Katavi National Park

Set within the remote arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa, Katavi is East Africa’s best-kept game viewing secret. The third-largest national park in Tanzania at 4,500 sq km, this isolated and untrammelled tract of wilderness remains one of the few reserves where you might drive around for days with encountering another tourist – a thrilling taste of Africa as it must have been a century ago

Katavi is the archetypal dry season park. Practically a no-go area during the rains, it comes into its own during the dry season, when the muddy trickle of the Katuma River forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief – including some of Africa’s most impressive concentrations of buffalo, elephant, hippo and crocodile.

Wildlife

Activities

Getting there

Where to stay

Nearby places of interest

Vegetation and habitats

The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland.

The Katuma River is flanked by a grassy floodplain and the expansive but seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada.

Wildlife

This one of the last places in Africa where herds of 1,000-plus buffalo remain a common sight –several such herds aggregate around the floodplains during the dry season.

Of the rest of the Big Five, elephants are abundant, with a population estimated at 4,000, and lions are unusually common. Leopards, by contrast, are secretive, and rhino absent altogether.

A singular wildlife spectacle is provided by Katavi’s hippos, with hundred-strong pods jostling for wallowing space in the dry season, frequently leading to bloody territorial fights between males.

An abundance of giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the lion prides and hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains, while the brachystegia woodland supports substantial but elusive populations of the localised eland, sable and roan antelopes.

Activities

Expertly guided game drives are conducted by the bush camps. Self-drive visitors can do their own game drives, ideally with a ranger to guide them around. The headquarters can also arrange game drives.

A tamarind tree near Lake Katavi is said to be inhabited by the legendary spirit-hunter for whom the park is named – locals leave offerings here to obtain its blessing.

Getting there

Roads may be impassable during the rains, so plan on visiting during the dry season (May-Oct).

Most visitors organise a charter flight to/from Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Mahale Mountains.

The drive from Dar es Salaam requires 2-3 tough days, with the 550km stretch of dirt from Mbeya via Sumbawanga being particularly arduous. A 390km road leads north to Kigoma, but it’s advisable to check security and road conditions first, especially during the rains.

Mpanda, 35km from the park headquarters and entrance gate at Sitalike, is accessible by a thrice-weekly, two-night rail service from Dar es Salaam via Tabora. Limited public transport runs from Mpanda to Sitalike.

Where to stay

Two small semi-permanent bush camps operate between May and Nov – both cater to an exclusive fly-in market.

A relatively inexpensive resthouse with restaurant and bar is situated at Sitalike, and a superbly wild campsite overlooks the Katavi floodplain.

Nearby places of interest

The remote Lake Rukwa, extending over 2,500 sq km when full, is by far the largest lake to lie entirely within Tanzania. Its reedy shallows support prodigious hippos and crocs, and the localised puku antelope.

Checklist of conspicuous and noteworthy mammals: lion, leopard, spotted hyena, black-backed jackal, Bohor reedbuck, Defassa waterbuck, puku, impala, Cokes hartebeest, topi, greater kudu, common eland, sable antelope, roan antelope, bushbuck, African elephant, African buffalo, common zebra, hippo, warthog, Maasai giraffe, yellow baboon, vervet monkey.