Kidepo National Park
World over, the most precious/prized treasures are not within easy reach. Think of diamond and gold as examples. It takes lots of resources, time and dedication before one can have these jewels. However, they are worth every sweat shade as they are premium in nature. Pian Upe and Kidepo are just like these minerals. Due to its whooping distance from Kampala, most tourists omit them off their itineraries. However, those who choose to visit them, live happily ever after.
This park is tacked away in a rugged and semi-arid stretch of the Eastern Rift Valley, around the boarders of Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya. Its landscape blossoms with endless expanses of Acacia dominated Savannah and sky hugging mountains. Most of these have peaks shaped like tips of a nomadic warrior’s spear. Sharp and shiny!
Its big catch isn’t in the fact that it has an endless list of most sought after wildlife species, but rather, the fact that one is literary guaranteed of seeing whatever time of the year the choose to visit. For that, it has been repeatedly ranked among Africa’s top 10 parks by powerhouse Travel Advisories and media such as CNN and Trip Advisor.
A morning game drive here will unveil an endless traffic of wildlife freely roaming in search of prey or foliage. Such include buffaloes, elephants, striped hyaena, aardwolf, caracal, cheetah, greater and lesser kudu, klipspringer, dik-dik, Bright’s gazelle, and Chandler’s mountain reedbuck. You could also stumble upon African wild dogs. They usually come for holiday here whenever sunny conditions in Sudan become unbearable.
On the other hand, pursuing a night game drive will heighten your chances of witnessing a live kill cats with a terrific night vision like lions, hyenas, leopards.
Apart from being one of the only two parks in the country where one can find both the zebras and the Rothschild giraffes, Kidepo’s other claim to fame is its healthy population of approximately 475 colourful bird species inclusive of the biggest land bird in the world, the ostrich!