When CNN last year nominated Kidepo Valley National Park as among their top
ten choices of national parks across Africa, many people literally scratched
their heads and asked where exactly this park was located as few had heard of
it and fewer visited.
Those however who did, and stayed either at the edge of the park at the more
recently established N’ga Moru Wilderness Camp or in the centre of the park at
the Apoka Safari Lodge, will have their own tales to tell.
Kidepo, a prime piece of African wilderness, literally untouched by the outside
world and nestled in the border triangle of Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan,
offers spectacular views, much game and the solitude visitors can enjoy,
meeting but a few other tourists while they are there. Most visitors reach the
park by air from either Entebbe or Kajjansi, unless they are hardy enough to
undertake the tiring drive via Tororo, Mbale, Moroto, Kotido and Kaabong, or
drive via Soroti and Lira or take the alternate route via Gulu and Kitgum.
This year Kidepo will celebrate its Golden Jubilee anniversary, since its
formation 50 years ago in 1964. The park stretches over 1.442 square
kilometres, but being more than 700 kilometres distant from Kampala, is perhaps
the main reason why it receives so few visitors inspite of the attractions it holds.
Two rivers, among them the Narus which in the dry season is the centre of
activity for the game, elevation differences from just over 900 metres to
nearly 2.750 metres, a rich birdlife of 475 recorded species which includes 14
endemic species and some 86 mammal species, including the rare cheetah which is
not found anywhere else in Uganda.
Those arriving by air will touch down at the CAA owned and operated airfield
in the centre of the park and already en route will visitors enjoy the
spectacle of coming close up to Zebra, Hartebeest, Oribi, Buffalo, Waterbuck,
Side-striped Jackal and Warthog while Elephant, Giraffe and Lion are almost all
the time seen in the valley below the lodge or at times even stroll through the
lodge grounds, asserting their ‘ownership’ over the park.
The game drives into the park are extremely rewarding. Most of the driver guide get you close to a
large herd of elephant, numbering over 200, and the matriarchs and dominant
bulls of the herd.
You can come close to the park’s
giraffes, which have substantially increased in numbers since the successful
relocation of several Rothschild giraffes from Kenya nearly 15 years ago. A very
large herd of buffalo can be encountered and the estimate exceeded 1.200,
probably even more as additional groups emerge from the thickets.
But the highlight of the visit is
undoubtedly an encounter with lionesses which
are found high up in a ‘sausage tree’, putting to rest the claims of Ishasha
and Lake Manyara, that those were the only parks where lions were found to
climb into trees. These particular lions had their small cubs hidden in the
high grass under the tree and when climbing down after being observed for about
an hour or so, the cubs swiftly joined their mothers.
In conclusion, a visit to Kidepo, which
I consider as the most scenic and rugged parks in Uganda and a top
contender in East Africa, is worth it any time, satisfaction guaranteed. A
definite MUST for the discerning traveler and those seeking the solitude of the
‘real’ African wilderness experience. 50 years down the line since the park was
first launched, today as back then is Kidepo an example of the African
wilderness, where the cattle herding tribes from Uganda, Kenya and the Sudan
(now South Sudan) coexisted with wildlife, staged their raids on each other and
lived in their age long fashion. After independence, crossing the new borders
were for long no hindrance for the tribes and up to today are periodic raids
for cattle staged, cross border no less, posing issues the tribes never had in
the old days. Today it is also no longer permitted to drive their cattle into
the park, even during times of draught when finding water becomes a matter of
live and death for their cattle and goats, a question wildlife managers have
yet to satisfactorily answer when weighing conservation and the protection of
game and the integrity of the parks under their control with the needs of the
people living in the vicinity of the park, among them elders who still remember
that the entire area once was theirs to roam and use. Fodder for thought no doubt.
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