Kidepo Night Game Drive

  • Gazelle Safari Africa

  • Uganda
  • Oct 11, 2022

Kidepo National Park is the most isolated park boarding Sudan and Kenya in North Eastern Uganda but with the most magnificent finest wildernesses and wildlife. The 1,442km2 National park is endowed with excess big game and it’s a habitat for over 77 mammal species as well as around 475 bird species. This Uganda National Park has two seasonal rivers that are – Kidepo and Narus – which disappear in the dry season, leaving just pools for the wildlife.

This blissful activity is a real treat if you wish to watch how the park’s ecosystem allows 77 mammal and 475 bird species to co-exist without running extinct/endangered. These include huge herds of elephants, buffaloes, giraffes, zebras, Jackson’s hartebeest, topi, Uganda Kobs, olive baboons, patas monkeys…the list goes on.

Forget about zoos, the 20 predator species here are 101% real which goes against all sorts of odds to survive. They include cheetahs, black-backed jackals, leopards, lions, and bat-eared foxes. One of the things they share in common is that nothing comes on a silver platter for them. It is usual to come across lions as they pursue big herbivores without hesitation, even when they know they could die trying.     

Due to this park’s remote location around Uganda border with Kenya and South Sudan, the numbers of tourists here are very few. You might not find any vehicles as you explore its open savannah plains, acacia woodland, forest of Borassus palm trees and jagged mountains. This offers you that feeling of being hundreds of miles away from polluted cities as you pursue night game drives.

All cars in our fleet are 4WD customized for off-road adventures, as such, you won’t have a hard time even as you are driven through bumpy stretches of the trails. That’s only half the story. They have a pop-up roof thus allowing easy viewing of the game. 

The advantage of a night drive is that it happens at a time when the park’s weather is cool, so animals don’t have much reason to shy away into the shade. On the contrary, they stay on open plains as it doesn’t have much vegetation which would have provided cats’ perfect camouflage for hunting.

Even better, the park’s flat topography makes it easy to spot wildlife that is far. In seasons when the moon is not seen, lots of prey with poor night vision stand where the car’s headlight is flashing. They do this with the hope of seeing invading predators in time. It is such a fascinating experience to watch huge herds of giraffes and elephants stay deep asleep while standing on their feet.

This is the only way to sight nocturnes both animals and birds.

How We Shall Get You There

There is a choice of air travel, as the park has its airstrip, which is accessible through a domestic safari airline that flies there twice every week. If you prefer traveling by road, the park is a day-long drive Northwards from Kampala. To make the Uganda Safari less exhausting, it will take a road trip format with lots of stopovers for you to refresh yourself.

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