With an area 3,840km2, the park lies at the northern end of the Albertine Rift Valley, where the sweeping Bunyoro escarpment tumbles into vast, borassus palm-dotted savanna with acacia and riverine woodland. First gazetted as a game reserve in 1926 and later as a national parks in 1952, it is Uganda’s largest and oldest conservation area, hosting 76 species of mammals and 451 bird species. At Murchison Falls, the Victoria Nile bisecting the park squeezes through an 8m wide gorge and plunges 45m over the remnant rift valley wall with a thunderous roar into the “Devil’s Cauldron”, creating a trademark rainbow. The mighty cascade drains the last of the river’s energy, transforming it into a broad, placid stream that flows quietly across the rift valley floor into Lake Albert. This stretch of river provides one of Uganda’s most remarkable wildlife spectacles. Regular visitors to the riverbanks include elephants, giraffes, buffaloes; while hippos, Nile crocodiles and aquatic birds are permanent residents. The 1951 film “The African Queen” starring Humphrey Bogart was filmed on Lake Albert and the Nile in Murchison Falls National Park