After our first trip up to Kidepo National
Park at the far northern extremity of Uganda, we had always wowed to return. Only this time it had been my wish to do so
with me flying. Unfortunately the steps
towards my pilots licence had stalled (mind
the pun) even before the first trip thanks to some terrible aviation
bureaucracy within the Ugandan Civil Aviation Authority. At the end of February however Emma and Rob;
friends from the sailing club, threw us a lifeline and offered to take us up in
Rob’s plane, with me doing the majority of the air work. And so on a Friday afternoon Helen and I left
work early, headed down to Kajjansi airstrip.
Feeling like a 1940’s movie star climbing
into a biplane at the start of a fabulous hunting trip into the African interior,
we loaded our overnight bags into the back of the Cessna 210 and clambered into
our seats. Helen looked every bit the
part with her sunglasses on, hair blowing in the breeze and a sick bag at hand
just in case. Taking off we initially
headed North crossing Kampala before adjusting our course just a touch to head
over Lake Kyoga. The lake is shown as more of a marsh in most
of the old aviation charts but it is actually one of the largest lake complexes
in East Africa and yet its deepest point is only just shy of six metres. Once over the lake and into Northern Uganda
it wasn’t long before the large isolated hillocks of Karamoja became visible
through the fog of hundreds of small wildfires below. These amazing giant hills sit up from the
flat savannah like giant crumbling castles on a sandy beach. Between the hills though nestle inaccessible
villages so one could be forgiven for thinking that these hills are the remains
of large fortified towns from a bygone era, reminiscent of Tolkien’s stories.
Our first brief stop was the airstrip of
Kalongo which sat in the shadow of its own hill fortress. As we glided down the town became more visible,
along with streams of multi-coloured children pouring out of the huts and
schools descending on the airfield. Thanks
to the proximity of the airstrip the final approach had us skimming what felt
like inches above the on looking heads before we touched down on the murram
‘bush-strip.’ By the time we had turned
the aircraft and taxied back to our take-off point, the crowd had grown immensely
and it was through this crowd Emma appeared.
Herself also looking like a celebrity, but more accurately one on a
Comic Relief trip. Making her way over
to the plane she clambered in and without shutting off the engine, we pushed
the throttle forward and were airborne once more headed for the distant hills
of Kidepo.
The remainder of the flight was fairly
uneventful, but gave us the chance to appreciate the road that had brought us
all this way last year. As we flew above
we watched it winding and climbing up through the mountains that defensively
surround Kidepo, before dropping steeply into the valley below. Like the road this was also our queue to pull
back the throttle and glide gently to the valley floor in search of the
runway. With a short approach we were
down with some expert piloting, if I do say so myself, and George; Apoka lodge’s
manager was on hand to collect our belongings and ferry us to the lodge in the
heart of this magnificent park.
Staying at Apoka was yet another treat thanks
to some good negotiations by Rob, made that much sweeter when we discovered we
were the only guests for the weekend. Given
the isolation of the lodge we weren’t too surprised at this, what was unexpected
considering our last visit was that we were the only guests in the entire
1,400km2 park. Even the
biggest celebrity would be hard pushed to be able to swing that kind of
seclusion. A circumstance which made the
early morning games drives even more special.
When we sat and watched a male and female lion courting, or a lone
female cheetah relaxing under an Acacia tree, we did so in silence and privacy
without radios buzzing or other engines idling towards us. Priceless.
One of the highlights of our private game
park experience however came during the early evening game drive. For once and with no one around we were able
to leave the cars and clamber on foot up a prominent rock that gave us a
perfect 360 degree vista of the valley.
What capped this moment off though was the cold gin and tonic that had
ascended with us in the cool box. Making
for perfect sun-downers as the sun dropped away over the herds of buffalo and
elephant in the distance.
Unfortunately all good things come to an
end and so late on Sunday we packed up the aeroplane and headed South in search
of the bright lights of Kampala and our 21st Century African experience. Leaving the wonders of Kidepo behind us it
felt a shame that we may not experience such upmarket isolation again, but
you’d be hard pushed to stop us trying to reach the National Park one last time
before we leave. How we reach it next
time is another matter though.
