Kidepo Valley

In the far northeastern corner of Uganda, at the border with South Sudan, sits one of the country’s most remote and isolated national game parks. With a pristine and undisturbed African wilderness, Kidepo Valley National Park is located in the semi-arid Karamoja region and is therefore Uganda’s least visited game park. Its name was generated from the verb ‘akidep’ which means to pick up in Dodoth, which is the tribe of pastoralists that initially occupied the land in which the park sits.

While Kidepo gets few visitors yearly, it remains one of the parks in Uganda with a beautiful landscape. It also boasts of diverse biomass of animal species. The park is home to 80 mammal species and of these, 28 are only recorded in Kidepo Valley National Park. These include the Caracal, Stripped Hyena, Aardwolf, Cheetah, Bat-eared Fox and Hunting dog. Kidepo does not house many aquatic mammals or reptiles since it is located in a semi-desert and experiences one wet season. There are close to no crocodiles in Kidepo and the ones that are present don’t grow beyond 2.5m due to food scarcity.

Kidepo also only comes second to Queen Elizabeth when it comes to birding destinations. Bird species seen there are the Egyptian vulture, Black coucal, Dark chanting goshawk, Marsh Tchagra, African Moustached francolin, Red-winged pytilia, Golden pipit, Red-billed oxpeckers, African grey fly-catcher, Jackson’s hornbill, Steel-blue Whydah, Rufous chatterer, Fox kestrel, Hoopoe, Purple Grenadier, Greater kestrel, Crimson-rumped waxbill, Northern carmine bee-eater, Black-breasted barbet, Rose-ringed parakeet, Verreaux’s eagle, Clapperton’s Francolin, Pygmy Falcon, White-bellied go-away bird, Abyssinian ground hornbill, Ethiopian swallow, Karamoja apalis, Scarlet-chested sunbird and Superb starlings among others. The star of the show however is the ostrich, which is only found in Kidepo Valley National Park.

Other activities to look out for include the Karamojong community tour, hiking Mountain Morungole, exploring the mountain’s vegetation and rocky terrain and tracking the IK tribe.