Maps and navigation
Murchison Falls National Park map
An interactive map, the official UWA sources to download before you leave, reference coordinates for the places you will actually be navigating to, and the two things that shape every route here: the river down the middle and the bridge that now crosses it.
Download the official park map
UWA publishes a park brochure with a full map of the circuits, gates, the river crossing and the falls, and it is worth carrying. The tariff PDF is the other document to have with you, because it is what gate staff work from and it settles most arguments about what you owe. Download both before you travel rather than expecting copies at the gate.
- UWA Murchison Falls National Park page
- UWA publications library, including the park brochure and management plan
- UWA Conservation Tariff, July 2024 to June 2026
Key coordinates
Save these before you go. Mobile coverage inside the park is patchy at best, and a set of waypoints in an offline app will get you out of trouble faster than anything else.
| Place | What it is | Coordinates |
|---|---|---|
| Paraa (approximate) | The tourism hub on the Victoria Nile: boat jetty for both cruises, UWA offices, the students' centre, and the Paraa Bridge linking the north and south banks | 2.2833, 31.5667 |
| Murchison Falls and Top of the Falls (approximate) | The cleft itself, at the head of Fajao gorge, with the viewpoint reached by vehicle and the ranger-escorted climb arriving from the river below | 2.2789, 31.6847 |
| Masindi (approximate) | The main town on the southern approach and the seat of the conservation area office; your last dependable fuel and supplies coming from Kampala | 1.6741, 31.7150 |
| Pakwach (approximate) | The town at the north-western corner of the park, on the Albert Nile; the reference point for the northern approach and for the transit road across the park | 2.4614, 31.4936 |
Navigating Murchison
- Download the Uganda region in OsmAnd or Organic Maps before you leave Kampala, and pin Paraa, your lodge and the gate you plan to use as favourites. Signal inside the park is patchy.
- The Victoria Nile splits the park in two and the Paraa Bridge is the crossing. You drive straight over, so the old advice about queues and a last ferry no longer applies. What binds your day now is the gate window of 07:00 to 19:00 and the 40 km per hour limit.
- The game circuits are on the north bank, in the Buligi triangle between the Victoria Nile and the Albert Nile, with the tracks converging at Delta Point. The Heart of Murchison, the newer game area, is on the south bank about 20 km east of the Masindi to Paraa road.
- Coordinates above are for orientation, not turn-by-turn navigation. Confirm current track conditions with rangers at Paraa before setting out, particularly between April and May and again in October and November when the murram tracks erode.
- A public road crosses the park between Masindi or Bulisa and Pakwach or Gulu, and a large share of the traffic you meet is transiting rather than game viewing. Do not read the vehicle count on that road as a measure of how busy the circuits are.
The rules that shape your day
Gates run from 07:00 to 19:00 and your entry ticket lasts 24 hours from the moment you pass through, not until the end of the day. The speed limit is 40 km/h throughout, off-track driving costs $150 per person in the vehicle, and motorcycles are not permitted in the park at all without special approval. Night game drives need a UWA guide and are sold only to guests sleeping inside the park.
Assume no fuel inside the park. Fill up in Masindi on the southern approach or in Pakwach on the northern one, and carry enough range for your game drives on top of the return leg. Keep every receipt until you exit, because UWA asks for them, and be off the regional roads before dark.