Kidepo National National Park is one of Uganda’s mystic tourism phenomena blessed with varied inimitable flora and fauna. Gazzated under the Ugandan law as a protected area in 1962, the park is a natural habitat to astonishing and unique wild life. The park is home to the big fives (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and African buffalo) not forgetting varied and flourishing unique vegetation largely rugged savannah. Kidepo Valley National Park is located in the Karamoja region in northeast Uganda.
With its out sanding unique features such as Kanangoro, a tepid hot spring in the extreme north of the park, Kidepo Valley National Park has been rated one of the top 10 parks where travelers can find the most outstanding experiences and meet the best value wilderness experiences. This can be further be acknowledged by the different travelers that journey north to the park who claim that it is among the most magnificent parks in Africa’s finest wilderness.
The park was rehabilitated from a wildlife reserve to Kidepo Valley National Park in 1962 by the then Milton Obote government. Most of the park is open tree savannah. Because of differences in rainfall with annual averages of 89 centimetres (35 in) in Narus and 64 centimetres (25 in) in the Kidepo basin vegetation and animal populations vary between the two valleys.
However, the Park is largely uninhibited by woodland and forest which are a result of the open tree savannah habitat that dominates the park hills and have been colonised by the dry mountain forest while some water courses support acacia forests. These extra-ordinary features at this park shape its outstanding beauty, which remain a myth to those who have not visited it and a secret to those who have visited it.
The park is also planted on rocks and over looks extensive grassy plains dotted with big rocky outcrops and flanked by steep jagged mountains with the summit ridges of Napore range, Taan hills and Natera hills, part of Nyangea, Morongole and Zulia forest reserves. A little closer, this scene takes on the shape of a dazzling plateau and suddenly, the view of the beguiling volcanic Mount Morungole ranges towering metres above the plains of the most scenic wilderness in Kidepo comes into sight.
The park is also traversed by two seasonal rivers Narus and Kidepo which reduce in volume and disappear in the dry season. The other water points in the park include Kanangoro, a tepid hot spring in the extreme north and in wetlands and remnant pools along the southern Narus valley near Apoka.
Within its vast natural landscape, Kidepo valley national park hosts more than 77 mammals and about 475 bird and 692 plant species. The park also boosts of 28 unique animal species not found anywhere else in Uganda. Among these are: klipspringer, cheetahs, striped hyena, dik-dik, aardwolf, caracal, greater and lesser kudu, bright’s gazelle, chandler’s mountain reedbuck not forgetting varied bird species.
Speaking of bird species, Kidepo is well known for its different birds of prey, 58 species of which have been recorded. Some of these include lammergeier (gypaetus barbatus), verreaux’s eagle (aquila verreauxii), the pygmy falcon (polihierax semitorquatus), and Egyptian vulture (neophron percnopterus).
Mountain climbing is the major activity at the park for those interested in trekking and mountaineering at Mt Morongole. Tourists that take on mountaineering always experience the beautiful scenery of this mountain and great healthy walks all accounting to great experiences in the wildernes.
Kidepo Valley National Park is also known for the highly prestigious and recommendable accommodation facilities. At the park, there is Apoka Tourism Centre, overlooking the game-rich Narus Valley and home to an up market lodge and simple UWA-run cottages. But besides this, there are the popular Savannah cottages and now the recent Adere Safari lodge with a modern swimming pool and food point all meant to serve visitors to the best.
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