Kidepo Safari packages
- 6 days Wildlife Safari
- 7 days wildlife and birding tours
Kidepo Valley National Park.
This park lies in the far northeast of Uganda, isolated from the country by sparsely populated, arid badlands of Karamoja region. Rarely visited by tourists due to the expense and difficulty of getting there, Kidepo is nevertheless one of the most captivating destinations in the country, boosting a strong wilderness atmosphere, rugged mountain scenery and exceptional game viewing and birdwatching. The park has an altitude range of between 914m and 2,750m above sea level and covers an area of 1,442km2 The mountainous terrain is broken by the Narus Valley in the southwest and the Kidepo Valley in the northeast. The dominant habitat is open or lightly wooded savanna, interspersed with patches of montane forest, riparian woodland, thick miombo woodland, borassus palms and rocky koppies.
The park protects one of the most awesome faunas of Ugandan National Park although its total of 86 mammal species has been reduced to 77 after as rash local extinctions in recent years. It has a bird checklist of 463 confirmed and 26 unconfirmed and more than 60 of the birds listed have been recorded in no other Ugandan national Park.. Five primate species have been recorded in Kidepo, including the localised patas monkey. Predators are well represented with 20 species resident. Of these, these, the black-backed jackal, bat-eared fox, aardwolf, cheetah and caracal are found in no other Uganda national park. Twelve antelope species occur in Kidepo of which the greater kudu, lesser kudu, Guenther’s dik-dik and mountain reedbuck occur nowhere else in Uganda.
Getting there and away
The small proportions of tourists who visit Kidepo generally do a fly-in safari from Kampala, which can be arranged through some of the local tour operators.