Kidepo Valley Wilderness
Uganda's most remote and most beautiful park, ringed by mountains on the South Sudan border. Lion, cheetah and vast herds roam the Narus Valley, and the proud Karamojong call this rugged corner home.
- Duration
- 5 Days / 4 Nights
- Group size
- 2-6 people
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Best time
- Sep-Mar (Narus Valley game concentrations)
- Ideal for
- Seasoned travellers seeking true wilderness
- Destination
- Kidepo Valley National Park
Your Journey, Day by Day
- 1Day 1 of 5
Journey to Kidepo (via Karamoja)
The long drive north-east across the Karamoja plains, genuinely remote country, sparsely settled, with manyattas and cattle herds and very little else for hours at a stretch. A scheduled flight to Apoka airstrip can replace the drive if you would rather spend the day in the park than getting to it. Either way you arrive as the savannah opens out beneath Mount Morungole, the mountain the Ik people live on, and the sense of having reached the far edge of the country is immediate and correct.
Karamoja landscapesOptional fly-in to ApokaPark-edge arrivalMeals:Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo / Apoka area lodge - 2Day 2 of 5
Narus Valley Game Drive
A full day in the Narus Valley, which holds the only permanent water in the park and therefore, in the dry months, very nearly all of the game: buffalo herds running to several hundred, elephant, zebra, giraffe, oribi, and the lions that follow them. Kidepo is the only Ugandan park with cheetah, and the only one with greater kudu; ostrich stalk the open ground. The backdrop is the Morungole range on one side and the Napore hills on the other. An optional night drive adds the species you will not see by day: leopard, aardwolf, bat-eared fox, white-tailed mongoose.
Narus Valley game concentrationsCheetah & greater kuduOstrich on the open plainsOptional night game driveMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo / Apoka area lodge - 3Day 3 of 5
Kidepo Valley & Kanangorok Springs
North to the Kidepo Valley itself, drier and emptier than the Narus, where the river runs only in the wet season and spends the rest of the year as a broad white sand bed lined with borassus palms; you can walk out into the middle of it. Beyond lies Kanangorok, a set of hot springs bubbling up a few kilometres short of the South Sudan border, with the Morungole and Lotukei ranges standing on the skyline. Dry-country specials along the way: ostrich, secretary bird, Abyssinian roller, and the small parties of Karamojong herders who move stock through this ground.
Kidepo River bedKanangorok hot springsOstrich & dry-country wildlifeMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo / Apoka area lodge - 4Day 4 of 5
Walking Safari & Karamojong Culture
A morning on foot with an armed ranger: tracks, droppings, chewed stems, alarm calls, the detail that a vehicle drives straight past, working the valley at the pace it was meant to be seen. In the afternoon, a visit to a Karamojong manyatta: a thorn-fenced homestead built around the cattle it exists to protect. Cattle here are wealth, bride price and standing all at once, and the dress, the dancing and the stock-keeping all follow from that. It is a pastoralist culture that has held its shape under considerable pressure, and it is explained to you by the people living it.
Armed-ranger walking safariKaramojong manyatta visitTraditional cultureMeals:Breakfast, Lunch, DinnerOvernight:Kidepo / Apoka area lodge - 5Day 5 of 5
Return to Kampala
The long return south across Karamoja, with lunch en route and a late arrival in Kampala or Entebbe, or the scheduled flight out of Apoka, which trades a full day on the road for a little over an hour in the air and is worth every consideration on the way home.
Return drive or fly-outLunch en routeAirport drop-offMeals:Breakfast, LunchOvernight:Departure
What's Included
- Park entrance fees
- 4x4 safari vehicle with driver-guide
- Lodge accommodation (4 nights)
- Game drives, walking safari & Karamojong visit
- Meals as specified & bottled water
Not Included
- Scheduled flights to/from Apoka (optional)
- International flights
- Uganda visa
- Night game drive (optional)
- Drinks, tips & personal expenses
