Kidepo Valley National Park is located in a semi-arid region of Uganda in the north eastern corner of Uganda, it surrounded by mountains and the most exciting flora and fauna. The park was gazette in the 1962 as a way of protecting animals and the virgin conservation area, it is known for its endemics which cannot be seen anywhere else but only hear, example species include greater and lesser Kudus, cheetahs, rocky hyrax, bat eared fox, spotted hyenas, side stripped jackals, there are other large mammals like cape buffaloes, African elephants, deffasa waterbucks, Jackson hartebeests, elands, most of these are live within the Narus valley.
The Narus valley is the region of the park, begins from mountain Morungule, through the golden plains to the north border of Sudan , in this area is where most of the animals concentrate this is because the seasonal rivers do not completely dry up and dump riverbeds along which are resting African buffaloes. There are well distributed game tracks which enable game viewing expect to see wildlife like lions, leopards, cheetahs, waterbucks, Jackson hartebeests, buffaloes, lesser and greater Kudus, Rothschild’s giraffes, elands, oribi, reedbucks to mention a few.
Flying to Kidepo Valley National Park is arranged by domestic flight handlers who fly to the destination on daily, these can be on schedule flying out every day in the morning hours, or charter flights giving the flexibility to move anytime of the day not beyond 4:00pm east African time, Aero link Uganda fly’s to Kidepo with a minimum of 7 passengers, incase visitors do not meet the required to pay for the extra seats on craft. Fly Uganda takes travelers on a minimum of 3 passengers per route, bookings for domestic flights can be done directly to the airline or through your tour operator.
Flying to Kidepo valley national park is the fastest way of getting to the conservation area, it is arranged to set off from the Kampala –Kajjansi or Entebbe international airport, flights takes 2hr30mins to land at the Kidepo airstrip, it is then from here that one will be transferred to the respective lodges, flights are weather dependent, in cases of bad weather there is always a possibility of staying in the national park until it clears up. It is best to fly to Kidepo valley national park during the dry season, the park experiences dry longer seasons compared to other parts of Uganda basically because it is placed in the semi-arid climatic region of Uganda, this is also the best time and also regarded as a peak tourism season.
That said, the national park can be visited anytime the year even during the wet season, each time comes with a different setup it is amazingly beautiful by how differed the park changes per season, activities done here include game drives in the Narus valley, visiting hot springs, guided nature walks, cultural encounters to the Karamojong community and IK tribe in the mountain Morungule.
Kidepo Valley National Park can also be accessed by road from Entebbe via the Kampala-Gulu highways, the journey can be broken down to visit Murchison falls national park Uganda’s largest conservation area, while hear enjoy a game drive along the northern banks of Pakuba, do a boat cruise to the bottom of the falls or enjoy a sundowner cruise along the Nile to lake Albert shores.