Kidepo Valley National Park lies in the rugged, semi-arid valleys between Uganda’s borders with South Sudan in the northwest 700km from Kampala City. Gazetted as a national park in 1962, it has a profusion of big game and hosts over 77 mammal species.

Kidepo is Uganda’s most isolated national park, but the few who make the long journey north through the wild frontier region of Karamoja would agree that it is also the most magnificent, for the park ranks among Africa’s finest wildernesses. From Apoka, in the heart of the park, a savannah landscape extends far beyond the gazetted area, towards horizons outlined by distant mountain ranges.

During the dry season, the only permanent water in the park is found in wetlands and remnant pools in the broad Narus Valley near Apoka. These seasonal oases, combined with the open, savannah terrain, make the Narus Valley the park’s prime game viewing location, especially with its dense populations of Lion, Buffalos, elephants and many similar angulates.

Kidepo’s elephant population has surged from around 200 in the mid-1990s to between 650 and 1000 today. The African Buffalo population is now estimated at 10,000-15,000. The Rothschild Giraffe is very notable, breeding more than 50 individuals from the bottleneck of the mid-1990s population of three and supplemented several from translocation.

The bird checklist of over 476 species with the common Ostrich, secretary bird, northern carmine bee-eater, little green bee-eater, Abyssinian scimitar bill, and many more colorful and visible species.