Explore and discover the true wilderness of Katavi National Park!

Hippos in Katavi provide the most singular wildlife spectacle! Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200 hundred individuals might flop together in any riverine pool of sufficient depth. The Park offers wildlife in abundance and it has one of Tanzania’s greatest concentrations of buffalo, elephants and hippopotamus.

It was established in 1974 and is one of the most remote, vast, natural and pristine parks in Africa. The park also rich in plant and wildlife nature resources. Scenery in the Park varies from seasonally inundated grassland plains in the shallow basins to the steep escarpments of the rift valley.

The vegetation is a mosaic of closed to open woodlands, scrublands, grasslands, swamps, seasonal lakes and riverine vegetation. The main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada where most animals congregate.

An estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of giraffes, zebras, impalas and reedbucks provide easy pickings for the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.

WHAT TO DO?

Walking, driving and camping safaris. Near Lake Katavi, visit the tamarind tree inhabited by the spirit of the legendary hunter Katabi (for whom the park is named) – Offerings are still left here by locals seeking the spirit’s blessing.

HOW DO YOU GET TO KATAVI NATIONAL PARK?

The best way to get to Katavi is by a flight from Arusha. The only public, scheduled flight is the twice-weekly service between Ruaha, Katavi and Mahale National Parks operated by Safari Air Link.