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Katavi National Park is vast at about 5000 square and is teeming with wildlife, which is unmatched anywhere else in Africa. Katavi National Park is the Tanzania’s third largest national park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home to substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad waterbirds, and they also support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes on its own. The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief. An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.
Attractions
Katavi’s hippos provide most singular wildlife spectacle. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient depth. And as more hippos gather in one place, so does male rivalry heat up – bloody territorial fights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge. The springs and pools get packed sardine-like with hippos, crocodiles and elephants.
There are two or three major pools where the hippos are packed in very tightly in a very small area. The main pool at the ranger post sometimes contains as many as 3200 hippos, whilst a similar number will be in a nearby pool. Sharing these shrinking pools of water during the dry season are some good sized crocodiles and maribou storks, which pull the wriggling catfish out of the mud too.
Access
The park can be accessed through Charter flights from Dar or Arusha. By road a tough but spectacular day’s drive from Mbeya (550 km/340 miles), or in the dry season only from Kigoma (390 km/240 miles).
It is possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar via Tabora, then to catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, allow plenty of time to get there and back.
Tourist’s activities
Accommodation
The park has limited Facilities, with just one camp in the park. One seasonal luxury tented camp overlooking Lake Chada, a rest house at Sitalike and campsites inside the park. Basic but clean hotels at Mpanda.
The tallest free-standing mountain in the world and the highest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro is world famous for it’s accessible summits. It’s snowy peak, referred to as Kibo by the local Wachagga people, stands assertively wrapped in clouds overseeing the continent.
Situated in the North East of Tanzania, Kilimanjaro rises in breathtaking isolation from the surrounding coastal scrubland to a height of 5,895 metres with the Kenyan border to the north. The journey to the peak encompasses a myriad of different terrains and landscapes ranging from the tropics to the Arctic. Even before you cross the national park boundary (at the 2,700m contour), the cultivated footslopes give way to lush montane forest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo, the endangered Abbot’s duiker, and other small antelope and primates. Higher still lies the moorland zone, where a cover of giant heather is studded with otherworldly giant lobelias.
Above 4,000m, a surreal alpine desert supports little life other than a few hardy mosses and lichen. Then, finally, the last vestigial vegetation gives way to a winter wonderland of ice and snow – and the magnificent beauty of the roof of the continent.
CLIMB MOUNT KILIMANJARO
Katavi National Park is vast at about 5000 square and is teeming with wildlife, which is unmatched anywhere else in Africa. Katavi National Park is the Tanzania’s third largest national park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home to substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad waterbirds, and they also support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes on its own. The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief. An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.
Attractions
Katavi’s hippos provide most singular wildlife spectacle. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient depth. And as more hippos gather in one place, so does male rivalry heat up – bloody territorial fights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge. The springs and pools get packed sardine-like with hippos, crocodiles and elephants.
There are two or three major pools where the hippos are packed in very tightly in a very small area. The main pool at the ranger post sometimes contains as many as 3200 hippos, whilst a similar number will be in a nearby pool. Sharing these shrinking pools of water during the dry season are some good sized crocodiles and maribou storks, which pull the wriggling catfish out of the mud too.
Access
The park can be accessed through Charter flights from Dar or Arusha. By road a tough but spectacular day’s drive from Mbeya (550 km/340 miles), or in the dry season only from Kigoma (390 km/240 miles).
It is possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar via Tabora, then to catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, allow plenty of time to get there and back.
Tourist’s activities
Accommodation
The park has limited Facilities, with just one camp in the park. One seasonal luxury tented camp overlooking Lake Chada, a rest house at Sitalike and campsites inside the park. Basic but clean hotels at Mpanda.
Katavi National Park is vast at about 5000 square and is teeming with wildlife, which is unmatched anywhere else in Africa. Katavi National Park is the Tanzania’s third largest national park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home to substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad waterbirds, and they also support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes on its own. The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief. An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.
Attractions
Katavi’s hippos provide most singular wildlife spectacle. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient depth. And as more hippos gather in one place, so does male rivalry heat up – bloody territorial fights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge. The springs and pools get packed sardine-like with hippos, crocodiles and elephants.
There are two or three major pools where the hippos are packed in very tightly in a very small area. The main pool at the ranger post sometimes contains as many as 3200 hippos, whilst a similar number will be in a nearby pool. Sharing these shrinking pools of water during the dry season are some good sized crocodiles and maribou storks, which pull the wriggling catfish out of the mud too.
Access
The park can be accessed through Charter flights from Dar or Arusha. By road a tough but spectacular day’s drive from Mbeya (550 km/340 miles), or in the dry season only from Kigoma (390 km/240 miles).
It is possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar via Tabora, then to catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, allow plenty of time to get there and back.
Tourist’s activities
Accommodation
The park has limited Facilities, with just one camp in the park. One seasonal luxury tented camp overlooking Lake Chada, a rest house at Sitalike and campsites inside the park. Basic but clean hotels at Mpanda.
The tallest free-standing mountain in the world and the highest peak in Africa, Kilimanjaro is world famous for it’s accessible summits. It’s snowy peak, referred to as Kibo by the local Wachagga people, stands assertively wrapped in clouds overseeing the continent.
Situated in the North East of Tanzania, Kilimanjaro rises in breathtaking isolation from the surrounding coastal scrubland to a height of 5,895 metres with the Kenyan border to the north. The journey to the peak encompasses a myriad of different terrains and landscapes ranging from the tropics to the Arctic. Even before you cross the national park boundary (at the 2,700m contour), the cultivated footslopes give way to lush montane forest, inhabited by elusive elephant, leopard, buffalo, the endangered Abbot’s duiker, and other small antelope and primates. Higher still lies the moorland zone, where a cover of giant heather is studded with otherworldly giant lobelias.
Above 4,000m, a surreal alpine desert supports little life other than a few hardy mosses and lichen. Then, finally, the last vestigial vegetation gives way to a winter wonderland of ice and snow – and the magnificent beauty of the roof of the continent.
CLIMB MOUNT KILIMANJARO
Katavi National Park is vast at about 5000 square and is teeming with wildlife, which is unmatched anywhere else in Africa. Katavi National Park is the Tanzania’s third largest national park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland, home to substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for myriad waterbirds, and they also support Tanzania’s densest concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes on its own. The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief. An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.
Attractions
Katavi’s hippos provide most singular wildlife spectacle. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient depth. And as more hippos gather in one place, so does male rivalry heat up – bloody territorial fights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers sufficient confidence to mount another challenge. The springs and pools get packed sardine-like with hippos, crocodiles and elephants.
There are two or three major pools where the hippos are packed in very tightly in a very small area. The main pool at the ranger post sometimes contains as many as 3200 hippos, whilst a similar number will be in a nearby pool. Sharing these shrinking pools of water during the dry season are some good sized crocodiles and maribou storks, which pull the wriggling catfish out of the mud too.
Access
The park can be accessed through Charter flights from Dar or Arusha. By road a tough but spectacular day’s drive from Mbeya (550 km/340 miles), or in the dry season only from Kigoma (390 km/240 miles).
It is possible to reach Mpanda by rail from Dar via Tabora, then to catch public transport to Sitalike, where game drives can be arranged. If travelling overland, allow plenty of time to get there and back.
Tourist’s activities
Accommodation
The park has limited Facilities, with just one camp in the park. One seasonal luxury tented camp overlooking Lake Chada, a rest house at Sitalike and campsites inside the park. Basic but clean hotels at Mpanda.
