uganda: remote karamoja safari

Kidepo's plains game is dependable; its cats are not, and cheetah least of all.

The Narus Valley below Apoka holds the only permanent water in the park, so buffalo, elephant and zebra gather there through the dry months, and the buffalo herds can run into the thousands.

We rate buffalo as abundant, elephant and zebra as common, lion, leopard and giraffe as occasional, and cheetah as rare. Our advice is to scan the rock outcrops for lions. With two nights, lion is a reasonable hope, leopard needs luck and cheetah should be counted a bonus.

Kidepo's real distinction is its dry-country cast: greater and lesser kudu, ostrich, and species that live in no other Ugandan park, among them bat-eared fox, striped hyaena and caracal, plus a bird list of more than 475.

Pian Upe, earlier in the route, is emptier still, and its wildlife is very sparse, so go there for the space, not the game.

Remote enough that Kidepo is Uganda's most isolated park, and this route takes the long way there on purpose.

The road from Kampala through Mbale, Pian Upe and Moroto is 661 kilometres, and the trip spreads it across a week, so no single day matches the ten hours or so of the direct road through Gulu.

Expect the first day to be the longest: Pian Upe is eight to nine hours from Kampala, and Entebbe is further still. Moroto to Apoka takes another half day or more on dirt. A sound 4x4 is required, and fuel is scarce in Karamoja.

The route ends at Apoka, and the practical way out is by air: a scheduled or chartered flight is the best way to reach the park.

Services to the Kidepo airstrip come and go, so we confirm how it is reached when we plan your dates, which for two people usually means chartering privately, typically in a Cessna Caravan.

Tougher than a lodge safari, and it is meant to be.

Six of the nine nights are under canvas: five in a lightweight mobile camp at Pian Upe and around Moroto, and one in a lightweight alpine tent on Mount Kadam. A lightweight camp is not a permanent tented lodge, so ask us for the exact specification of beds, washing and loos before you book, not after.

Karamoja is semi-arid, the days are hot and the roads are rough. Mount Kadam is a 3,063-metre Ugandan massif near the Kenyan border, 3,068 by another measure.

We grade the usual two-day route intermediate: steep, bushy, with some scrambling near the top, but with no ropes or special gear required. With a single night on the mountain, how high you walk is something we settle with you beforehand, to suit fitness and appetite.

The trip opens and closes in comfort, at Entebbe Forest Lodge and at Apoka.

Kidepo keeps a different calendar from the gorilla forests of south-west Uganda, and this trip should be timed by it.

The park is semi-arid, with one light rainy season that starts around April, and the game viewing is at its most concentrated once that has passed, when the pools of the Narus Valley are the only lasting water for miles. The months we would point you to are September to February.

December to February are the hottest and dustiest weeks, and also when the herds are thickest.

June and July, which suit the rest of Uganda, are months we rate as challenging in Kidepo: the grass is long, the animals scatter and the tracks turn to mud. With six nights under canvas on this route, dry weather matters more than it would from a lodge.

The green months are not without reward, with excellent birding from a park list of more than 475 species, green hills and the valley almost to yourselves, but they suit a second visit better than a first.

Yes. This is a private sample route with few fixed points, because nothing on it hangs on a permit issued for a named day.

The obvious changes are at the Kidepo end. A third night at Apoka makes room to visit the Ik, a small farming people on Mount Morungole who are Uganda's most isolated. The visit is a long, steep day on foot, must be arranged in advance, and would otherwise swallow your only full day of game drives.

We can fly you into Kidepo as well as out, keeping the road for the Karamoja section alone. Or you can return overland the other way, through Kitgum and Gulu, which we suggest combining with Murchison Falls National Park.

Two things are less flexible: the calendar, since we would not plan this route for the wet months from April to July, and the mobile camp, which is set up for your dates. Tell us how many nights under canvas you want and we will adjust the balance of camp and lodge.