Setting off for
Murchison Falls National park was somehow between the develo and the deep sea
for me. Having been admitted in a clinic the previous night, I was feeling
under the weather indeed I felt down in the dumps that I was going to miss the
trip. Life is full of wonders, on the early morning of Saturday 23rd
June 2012 i saw myself somehow strong and could therefore join my colleagues
for the long awaited trip.
HOW
DID WE REACH THERE
The journey from Gulu
to the Park took us over two hour’s just due to the portholes, and the
narrowness of the road, you know moving through Badege, to Custom boarder via
Kochi-Goma road, then to Anaka-Anaka headquarters-Anaka Hospital-and we joined
from the new tarmac road (work in progress),
from there we joined Karuma-Pakwach at Anaka-Purongo sub/county and
finally branched off to the main entrance of the great Murchison falls National
Park which covers 3840km/sq. Nevertheless we were there by 10:00 am, though we
had some delays at the main gate for we had to make payments and get a
conservation agent who was acquitted with park language name it, oh my God I
could not wait to go deep and see the wonderful and amazing scenery in the
National Park located in Nwoya District. The beautiful wild life, mammal and
bird species, the very gentle land scape, the wonderful pasture and
vegetation, the very good weather and
most interesting the breezes of the most
gentle flowing waters of the one and only shared Lake of East Africa Victoria
flowing and the Falls.
WHAT
DID WE SEE THERE
I was so much amazed
and blessed to have reached there by myself any way I was tired of the hear
says, at long last the Social Transformation training in Gulu at Acholi Inn was a stepping stone to
the park, you know I could not afford to miss glancing at the buffalos,
elephants as the biggest animal in the park, monkeys with their styles, the
very huge Hippopotamus in the Albert delta, Baboons, the most respected bird in the pearl of
Africa—the Crested crane, bush birds, antelopes with their shinning skin, My
Totem the Uganda Kob, Warthog, Giraffe and its tallness, the Oribi (small
antelopes), lizards, Eagles-Vultures, Reedbuck, Ground horn bull, Egyptian
plover, Spur winged plover, white
Egret, Red Bishop, Paradise whyder, for my first time I saw dry rivers you know
I only used to hear my school teachers and pals discuss about them in geography
and Social studies, the oil wells down the park, in fact two of them oh!!
Uganda is indeed endowed with minerals but are we benefitting from the blessings
God gave us? God knows. We could not also miss seeing the Pakuba air strip in
the park, on our way back from the Albert delta where we saw a hippo pod.(group
of Hippos)
MOST
PAINFULL
In fact I realized that
most participants were not at ease after the Conservation Agent announced that
we were likely to miss seeing Butcher man ‘LION
the king of the jungle’ for he had gone deep into the bush to look for a meal,
and that they would not see the Murchison falls, though they had a glance at
the White Nile on their way to Para Lodge for Lunch.
ABOUT
THE PARK
The National park which
covers an area of 3840km/sq is shared by districts of Nwoya, Buliisa, Masindi,
Nebbi, and Oyam in the East. It has 76 mammal species and 450 bird species.
History
The area was first
inhabited by human beings in the early 1898-1914, when there was a serious
outbreak of sleeping sickness, killing many people. Therefore the survivors ran
away for refuge rendering the land vacant. However important to note was that
when people migrated to these other places for settlement they increased
population for both human beings and animals, therefore the animals ran to the
bare land and enjoyed for over 40 years without man’s disturbance. In 1950 - 1951,
local and government leaders consulted the people whether they would like to
re-settle in their original ancestral land the response was no. So the area was
further improved and gazzated as a national park. The area has been an
outstanding tourist attraction mainly due to the great population of wildlife,
species diversity, unique attraction, the beautiful scenery, land site and the
eco-system diversity.
As told to writer by the Conservation Agent UWA…Mr. Wako
Innocent.
WATCH
OUT
Do not make mistakes
when you enter a national park, there are park rules
·
Enter at your own risk
·
Do not enter with pets, cats
·
Speed limit is 40km/hr
·
No littering
·
Do not enter with fire arms hand them
over to authority
·
No poaching
In a nut shell my
journey to the park was all interesting as I managed to see several creatures I
had longed to see, enjoyed at my leisure time, had fun with pals and mates any
way have no way to express the joy I had, despite having missed seeing the king
of the jungle (lion).
BY KABATWAIRWE
OLIVE…kabaolive@gmail.com…..
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