Mahale mountains National park

5 The Best of Western Circuit Of Tanzania

Gombe, Mahale and Katavi Safaris



Mahale Mountains National Park

Mahale Mountains National Park is without doubt one of Africa’s most beautiful parks. It is located on the edge of Lake Tanganyika in the west of the country.

It is generally around 6,000 feet high with accompanying high rainfall so the best time to visit is in the drier months, normally May to September.

The park is made up of montane forests and grasslands, along with small pockets of alpine bamboo.

Mahale is most famous for being a chimpanzee sanctuary with an estimated 1,000 chimpanzees living here in around 20 family groups and even though access to the park is only by aeroplane and boat, the allure of seeing chimpanzees in the wild is enough to tempt many visitors to the region.

As well as chimps, there are eight other primate species:

red colobus
red-tailed monkey
blue monkey
vervet monkey
yellow baboon
Angola black-and-white colobus
lesser galago
thick-tailed greater galago
Primates aside, the brush-tailed porcupine and giant forest squirrel are another two interesting species found here.

Katavi National Park

Close to Lake Tanganyika is Katavi National Park.

This lovely and extremely remote park has very few visitors mainly owing to its isolation and lack of facilities but those willing to make the journey here will be rewarded with a really sensational safari experience.

The vegetation is a mixture of miombo woodland, acacia parkland, grassland plains and swamps surrounding the Katuma River, which joins the park’s two lakes, Katavi and Chada.

During the rainy season (light rains in November and heavier rains in April and May) it is probably best avoided as the game disperses into the woodland, temperatures soar, humidity escalates and mosquitoes come out in their droves, not the best combination of factors for a successful safari!

A flourishing habitat for a plethora of game

During the dry season, the story is quite different. The wildlife is incredible – great numbers of elephant, buffalo (which congregate in 1,000 strong herds) zebra, giraffe, hartebeest, topi, impala, reedbuck and Defassa waterbuck along with a prolific lion population and plenty of spotted hyena and leopard.

The rivers support an astonishing number and density of hippos and some seriously large crocodiles.

Water birds are wonderful here. There are pink-backed pelicans, yellow-billed and open-billed storks, African spoonbills and great numbers of herons, egrets and plovers.

Elsewhere in the park, such exotic sounding gems as the sulphur-breasted bush shrike, the paradise flycatcher and the African golden oriole can be found.

One resident of the park that its visitors are not so keen to see is the irritating tsetse fly.

Luckily, their distribution is restricted to the woodlands away from the more popular game-viewing areas on the floodplains.





One of the best adventure program is

Day 1: Arrival

Arriving in Dar then transfer to royal Mirage for overnight

Day 2: Dar es Salam

Breakfast transfer to the airport for your flight to Kigoma on arrival transfer to Kigoma Hotel

Day 3; Transfer Day

After breakfast Transfer from Kigoma Hotel to Sunuka half way south to Mahale then board a speed boat 1hrs to Mahale National park for formalities and then proceed to the bandas afternoon beach safaris

Day 4-7 Mahale Mountain National Park

After breakfast another early morning game viewing (Chimpanzee tracking in the forest). Lunch at camp. Spend the rest of the afternoon fishing by boat on the lake for 2-3 hrs. Mahale is one of the best locations on Lake Tanganyika for fishing; hence you will be able to catch a lot of fish in only a few hours’. Some of the types of species caught are the sangara (Nile Perch) and kuhe

Day 8 Mahale to Katavi
Transfer to airstrip. SAL flight to Katavi. Game drives O/N banda Katavi flight time is 1015am arriving 1105am overnight Bandas

Day 9 Katavi

After breakfast game drive in Katavi National Park. This remote national park in western Tanzania is probably the wildest and most untouched reserve in the whole of Africa. Katavi contains one of the highest concentrations of wildlife amongst the Tanzanian parks. Thousands of buffalos, antelopes and elephants roaming the around the park provide ample feeding opportunity to the hundreds of prides of lions and other predators sharing the habitat. The park provides a good opportunity of viewing the rare species of cheetah and wild dogs. Other predators include leopards and hyenas. Prominent species include zebras, eland, topi, impala, hartebeest, waterbucks, giraffe, reedbuck and Defasssa. Dinner and overnight at Bandas.

Day 10 Katavi

After breakfast continue with another early morning game drive with picnic lunch. Prominent species of birds at the rivers include yellow-billed, open-billed and saddle-billed stork, pink-backed pelican, Africa spoonbill and numerous heron, egrets and plovers. Raptors include fish eagle, bateleur and white-backed vulture. Other species are also found in the woodland and floodplain areas of the park. Dinner and overnight at Bandas.

Day 11;Katavi to Kigoma

Private car Drive to Mpanda for Breakfast then onwards drive to Uvindza arriving Kigoma in the evening drop off at Mapinduzi Hotel

Day: 12; Kigoma to Dar

Transfer to the airport for Flight Back to Dar airport and then connect Flight to Zanzibar