Tanzania’s third largest national park “Katavi N. P.” is located in the remote southwest of the country and is Tanzania’s least visited national park. Here you can still find pristine wilderness and a varied landscape, which is characterized by wide swamps and grassy areas, dense forest, shrubland, lakes and rivers. This is how one imagines the original Africa at the time of the explorers. Most of Katavi is covered with dense Miombo dry forest, which provides shelter for groups of elen, sable and roan antelopes. The real attraction for wildlife watchers is the Katuma River with its alluvial plains, to which the seasonal lakes Katavi and Chada belong. During the rainy season, these swampy lakes attract countless numbers water birds and they feed Tanzania’s densest populations of hippos and crocodiles. During the dry season, the Katuma River becomes a trickle and there is a huge gathering of animals. Thousands of elephants, buffalo, giraffes, zebras and impalas are now drawn to the only remaining source of drinking water, making them easy prey for lions and herds of spotted hyenas. At the end of the dry season there is an extraordinary spectacle when over 100 hippos crowd tightly together in small river pools.

Like its northerly neighbor Gombe N. P., Mahale Mountains National Park is home to last remaining wild chimpanzees in Africa. Around 1,000 of these fascinating animals roam the isolated rainforest of Mahale, a chain of dramatic peaks draped in lush vegetation falling to Lake Tanganyika’s beaches far below. Tracking the Chimps of Mahale is a magical experience. While the Chimpanzees are the star attraction, the slopes of Mahale support a diverse forest fauna, including readily observed troops of colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys and kaleidoscopic array of colorful forest birds. On a hike on the trail of the chimpanzees, you can trace the Tongwe people’s ancient pilgrimage to the mountain spirits, trekking through enclaves of rainforest with grassy ridges crisscrossed with alpine bamboo. Mahale Mountains National Park is not only specialized in chimpanzee tracking, but offers many other activities such as boat tours, fishing, kayaking and snorkeling. Lake Tanganyika is the second largest freshwater lake in the world in terms of volume and the second deepest lake after Lake Baikal in Siberia.