Katavi National Park

The country’s third largest national park, Katavi National Park is very remotely situated in the west and the country’s least visited park. It is an incredibly interesting park with several thousand square kilometres and just a dozen or so visitors at any given time.

Katavi houses the biodiversity expected of any conservation area, with bountiful elephant (an estimated 4500 plus), zebra, hartebeest, giraffe, impala and Defassa waterbuck. Several large prides of lion give good chances of seeing the big cat, and conveniently they frequent a series of shallow lakes and marshes (Lake Katavi on the Katuma River, the Chemchem Springs and Lake Chada at the Katuma/Kapapa confluence), making sightings particularly good during the dry season (August-November especially) when wildlife congregate near the water sources.

Of further wildlife significance are the hippo and buffalo populations. Several thousands strong herds of buffalo criss-cross the park in the search of food whilst several hundreds of hippo desperately cling to each pocket of water deep enough to wallow in during the dry months.

Outside the dry season, game is less plentiful as it is able to disperse into the thick woodland that covers most of Katavi, further inhibiting the already limited access.

To get the most out of the cost of visiting Katavi National Park, we suggest combining with the equally remote Mahale Mountains to experience one of the most epic safari journeys on offer in Africa.

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