National Parks Africa » Wild Africa

High, freakish mountainscapes in the west, south and east and two seasonal rivers, the Narus and the Kidepo, offer an impression of how wild Africa must have looked. Mount Morongole is the eastern peak and the 2,700-metre (8,856-foot) top of Lotuke marks the border with Sudan.

A flight from Entebbe airport reveals the almost surrealist mountain ridges. The intricate interplay of clouds, rain and sun adds to their uniqueness. Sporadic manyattas of the nomadic Karamajong tribesmen can be spotted from the air and clouds of smoke mark the areas being burnt when the rainy season has finished.

Unlike other Ugandan parks KVNP resembles the physical lay-out of game parks in the drier neighbouring countries of Kenya and Tanzania. But unlike Kenya, what makes Kidepo so attractive is the lack of noisy convoys of tourist buses: a drive through Kidepo will be a very lonesome and isolated experience.

The park is characterised by four main types of vegetation which are closely bound up with the seasonal flow of the two rivers. The Valley of the Narus, which is well watered, has savannah woodland, later gradually merging into fire-climax grassland in the south. Trees include several species of acacia. Apart from the savannah woodland, large areas are covered with a mixture of shrub steppe, bushland and dry thicket.