Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls is Uganda at its most dramatic. Here, the entire volume of the White Nile — one of Africa's mightiest rivers — is forced through a gap just seven metres wide before exploding into a thundering cascade 43 metres below. The result is one of the most powerful waterfalls on Earth — a wall of white water and spray that you can feel in your chest from 300 metres away.

Uganda's largest national park (3,893 square kilometres) stretches along both banks of the Nile, with the river dividing the park into distinct northern and southern sectors. The northern bank offers classic savannah game drives among giraffe, elephant, lion, and the prehistoric-looking shoebill stork — one of Africa's most sought-after birds. The southern bank provides access to the top of the falls and the Budongo Forest, home to a habituated chimpanzee community.

The boat safari from Paraa to the base of the falls is the park's signature experience. As you cruise upriver, hippos and Nile crocodiles are ever-present, elephants wade to drink, and the falls grow from a distant rumble to a deafening roar.