Katavi National Park

Gazetted in 1974 and covering 4,471 square kilometres, Katavi sits in the far west of Tanzania and receives only a few hundred visitors a year, reached mainly by charter flight. For travellers willing to make the effort, it offers one of the last genuinely wild safari experiences in the country.

In the dry season the Katuma River and the Chada and Katavi floodplains shrink to a few pools, and the wildlife that gathers around them is extraordinary: buffalo herds a thousand or more strong, and hippo pods packed so tightly that hundreds crowd into a single stretch of river, with bull hippos fighting for space. Large lion prides follow the buffalo, and crocodiles aestivate in riverbank caves. Elephant, giraffe, zebra and both roan and sable antelope are also present. Katavi is usually combined with Mahale for a remote western-Tanzania safari.