Why Visit Kidepo Valley National Park
Why Visit Kidepo Valley National Park is a simple question that will give you an insight into the main attractions and activities that would attract you as a visitor. To many travellers who wish to visit and to those who have already visited the park, they first ask themselves, should we visit kidepo? The answer is yes because there is many various reasons which can turn up your mind to visit kidepo national park. Fortunately, Kidepo valley national park has turned into the most visited national park as a new frontier in safari tourism and above all, it has been named as real African wilderness. A visit to kidepo will prove to you what true African wilderness is, and you will discover what African wilderness was during those ancient years up to date. Travellers should stop asking themselves why they should visit kidepo? Because there are many reasons as to why you should attempt to visit kidepo, below are the major highlight reasons why visit kidepo valley national park.
The wildlife: Why visit kidepo, for wildlife safaris more especially game drive viewing. The game drive viewing in kidepo valley national park is the most enjoyable and impressive experience among Ugandan national park, it can be only compared to that of Masai Mara in Kenya and some people, that is to say, kidepo might be more rewardable than Masai Mara. The two protected national park border each other and mammals understand no boundaries so they move over and back to their natural habitats.
For many travellers tend to visit kidepo mostly for lion tracking, since lions within here rank highly on the adventuring list yet there is more amazing and rare wildlife species in the park such as African wild dog and cheetahs. The more common mammals in the park include predators like lions, leopard, bat-eared fox, black-backed jackal, elephants, cape buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, 12 species of antelopes such as Jackson’s hartebeest, oribi, eland, klipspringer among others.
Bird watching
Visit kidepo national park, the park is haven for birding paradise with over 500 bird species of which 58 species are endemic such birds include; Verreaux’s eagle (Aquila verreauxii) Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) and 14 raptors are rare to this park in the entire country, they include Kori bustard bird, Ostrich, Abyssinian &Rufous-crown Rollers and many more. Some of the commonest bird species include; Pygmy falcon grey flycatcher, Karamoja Apolis, Nubian Woodpecker, White-bellied Tit, Little green Bee eater, Brown-backed woodpecker, Hoopoe, Scarlet-chested Sunbird, Eastern yellow and Jackson’s Hornbills ,White-faced Scoops Owl ,Orange winged & Red winged pytilias yellow necked spur fowl ,Fan-tailed Raven ,Yellow spotted petronia ,Yellow-billed Shrikes Eastern Violet backed ,Rose ringed parakeet and many more. All these species are habitant of savannah and montane forests.
The Nature of Kidepo
Why visit kidepo for nature? Ideally, kidepo valley national park is finest African wilderness, it is much of love to tell travellers about the beauty of kidepo to host the natural wonders of the wilderness, hot springs, mammal species, grassland. The park is located between verdant valleys giving you a spectacular view of the scenic landscape while enjoying the fresh air breath. The park being a nature wonder area there is nothing less than captivating.
Kidepo for Culture
Why should travellers visit kidepo for Culture? Around the park, there are two unique tribes and the park has co-existed within kidepo’s wildlife for a long time which are the unique IK and Karamojong people each of these tribes have a different interesting traditional lifestyle in culture and grossly rejected civilization. They still preserve their ancient traditions and are proud of their traditional culture which amazes to many tourists who visits the park on their culture safari to the park and the most interesting culture are the IK People who expose the uniqueness of their culture to the travellers, but they live within the park along Mount Morungole but are believed to have come to Uganda from Ethiopia.
The Hot Springs
The bubbly kanangorok hot springs which mean the place of black stones simmers away next to the South Sudan border and is believed to have healing powers for skin diseases. The drive to kanangorok hot springs takes you through the kidepo River valley which is a seasonal river with great sight-seeing.
To many travellers may end up asking themselves, where will they sleep on their visitation to kidepo, the answer is, kidepo valley national park is located in a remote area but with well-developed accommodation facilities option ranges between Mid-range to Luxury lodge such lodges include; Apoka safari lodge –luxury
Apoka Rest Camp –Mid-range
Kidepo Safari lodge-mid-range and Nga moru Camp Lodge –Mid-range many more.
What is the best time to visit Kidepo?
Visiting kidepo valley national park is throughout the year, but most especially in drier seasons which starts in September to March it’s when wildlife is easier to view and in June to September there can be less rainfall but still, there is easy road accessibility and game viewing is rewardable. The wet season occurs from April and May.
Accessibility to kidepo national park
Kidepo valley national can be easily accessed whether by Air or by Car but the most comfortable transport means is to travel by air, flying from Entebbe international Airport to Apoka Airstrip which takes 2 hours by Air. You can decide to use road transport which starts from Kampala City Uganda’s city with a rewardable viewing of features on the way or else you can do Rhino trekking on your way to kidepo since the route your using is the same route that takes you to the true African wilderness. Road transport takes 12 hours to reach the park.
Why visit kidepo? Travellers should stop asking themselves why would they want to visit kidepo valley national park, because of the above-mentioned reasons, you can tell why kidepo is really an admirable top visited destination on your Uganda Safaris.
Visiting Kidepo valley national park will bring out the description of every category to above-mentioned wildlife, where you will have a great sight-seeing of kings of the jungle ‘’Lion’’ not only lions but also a storytelling about the unique crocodiles adapted to the semi-arid condition of the park, visiting kidepo is not only giving you great opportunity to check the box against wildlife species, sounds, sight, and bird but to leave with unforgettable story to tell about a variety of animals, birds, tree species and rock to be encountered.
