The route as usual starts from Kampala taking the northern directing through Bombo road, and then it turns to be the Gulu-Kampala road. The northern safari route will not branch to west Nile region; continue to Kaabong to Kidepo Valley National Park.
The northern safari road trip is an adventure packed route, when taking this amazing route on your self-drive road trip safari expect to encounter; the big five, world’s most powerful waterfalls, magnificent colourful waterfalls, abundance of wildlife. There are amazing people, one Uganda’s biggest cities of Gulu among many other considerations.
Murchison falls National Park is among the special places where many tourists don’t wish to have it missing on their travel. A self-drive to Murchison is among the ease to drive places which even needs fewer hours of driving about 5 hours.
The park has a unique and amazing feature that has kept it most loved and most visited park in Uganda. It is unique with mighty Murchison Falls which is almost the major attraction at the Park. The Murchison Falls are arguably the world’s most powerful falls due to their thunderous rapids that force into a narrow gorge of about 7m wide. The rapids rush to roughly pour 45m down forming the humus brownish bubble flow of the Victoria Nile.
The northern section of the park features the open savannah woods accommodating largest concentration of wildlife. Majorly at the Delta point where the Victoria Nile meets with Lake Albert to make one of the largest deltas in Uganda that host larger numbers of animals, birds and others. The northern section of the Murchison Falls National Park is majorly known for adventure packed game drive. Take a guided-drive here expect to watch prides of lions, herds of elephants, buffalos, antelopes, giraffes, warthogs, leopards on rare occasions, Marabou stork etc.
Expect to take adventures like game drives, boat cruise, sports fishing, nature walks, and visiting of the falls, bird watching, and chimpanzee tracking in the nearby Budongo forest reserve.
Visit the remote Kidepo Valley Park; the accessibility of the park has become easy still by road due to improved road facilities. There is no longer worry of taking a self-drive safari road trip into this far designated tourist destination. Hire a 4×4 rooftop tent car, camping gear and enjoy this remarkable area.
Kidepo Valley National Park is among Africa’s amazing destinations which displays the real authentic African. The best landscape view with the endless savannah plain views packed with abundance of wildlife species. Kidepo is divided into the Kidepo Valley and the Narus Valley, and Narus Valley that starts around Apoka is the famous with animals.
The park has one of the highest concentrations of wildlife species. The animal sights are decorated with zebras, giraffes, buffalos, elephants, several antelope species, lions are common. All these are common with the immediate Narus Valley. Unique birds are counted among are the ostrich, the secretary bird among many other species.
Kidepo is a special place to see and visit communities of real African people who still hold to their ancestor’s backgrounds. The Karamoja people are unique people and the Ik who live in the mountains of Karamoja sub-region. Among adventure activities done in Kidepo Valley National Park include the game drives, community visits, nature walks, mountain hiking and wild camping.
A visit to the Karamojong community is a memorable and unforgettable experience. The Karamajongs are naturally cattle keepers and nomadic pastoralists who move from one place to another looking for pastures and water for their animals. They stay in their traditionally made grass thatched houses known as the Manyatta. The boys and the adult men of the Karamojong are supposed to look after the cattle while the girls and their mothers are supposed to look after the Manyattas, cook food, paint the Manyatta with cow dung, and cultivate crops and so on. Learn about the Karamojong culture and their way of living; enjoy their traditional dances and songs.
Visit the indigenous Karamajongs that stay up in the Morungole Mountains that were evicted from their land without being compensated. The indigenous Karamajongs were also cattle keepers but since the karamajongs claimed to be the only ones with cattle, they raided them and took all their cattle and turned to hunting and gathering, keeping goats, bees for honey among others and decided to move and stay up in the mountains. The visit to the Ik group is a memorable experience as you get to learn about their way of living and life styles.
Tour the Narus river valley which has got a lot of concentration of wild animals due to availability of water. It is rich in wildlife like elephants, cheetahs, bush bucks, water bucks, lions, and leopards, bush babies among others and over 500 bird species which can be seen on the river banks.
Visit the Aruu Waterfalls: These magnificent waterfalls are located in Padar district en-route to Kidepo Valley shorty after Gulu city. Aruu waterfalls are unique and beautiful waterfalls that give an awesome breath-taking moment of relaxing after your long journey drive. A short drive to Aruu falls takes a minimum of one and half hour. Reaching here have to slope down on sharp stones, and cross ponds by a lop which a great moment in the forest.
You can also take a city drive of Gulu: One of the major cities in Uganda, Gulu is the major city for the northern region. When driving through the city can take a moment and visit some special places within. You can take up a walk into the main market of Gulu city, or even tasting on the some local dishes prepared in restaurants within Gulu city.
Don’t miss out on the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary; the sanctuary is found en-route to Murchison Falls National Park. When visited the sanctuary expect to watch several bird among is the Shoebill stork birds, several antelope species. One of the amazing places in Uganda to track wild species on foot.
The only natural area to find rhinos in Uganda. Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary makes Uganda the only place you visit and see rhinos. Uganda didn’t have rhinos for a period of about 20 years since when the last rhino was hunted down until 2005. The Ziwa rhino sanctuary is also located alongside the northern safari circuit.
