Katavi National Park

Katavi National Park offers an opportunity to see pristine wildlife in the country’s third largest national park, in a remote location off the beaten track. The national park represents Africa at its wildest: untouched bush landscapes, spectacular views and abundant wildlife.

The wilderness of Katavi National Park, located in western Tanzania, is one of the most unspoiled areas in the entire country.

Katavi’s spectacular landscape is as varied as it is pristine. Thick reedy floodplains and dense streams are home to a huge population of hippos and a variety of birdlife. In the western woodlands, the forest cover envelops herds of buffalo and elephant. Seasonal lakes fill with dirty, colorful water after the rains and animals from all over the park come to drink. The park is also home to rare species of roan and sable antelope and is a must for visitors wishing to explore the wilderness of the continent.

Isolated, unsupervised and rarely visited, Katavi is a true wilderness that offers the intrepid few who visit a thrilling glimpse of Africa as it must have been a century ago.
Tanzania’s third largest national park is located in the remote southwestern region of the country, in a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that ends in the shallow, eerie expanse of Lake Rukwa.

Most of Katavi is covered by a mesmerizing, tangled Brachystegia forest, which supports large but elusive populations of eland, sable, and roan antelope localized in the area. Nevertheless, the Katuma River and associated floodplains, such as the seasonal Katavi and Chada lakes, are the main focus of game viewing in the park. During the rainy season, these lush, swampy lakes are home to a myriad of waterfowl and also contain the highest concentrations of hippos and crocodiles in Tanzania.

It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters recede, that Katavi really comes alive. The Katuma River, reduced to a shallow trickle of mud, is the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the surrounding floodplains are home to concentrations of game that defy belief. An estimated 4,000 elephants may converge on the area, as well as several herds of over 1,000 buffalo, while an abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy prey for the many clans of lions and spotted hyenas whose territories converge on the floodplains.

Katavi’s most unique wildlife spectacle is its hippos. Towards the end of the dry season, up to 200