Murchison Falls and a Fantastic Fish Story!

 

Murchison Falls

Murchison Falls National Park, the largest in Uganda, is named for the dramatic Murchison Falls where the Nile River, explodes violently through a narrow opening in the cliffs and plunges 130 feet to the rocks below. The Nile River, the longest river in the world, has one of the highest concentrations of hippo and crocodiles in Africa. The northern part of the park is mostly grasslands, with elephants, cape buffalo, giraffes, a wide variety of antelopes and to keep the population in check lions, hyenas and leopards. The southern part of the park is more tropical habitat with chimpanzees, several species of monkey and other rainforest inhabitants.

Lioness resting under a tree.

A Waterbuck - my favorite antelope.

Although these guys are cute too!
Male and female Duiker.

Jackson's Hartebeest.
Rian asks, "Why the long face?" Lol. 

We did two game drives in Murchison National Park and I think we managed to see a little bit of everything! Unlike the more open Serengeti, here the tall grass and scrub made sighting the elusive predators a challenge. But it was a challenge we were up for! Eddie did a fantastic job identifying the cues of the herd animals, if their attention was rigidly focused on a certain spot, you can be sure that’s the place to look. Rian and Rog were also accomplished spotters, while I was more often playing catch up. How they could see just the twitch of an ear or the tip of a tail in the tall grass was beyond me! Lol. If sighting was a challenge, getting good photos was even more so. Thanks to Rian for sharing her photos and vids, this was a joint effort. We did see two lions, two leopards, many varieties of antelope, cape buffalo and several elephants. Plenty of baboons, monkeys and colorful birds too. Eddie’s encyclopedic knowledge of the species was incredible. I’ll do my best to get everyone properly identified, but the sheer diversity of species was overwhelming!

On the hunt!

The giraffes were hyper focused on one spot. Why? Leopard! 
Talk about camouflaged, can you spot him in the top right pic? 

 

Hyena.

The giraffes are always a fun to watch. 

Not much beats a baby elephant for adorable. 

Cape Buffalo. Always judging you. Lol. 

Old man of the forest. Lol. 

After the game drive on Saturday, we went for a boat cruise on the Nile to Murchison Falls. The boat ride was a little over 10 miles each way and we stopped to observe the hippos, crocodiles, and many species of birds along the way. Aside from the wildlife, the scenery was spectacular too.

A group of hippos is called a bloat. That's not very nice. Lol. 

Nile crocodile - what shiny teeth you have. 

Lots of gorgeous birds along the water.
Ground Hornbill, Red-Throated Bee-eater, Goliath Heron

Murchison Falls viewed from the river.

Murchison Falls did not disappoint! The thunderous crashing of the water was spectacular. Later we hiked to the top of the falls for an even more up close and personal view. The Nile forces its way through a 23-foot-wide opening, sending 11,000 cubic feet of water per second over the falls. Wow! The roar and spray from the falls was unforgettable.

Rainbow over the falls!

A damp family shot. Lol.

Rian and Eddie. 

Impressive!

On Sunday Rian got to check off one of her bucket list items - fishing the Nile River. She and Rog took off early in the morning for a sport fishing excursion. I opted out. Since I don’t fish and had spent three hours on the cruise yesterday, I thought my time would be better spent trying to get some notes put together for the blog. I did not bring my laptop on this trip, so won’t be able to post anything until we’re home. But I really wanted to start writing while the experiences were fresh in my memory. Since I can barely recall what I had for breakfast most days, I knew if I waited until we got home it would all be a blur.  So, were our fisherfolk successful? Well yes and no. Lol. Rian reported that she experienced every emotion imaginable in that one morning.  Rog, Rian and their guide, Stanley, started off motoring up the Nile toward Murchison Falls, past scores of hippos and crocodiles. The first order of business was to catch the bait fish needed to tempt the really big predator fish - Nile catfish and Nile perch were the ultimate goal.

Sunrise on the Nile.

About a third of the way there, Stanley took the boat through a thick mat of floating vegetation, a good place to catch bait fish. Unfortunately, the mat closed around the boat, stalling them, and repeatedly fouling the propeller. Stuck like that, Rian felt like a sitting duck and an easy target for an angry hippo or hungry crocodile. Stanley felt bad and jumped into the water to try to part the mat to get the boat clear, forgetting that he had his cell phones in this pocket! After twenty minutes of pushing and pulling hand-over-hand through the mat they finally managed to get clear. But in the attempt, Stanley compounded the problem by flooding the engine. Now they were floating without power down the Nile, back toward all the hippos and crocodiles they’d passed earlier. Rian was pretty sure this was how her Africa adventure would end. After 30 minutes that seemed like an eternity, the engine caught and disaster was averted. During this little adventure, Rog was busy catching bait fish including a 12 inch Nile tetra, which will play a part later in this story.

Rian is thrilled to be unstuck and motoring again!

They continued without incident to a huge eddy on the left side of the river below Murchison Falls. Then the fun truly began. Rian landed an enormous catfish, 39 inches long and an estimated 28 pounds! She was in seventh heaven!! The smile on her face could have lit up Las Vegas.

Success!!!
Look at those smiles!

Rog hooked the next one, but it went under a log and fouled the line. Stanley rerigged the pole with the big tetra that Rog had caught earlier and Rian took the rod. They were about to try a different location and as she was reeling in, she hooked a gargantuan Nile perch! She and Rog took turns trying to wear her out. Stanley said to keep the perch out of the current, but the perch took off and literally towed the boat through the rapids and down the river! They fought and reeled her back when they could, only to have her take off again. The perch breached and just her head was at least 24 inches from mouth to gills - a true monster! When Stanley saw that, he got super excited too.

And then Rian hooked a monster!

They worked her for nearly 15 minutes, getting increasingly excited when she breached again. Then disaster struck! The perch put so much pressure on the line that the bail on the reel exploded. Everyone on board worked frantically to repair the reel, but Stanley didn’t have the right parts. Meanwhile, the perch was still on the line and none too happy about it. Stanley tried pulling the line in hand over hand, while Rog and Rian continued working on the reel, but it was a losing battle. While Rian took a turn holding the line, the perch swam directly under the boat and snapped the line against the metal stairs. Stanley was utterly devastated, while Rog and Rian were laughing and high-fiving each other. Lol. It was such an amazing experience. Stanley has been a river guide for 11 years and he said that perch was at least 100 kilos (220 pounds!). The highs and the lows…and a fish story to tell for years to come. The one that got away!

This is NOT their fish, but I googled images of a 100 kilo perch and Rog agrees this is exactly what it looked like when it breached. Wouldn't it have been fun to haul that one aboard!

Nile Perch breaching - theirs was 24 inches from mouth to gills!

The one that got away!
Google image of a 115 kilo Nile Perch caught below Murchison Falls.

Even without the monster perch it was a great fishing trip!

From Murchison Falls we head south to Kibale National Park and our first primate trekking - no gorillas yet, but I hope you'll love it anyway - we did!