An Easter trip to Murchison Falls National Park

It's a VSO secret - you travel overseas to volunteer and get the bonus of being able to get to some fantastic places for weekends and holidays. We took advantage of the long Easter weekend to travel to the Murchison Falls National Park. After considering driving ourselves we decided to go for the easy option and joined a trip organised by Red Chilli. It was called 'Falls and Game' and lived up to its name.

So at 6.30 am on Easter Saturday we were driving across Kampala to the meeting point picking up two other volunteers on the way. We arrived at the top of Murchison Falls in time for a picnic lunch. We had a walk, or rather a scramble, around the falls and plenty of opportunity to take pictures. They certainly are spectacular.

Then it was time to head over to the Red Chilli camp which was to be our base. We shared the camp with resident warthogs and hippos who came out from the nearly river Nile at night. Don't leave any food or anything that smells interesting in your tent and if you go to the loo in the middle of the night take a torch and look where you're going!!

Next morning was another early start for a game drive. Unfortunately the car ferry across the Nile had to be fixed and the 7am ferry didn't leave until nearly 9am. By then our itinerary had been switched around so we went on a boat trip along the Nile for the morning. Lots of hippos, a large herd of elephants, several Nile crocodiles, lots of different birds and a chance to view the falls from the river at the base.

Then after a quick lunch back at the camp we finally got across on the ferry and had a wonderful game drive around the northern part of the park.

What a way to spend Easter Sunday!

Easter Monday had another early start to catch the 7am ferry. This time it set off on time but a few metres out from the shore one of the two engines cut out and it took them over an hour to land us all safely on the opposite bank! We did wonder for a while if we would be seeing Lake Albert from the water!

Another shorter game drive. By now we were saying 'oh there's another elephant!'. Then onto Karuma falls and another scramble down a steep path to see the falls. These are very different from Murchison but just as spectacular in their own way.

Finally the long drive back to Kampala with a stop for lunch. It was an Easter break with a difference!