Destination Jungle Safaris
- Located In:
- Size:
- 20-50 employees (Founded in 2009)
- Member Of:
- ATTA, APTA, AUTO & UTB
- Tour Types:
- Custom mid-range & luxury tours that can start every day
- Destinations:
- Price Range:
- $150 to $400 per person per day (USD, excl. int'l flights)
for a custom tour
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Reviews
BE
Email Maureen Hynderick | 20-35 years of age | Experience level: first safari
better than expected
we had a great time. The organisation was good, we good make changes to our planning. The lodges were adapted for young travellers and the meals were ok, we would have liked to eat more local food but that's the way of tourism. We were very pleased to have a good driver. Some of the hotels were better than we are uses too, so it was impressive. the scenery, the wild life and the magnificient sun was the best of all. thank you
CA
65+ years of age | Experience level: 2-5 safaris
What I like best about Destination Jungle is the personalized service.
Safari to Kidepo Valley Park, Uganda – January 2014
Why Kidepo? Well, in 2012, my friend Mary and I visited the Entebbe zoo. There was a plaque outside the enclosure of each animal explaining where the animal could be found in the wild. Lo and behold, almost all the animals could be found in the wild in Kidepo Valley Park – far more different species than in Murchison Falls or Queen Elizabeth parks. Kidepo Valley Park boasts over 400 species of birds and 75 or so of mammals. There are fewer poachers here than in the better known Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth parks because there is less pressure of population in this remote area in the far northeast of Uganda.
Organizing the trip was a cinch: It took a gentle walk from our Kampala hotel to the Destination Jungle office on the top floor of the Kampala Casino, plus a huge wad of Uganda shillings (worth 2500 to the dollar at the time).
Day 1
Kampala traffic was gridlocked as everyone was scrambling to equip their kids for the new school year and our driver, Charles, apologized for being late. After a while, though we left the fumes and congestion and were well on our way to Gulu. Our driver was knowledgeable and his English was excellent. In addition, he had brought along a case of bottled water and picked up fresh fruit along the way so we wanted for nothing. We immediately got into Ugandan politics!
An hour north of Kampala, we stopped in the Nubian (Muslim) town of Bombo to visit an elderly acquaintance Mary and I knew from a peacebuilding workshop. This gentleman had served in the King’s African Rifles! Unfortunately, his wife was out.
After a Western-style lunch – the first lettuce I have eaten in Uganda – the road deteriorated considerably and our pace slowed as we swerved around the potholes and sometimes had to hit the ditch where the tarmac had crumbled away from the edge of the road, leaving only one asphalted lane in the middle of the busy highway.
Our first night was in Kitgum, a day’s drive from Kampala, where we had nice accommodation and drank a beer with another acquaintance, Bosco, a facilitator from a trauma healing workshop I had just attended.
Day 2
Things got more exciting the next day as we left Kitgum for Kidepo and travelled east, somewhat parallel to the South Sudan border. The scenery became more and more fascinating. Great jagged mountains loomed in the distance, thrusting themselves out of the plain. (I could not help feeling a twinge of regret that we were on a game drive not a hike or a climb.) This part of the trip took half a day on atrocious roads. We left Acholiland, an area depopulated of its people and cattle and still recovering from the Lord’s Resistance Army war that raged for two decades, to enter the province in the far northeast of Uganda, Karamoja. In Achloliland, there were still landmine warning signs. The countryside got noticeably dryer and the people poorer. Gone were the lush banana groves of southern Uganda: this was cotton, sorghum and millet country. There was practically no traffic except lorries packed with crops and people going to market. The passengers were all crowded along the edge of the vehicle with their feet dangling down – a mixture of bare feet, boots and flipflops. Otherwise the only traffic on the road consisted of pedestrians, children as well as adults, trudging along with huge bundles of crops or grass for thatching and, more often, jerry cans on their heads. The bore holes are often a few kilometres from people’s homes.
Formalities on entering the park were minimal: we did not even show our passports or sign the visitors book. The park is mainly grassland and it was very dry. The rivers dry up in the dry season but there is one permanent water hole so the animals tend to congregate in that part of the park. We immediately saw, oribi (small ginger coloured, very graceful antelopes) and buffalo galore. Also a family of warthogs running through the bush with their tails bolt upright. Unfortunately, the binoculars we had brought were useless but our driver was kind enough to lend us his binoculars. The roof of the Land Cruiser opened up so we could stand up to take photos out of the top.
For the second and third nights, we stayed in a banda (cottage). There are also two campgrounds in the park and one posh safari lodge near the bandas, which was completely deserted except for the staff, although I gather there had been guests over Christmas. The bandas have a bad reputation. (I was warned off them twice before going to Kidepo. But don’t believe a word of it; the accommodation is Spartan but perfectly acceptable. Our driver had brought food enough for a good cooked meal twice a day in addition to a hearty breakfast.
At 4 p.m. we went for an afternoon game drive with a Uganda Wildlife guide and our driver. We saw lots of buffalo again and watched in awe as a troop of elephants crossed the road, taking their time and lumbering across in their usual stately manner. The guide received a phone call that a lioness had been spotted, and we drove the Land Cruiser off the rutted track and slowly followed her and her cub as they stalked through the long tawny grass. We also saw Jackson’s hartebeest and waterbuck.The birds were too numerous to mention.
Day 3
The following day we went in search of ostriches, travelling to the northeast of the park, jutting out towards the spot where the South Sudan and Kenyan borders meet. The Uganda Wildlife guide accompanied us, as did his gun! Thanks to the sharp eyes of our driver and guide, the ostriches were spotted, careering across the plain on their great long legs. We then took a break at the hot springs – the water was hotter than bath water. Nearby trees were decorated with weaver bird nests. The bird enters the nest through a hole in the bottom and a short corridor then opens into the hollow nesting area. Grass is used as construction material. We returned to the Land Cruiser to find our driver flat on his back inspecting the underneath of the vehicle. Drivers here have to be mechanics as well!
We returned to the bandas the way we had come, crossing a number of dry riverbeds, including the Kidepo River, which was lined with burassius palms. Most of the park is semi-arid, with scattered acacias and thorn bushes and the slightly damper environment of the dry river bed brought an onslaught of tsetse flies. I exclaimed as one bit me and was surprised that nobody reacted. It was only later that I realized that this type of tsetse fly does not cause sleeping sickness. I had been all but ready to call my medical insurance company until my mind was put at ease!
We saw more oribi, Jackson’s hartebeest, warthogs, baboons, waterbuck and buffalo and sighted a giraffe at a distance, neck outstretched and feeding on an acacia – the thorns do not put giraffes off!
Our guide explained that the park was originally frequented by local Karamajong hunters, who used nets to catch game. Under the British colonial regime, it became a controlled hunting area, and it was gazetted as a park in 1962, the year of independence. The name “kidepo” comes from the word for “pick” in Karamajong because the local inhabitants living along the river used to harvest the fruit of the borassus palm. They were resettled when the park was established.
African jacana, kestrel, superb starling, wood hoopee (chestnut coloured, with stripes), yellow and grey weaver birds, sooty char, lappet-faced vulture, cordon bleu, francolin and guinea fowl were among the species we sighted today. Other bird sightings included a ground hornbill, a very colourful Abysinnian roller and various types of harriers, eagles and doves.
Some animals came right into the banda compound. One day it was warthogs; the next a Jackson’s hartebeest and on our final day a zebra. There were always wagtails, with their funny walk, looking like English ones, but bigger.
The highlight of our evening game drive was a group of eight giraffes right near the track. And we were even privileged to watch a young male lion hiding in a bush, who unfortunately looked unwell. There were herds and herds of buffalo dotting the plain in incredible numbers as well as solitary elderly males or “retired generals”, as our guide called them. As we returned for supper, the mountains turned pink in a memorable sunset.
Day 4
Our luck held on our final game drive on the morning of our last half day in the park. (Our German banda neighbours, who did not have a guide, told us they had seen nothing.) On our way out of the park, we again saw elephants and zebras. The buffalo, baboons and warthogs we barely glanced at. They were so commonplace we became quite blasé about them.
After leaving the park on our last day, we drove as far as Gulu, in other words we covered the whole of the part with the really bad roads. Gulu was a chance to check email even though the internet café was so dark and crowded I could hardly see to type.
Driving back to Kampala was a bit of an anticlimax because both Mary and I were very pleased with our stay in the park and now we had to face everyday reality. We parted company at Karuma Falls after photographing the Nile and saying goodbye to the baboons on the road, who were being fed a banana by a police officer. Mary was off to her work with a women’s organization in West Nile in the far northwest of the country and I was bound for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Oh well, good things can’t last for ever!