making your walk uncomfortable, while whites make you stand out, noticeable and to be avoided.
- Dress casually in blend-in colors including, shades of grey, browns, light-greens and khaki which offer camouflage within the local surroundings and, allowing you a rare opportunity to approach up-close to various wildlife without triggering a panic mood.
- Good quality long pants and sleeves are essential for scratches while good footwear offer a great under-feet stamina and helps you navigate across wet grasslands.
- Therefore, leave out the deep blues as they tend to attract the annoying tsetse flies.