This 1 Day tour to Lake Mburo national park is a short Uganda wildlife safari prepared for individuals with little time in Uganda but looking for an ideal place to spot several wildlife species. Lake Mburo National park is the smallest of Uganda’s and East African savannah national parks but naturally rich with variety of habitats like the dry hillsides, bushy thickets, rocky outcrops, forest, open and wooded savannah, lakes and swamps. Lake Mburo National Park is an adventurous wild life national park with more than 68 mammal species where one can go and easily spot a huge concentration of mammals like Giraffes, Impala, Zebra, Caped buffaloes, Elands, Warthogs, Oribis, Defassa waterbuck, hippo, leopard, Spotted hyena, Topis, some primates and many more plus various bird species. This 1 Day tour to Lake Mburo national park involves game drive and a boat cruise safari on Lake Mburo national park one of the 13 lakes that are found in the park.

Highlights of 1 Day tour to Lake Mburo national park

Game drive

Afternoon boat cruise on Lake Mburo.

Detailed itinerary

Day 1: Leave Kampala / Entebbe – Drive to Lake Mburo National park – Game drive – Boat cruise – Return to Kampala/Entebbe

Rise up very early in the morning (530 am) to be served breakfast and then leave your hotel at 600 am to start your journey to Lake Mburo national park found in western Uganda across the Equator line. The journey to Lake Mburo national park from Kampala or Entebbe is approximately 4 hours’ drive. Lake Mburo national park is one of the unique wildlife experience destination in Uganda and famous for its highest concentration of Zebras with an estimated population of 5,000. During game drive, you will spot a lots of mammals such as Zebras, Impalas, Leopards, Capped buffaloes, Topis, Giraffes, Warthogs, Bush pigs, some primates like olive baboons, klipspringer, and White tailed mongoose among others. After the game drive, have lunch, relax for some minutes and then drive to Lake Mburo for an afternoon boat cruise which is another rewarding activity in the park. A boat cruise on Lake Mburo is an ideal safari to spot hippos and Nile Crocodiles plus many bird species such as Pelicans, African fish eagles, Herons, King fishers, cormorants, rare African finfoot and hammerkops and other land mammals when they have to the lake to drink water and swimming. After the boat cruise safari on Lake Mburo, leave the park and drive back to your hotel / residence in Kampala /Entebbe. This will be the end of your 1 Day tour to Lake Mburo national park.

Meal plan; Lunch

The tour includes;

Pick up from and drop off to your hotel / residence in Kampala or Entebbe

Professional English speaking safari guide for 1 day

Transport for 1 day in a well modified safari vehicle (4×4, air-conditioned and pop up roof)

Lunch as specified in the itinerary

All park activities and entrance fees

The tour excludes;

Accommodation in Entebbe/Kampala and in the park

Travel insurance

Domestic and international flights

Entry visa

Alcoholic and soft drinks like beers, sodas, wine, juice

You may extend your trip to either Bwindi forest national park to track mountain gorillas, Queen Elizabeth national park for another wildlife encounter or Kibale forest national park for chimpanzee tracking experiences.

What you should know before booking your 1 day tour to lake Mburo national park

Lake Mburo National Park’s location is positioned on the high way that connects Kampala to Mbarara and other western districts. The park thus is located in the growing city of Mbarara.

The park is almost 228k from Kampala to the park headquarters and the commonly used means of transport is road transport. The stop over at Mpambire trading Centre makes the journey short in mind because the visitor forgets about how long he has travelled when he/she stops at the drum making Centre and also at Kayebwe were the equator is found.

Lake Mburo National Park is found in a strategic area of precious rocks known as pre-Cambrian rocks and these rocks underline Lake Mburo area and you will find rocks composed of Cenozoic. The park comprises of arenite rocks, argillite rocks and granitized rocks plus salty. These rocks dominate the area and are scattered all over the place. The parks soils are ferralitic and mainly there is sandy clay and sandy loam soils. These soils have favored the growth of trees and plants hence making the environment look green and colorful to tourists.

Lake Mburo is located in the rain shadow of Mountain Rwenzori and Lake Victoria. The area commonly has 2 seasons and they include dry and wet seasons. The park receives a modal low rainfall of about 500 -1000 mm and this rises the temperatures variations to 23-25 degrees Celsius. Climate should be considered by a visitor when preparing to come to the park.

Lake Mburo is composed of 2 park entrances and they are Nshara and Sanga. 20% of money that is collected as entrance fee is used to fund community development activities like building schools and clinics.

The gates distances to the headquarters of the park known as Rwonyo is about 2km and it will take you only 20 minutes to drive and reach. Currently no domestic flight schedule to Lake Mburo however you can arrange a private flight to take you to the park. For a private flight, you will book from Entebbe airport that is located just 46km from Kampala.

There are various ways to reach the park. Remember the park is located in Mbarara and as your on Masaka -Mbarara high way, you will spot a sign post pointing to the left after travelling 221 kilometers from Kampala to Mbarara, then you will turn on your left and you directly reach the Nshara entrance of the park and is only 47km to reach the park’s headquarter when coming from Mbarara. When you’re at Sanga you will have to turn right and Rwesheshebe gate is right there after 12 km. you are advised to use a 4 wheel drive car because the climate may change any time and it rains. Small bus is available at Sanga gate to take you to the park but it is also good to note that sometimes you will have to wait so as to get the small bus.

Lake Mburo national Park is unique in a way that it has a full lake within and also the small size of the park. The park has various animal species and tree species plus a beautiful landscape. Lake Mburo is Uganda’s finest National Park with the Impalas. The park also hosts a few giraffes. The park also hosts predators and they include white leopards and white mongoose, side striped jackal. There are many more activities that take place in the park and they include horse riding, walk safari, and Bird watching. The park is sheltered by, forests, shrubs, wetlands and papyrus.  The park is seen with raising and falling hill surrounding it.

You will also view savannah and forest birds flying in the air during boat cruise. There are also aquatic birds and they include bronze tailed starling, crested crane, woodpeckers and many more. They attract more tourists to the park.

Lake Mburo is among the 3 national parks with Burchell’s Zebra. The parks nature also makes the park unique because it creates a difference from other national parks besides the size issue. The park is covered by acacia trees and savannah plus papyrus, Cyprus and papyrus Gonolek.s on the Map reading the park is close to Kampala the capital city of Uganda. It will take you few hours to reach the park.