Western Circuit

Katavi, about 35km southwest of Mpanda, is Tanzania’s third-largest park and one of its most unspoiled wilderness areas. Katavi is a true wilderness, providing intrepid souls who make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa. Katavi National Park lies in Mpanda district in the west of Tanzania. With an area of 4471 km², it is Tanzania’s third largest park. Together with the neighbouring Rukwa, Lukwati and Luafi Game Reserves and numerous forest reserves, this ecosystem of 25 000 km² is the heart of one of the biggest and richest wildlife areas in Tanzania.

Mahale National Park is located in the western part of Tanzania, bordering Lake Tanganyika. The forested slopes of the Mahale Mountains rise behind the park, home to the world’s largest known population of chimpanzees, with approximately 800 individuals inhabiting the area. Tracking the chimps of Mahale is a magical experience. The forest also boasts amazing troops of red colobus, red-tailed, and blue monkeys and is home to an endemic race of Angola colobus monkey. For ornithologist, this is the perfect place to see a kaleidoscopic array of colorful forest birds.

With lush forest and a fascinating diversity of animals, Gombe stream National Park is home to one of the most beautiful and stunning natural forests in Tanzania. Stop at this park for an amazing chimpanzee trek. Chimpanzees are known to be the species of primates closest to humans, sharing 98% of the genes that we also have. Efforts to conserve the chimps are widely acknowledged and supported. The Jane Goodall Foundation plays a big role in the conservation of the Chimpanzees here as well as the gorillas in Uganda. Here, you will also find troops of olive baboons, red-tailed and red Colobus monkeys, which stick to the forest canopy due to being regularly hunted by the forest chimps, as well as more than 200 birds species.

Rubondo Island was gazetted officially as National Park in 1977. It is an important breeding ground for both migratory bird and fish species especially Tilapia and Nile perch as for a long time it stood to be the only area in the waters of Lake Victoria which was well protected and preserved. About 80% of the park is covered by a dense forest thus providing a variety of habitats for indigenous wildlife such as Sitatunga, hippos, bush bucks, velvet monkeys, genet cats, crocodiles, bush pigs etc sharing the ecological niches with the introduced species such as chimpanzees, elephants, giraffes, black and white colubous monkeys, suni and African grey parrots. The park is located on the southwestern corner of Lake Victoria in Geita region about 150 km (95 miles) west of Mwanza. The Lake Victoria is the second largest lake in the world. The park has 456.8 km2 of which 236.8 km2 is dry land and 220 km2 is water comprising of 11 small islets of varying sizes.