Karamoja & Kidepo Cultural Journey
Uganda’s least-visited corner: the cattle country of Karamoja, the Tepeth on the slopes of Mount Moroto, the Ik on the ridges of Morungole, and the Narus Valley game at the end of it. A long way from the rest of the country, and unlike anywhere else in it.
- Duration
- 6 Days / 5 Nights
- Group size
- 2-6 people
- Difficulty
- Challenging
- Best time
- Sep-Mar (Karamoja is driest and the tracks stay passable)
- Ideal for
- Second-time visitors & travellers who want distance
- Destination
- Kidepo Valley National Park
Your Journey, Day by Day
- 1Day 1 of 6
Kampala to Mbale
East past Jinja and the Nile to Mbale, about five hours, sitting under the western wall of Mount Elgon. A short first day on purpose: what follows is a week of long ones, and starting fresh from Mbale takes several hours off tomorrow.
Nile crossing at JinjaMount Elgon approachEvening in MbaleMeals:Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Mbale hotel - 2Day 2 of 6
Mbale to Moroto
North into Karamoja, and the change is abrupt: the banana and maize smallholdings give out within an hour and the country opens into dry thorn savannah with inselbergs standing out of it. This is agro-pastoralist land, and cattle are the measure of nearly everything in it: wealth, marriage, standing, obligation. Moroto sits beneath its mountain at the end of the drive, the administrative centre of a region most Ugandans have never visited.
Into the Karamoja plainsInselberg countryArrival at MorotoMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Moroto lodge - 3Day 3 of 6
Moroto: Manyattas & the Tepeth
A morning at a Karamojong manyatta, arranged in advance with the homestead itself rather than turned up at: a thorn-fenced compound of huts and stock enclosures built for a family and its herd, and an explanation from the people who live in it of how the year runs, from the wet-season gardens the dry-season movement of cattle to water, the kraals. In the afternoon, up onto the lower slopes of Mount Moroto, a 3,000-metre massif whose forested upper reaches are home to the Tepeth, a people quite separate from the Karamojong of the plains below and farming ground that looks impossible to farm.
Karamojong manyattaCattle, kraals & the pastoral yearTepeth villages on Mount MorotoMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Moroto lodge - 4Day 4 of 6
Moroto to Kidepo via Kaabong
Six hours north through Kotido and Kaabong on improving but still slow road, with the country emptying out the whole way, to the gate of Kidepo Valley National Park in the far northeastern corner against the South Sudan border. Kidepo is Uganda’s most remote park and it feels it: 1,442 square kilometres of savannah ringed by mountains, with no through traffic because there is nowhere to be going. An evening game drive on the Narus Valley floor, where the permanent water is and therefore most of the animals.
Kotido & Kaabong roadArrival at KidepoEvening Narus Valley game driveMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo lodge - 5Day 5 of 6
Mount Morungole & the Ik
A hard day and the reason many people come: three to four hours of steep climbing onto Mount Morungole to reach the Ik, a few thousand people farming the high ridges, speaking a language unrelated to any of their neighbours’. A 1972 book made them briefly famous as a society supposedly stripped of kindness by famine; researchers who have worked there since have taken that account apart, and what you actually find is a farming community on a very steep hill receiving visitors on its own terms. Start early, carry water, and expect the descent to take nearly as long. Those who would rather not climb spend the day on a full-day game drive instead, taking in the Kidepo Valley sand river and the Kanangorok hot springs on the Sudanese border.
Morungole climbIk villages & the Icetod languageAlternative full-day game driveKanangorok hot springs optionMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo lodge - 6Day 6 of 6
Narus Valley & Flight to Entebbe
A last game drive at first light on the Narus, which holds the animals Kidepo has and the rest of Uganda largely does not: cheetah, ostrich, and the only dependable greater kudu in the country, alongside the elephant, buffalo herds and lion the park is better known for. Then out from the Apoka airstrip on the scheduled light aircraft to Entebbe, about two hours against two days of driving back the way you came. The flight is quoted separately so you can weigh it against the drive.
Dawn Narus game driveCheetah, ostrich & greater kuduFlight out from ApokaMeals:Breakfast, LunchOvernight:Departure
What's Included
- Transport from Kampala & throughout Karamoja
- 4x4 vehicle with driver-guide
- Community fees & local guides in Karamoja
- Accommodation (5 nights)
- Kidepo park fees, meals as specified & bottled water
Not Included
- Scheduled flight Kidepo-Entebbe (quoted separately)
- International flights & Uganda visa
- Morungole porter hire
- Drinks, tips & personal expenses
