TOUR AND TRAVEL CENTRE UGANDA

Kidepo valley National Park

Kidepo valley national park is located in the far North East of Uganda sharing boundaries with Sudan and Kenya. It is one of the most spectacular parks where visitors will get ther real feeling of wilderness. It’s the fifth largest National Park in Uganda with 1,442 square kms. The park has one of the best scenery and the terrain consists of mountains and savannah land scape. The vegetation can be described as open tree savannah which varies much in structure and composition, dry mountain forest dominates some of the hills, while areas along the Lorupel River support dense Acacia geradi forest.

Wild life attraction
The park harbours a great diversity of animal’s species than other parks in Uganda. These include: Bateared fox, striped hyena, Aardwolf, Caracal, and Cheetah, hunting dog. The less common ungulates such as great and less kudu, chandler’s mountain reedbuck, Klipspringer and dikkil. Other large ungulates are the bush pigs, bush elephants, burchell’s zebra, Giraffes, warthogs, cape buffalos, eland, bushbuck, Rothschild giraffe, bushduikers. And other carnivores present include lion, leopards, several small cats, spotted hyena, black-backed jackals and side- striped jackal.

The park also boasts an extensive species of birds.  465 species have been recordedamong them is the Hamerkop, Hornbill, Red billed, ratite birds like the Ostrich birds and the Kori birds. The birds of prey include the Egyptian vulture, Verreaux’s eagle and the pygmy falcon. The park therefore offers a good opportunity for bird watching activity.

The park is blessed with the beautiful landscape, scenery views, small hills, rocky outcrops and inselbergs from which one can obtain tuning views in all directions.
The Narus valley which contains most of the wild life species here visitors can view a variety of wildlife on a game drive.

Hiking can be done on Morungole Mountain just some few kilometers from the park headquarter; Lonyili Mountain is another possible hiking place. Other activities that can entertain visitors are the Emuya dance of the Napore and Nyangea, ethnic groups and the Lakaraka and Apit dance of the Acholi.

The Karimajongo culture is an interesting cultural tourist attraction especially their simple way of living, their traditional customs, stools, spears, headdresses, knives, bows, arrows, and Jewellery. These are very interesting in the Karimajongo culture.

Tourist activities

1          Game drives
2          Scenery viewing
3          Bird watching
4          Cultural visits 

Accommodation
The park also runs a self catering hostel comprising of 14 bandas each with two beds. It offers cooking facilities only but may provide visitors with basic drinks. Visitors are advised to bring sufficient food and drinks for a full duration of their stay. Apoka Rest camp managed by Uganda Safari Company provides food and bedding for the up market on full board basis and Apoka lodge managed by the park is in place to serve visitors the best.

Access to kidepo
The park can be reached by road or by air. But driving is more rewarding as vast parts of karamoja are scenic and total wilderness. And 4WD vehicles are the only ones required because of the nature of the roads and the distance is very long.

There are three routes by roads:

1          Kampala via karuma- lira kotido-kidepo- 705kms
2          Kampala via Mbale - Soroti - Moroto - Kidepo - 792kms
3          Kampala via Mbale - Sironko - Kotido - Kidepo - 740kms.

Chartered aircrafts are available from Entebbe international Airport to the park headquarters. The civil Aviation Authority manages an airstrip at lomej about 3kms south of the park headquarters.