4-Day Mahale Chimpanzee Safari

Mahale Mountains National Park has no roads: you arrive by light aircraft and then by boat along the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the world's second-deepest lake. The forested slopes hold around 800 chimpanzees, and one community has been studied and habituated since the 1960s, so trekking to find them — anything from twenty minutes to several hours of steep forest walking — gives a real chance of an hour in their company.

Between treks, the lake is the draw: clear enough to snorkel among the hundreds of endemic cichlid species, calm enough to kayak, and backed by a beach that would not look out of place in the Indian Ocean. A minimum age applies for the chimp treks and a basic level of fitness is needed.