Katavi National Park * Mahale National Park
This seven night itinerary explores the magnificent Western Tanzania staying at two prime properties. Where else but Katavi can one enjoy vast herds of buffalo, pools oozing with more hippo than mud and great river bridges of crocodile? And then secure such privileged, exclusive access to chimpanzees so close as in Mahale?
You spend the first few days in Katavi National Park. This is Tanzania's third largest park but one of the least visited. Wonderfully remote and un-touristy, Katavi offers a varied landscape of beautiful woodlands, floodplains and arid landscapes. In the dry season, there is nowhere to match Katavi National Park for huge herds of elephant. At any time of the year, the Hippo Pool puts all other hippo pools to shame; hundreds of closely-packed hippos grunting and snorting generally luxuriating in a great, black, sticky mud of hippo waste!
In the wet season the best places for game are the seasonal lakes of Katavi and Chada. And in the marshy floodplains of the Katuma river. During the dry season Katavi really excels as the bush dries and the game, (including great herds of elephant and buffalo) is concentrated on the remaining pools in the Katuma.
After Katavi it is on to Mahale Mountains National Park. This is on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, the world's cleanest freshwater lake. Hilly and richly vegetated, Mahale is one of two chimpanzee protection zones in Tanzania; the other is the nearby Gombe Stream National Park. A Japanese research team has habituated one group of Mahale chimpanzees called the Mimikire Clan (out of a total population approaching a thousand), allowing some excellent sightings.
Don’t expect the reward of a great encounter without some hard walking and climbing! The best time to visit is generally accepted to be the dry season which runs roughly from July to October. It is possible to visit at all times of year, but away from the dry season you can expect the walking to be harder because of the slippery tracks and because the chimpanzees will tend to be further away from the lake shore.
The mountains are also home to many kinds of monkey including the Angola colobus, the red colobus and the red and the blue tailed monkey. There are many birds and different plants to be seen here. the kind of activities vary according to the season and the dry season from May to October is the best for the chimpanzees.
Note: This safari is not offered in the summer rainy season from mid-November to May
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