Birding & Chimp Safari

Fly from Dar es Salam to Tabora - Kigosi National Park

On arrival in Tabora, we will meet you and transfer you to Kigosi National Park, Kigosi Kigosi was established in 2019. It is 8265 km2 in area and is part of Moyowosi/ Kigosi National park is at the northeast of the complex where shallow undulating Miombo woodlands are drained by the Nikonga River as it joins the complexities of the Moyowosi Wetlands.

Today we will do a walking Safari along the river explore the beauty and wildlife found in this beautiful Park. The walking Safari can take up to a full day.

This is all challenging terrain and has ensured that large parts have hardly ever been visited or explored, and being Africa is endowed with an extravagant quantity and quality of wildlife. It is home to Africa`s largest population of that rare and somewhat sinister stork, the shoebill, as tall and elegant watt led crane. There are huge flocks of pygmy geese (probably Africa`s largest). The Moyowosi wetlands also have Africa`s largest population of cape clawless otters.

Full Day at Kigosi National Park

Morning Game drive in the Park, followed by packed lunch and coffee by the river, Big game abounds Lion, Leopard, buffalo, crocodile, topi, zebra, sable, roan, eland, bushbuck, oribi, common and Bohor reedbuck, hyena, hippo, and Defacer waterbuck. The terrain is fascinating. Miombo woodlands fringe grassy flood plains dotted with palm trees that surrounding huge lakes and swamps many of which carry floating palm and papyrus islands. The water is gin clear. Many of the lions prides here have learned to chase buffalo into shallow swamps and to kill them by drowning before dragging them out to dismember and eat.

Kigosi National Park- The Ugalla River National Park

The Ugalla river in west-central Tanzania is a broad, slow-moving river of sandbanks, shallow pools, oxbow lakes, and swamps that winds it away in meandering loops westwards through a remote and almost forgotten world of extraordinary wildlife richness. it became a national park in 2019. It is just under 5000sqkm in the area.

The river drains a vast landscape of shallow hills and valleys dominated by miombo woodlands and tall grass savannas that are home to elephant, buffalo, lion, leopards, zebras, etc. and also the largest herds of sable and roan antelope to be found in Tanzania. In the swampy stretches to the west are found the swamp-dwelling sitatunga antelope, cape clawless otters, and a host of exciting water birds such as shoebill strokes wattled cranes, pygmy geese, etc.

The Ugalla River National Park

Rise up in walking boots, ready to explore your morning along the river together with an armed ranger, In the dry season lasting from July to October, these animals concentrate more and more on the ugalla river and it becomes a place where exciting wildlife lies around almost every corner.

Hippo and crocodile abound in the river, and indeed the ugalla river is reputed to have some of the largest crocodiles ever recorded in Africa. During the wet season they are feeding on catfish and other fish but as the dry season progresses they supplement their diet with animals coming down to drink may grow to over 21feet in length.
Game viewing will focus mostly on the river itself following its endless twist and loops and beautiful overlooks. Groves of huge trees and scattered along the banks offering wonderful places to camp or perhaps just relax for a mid-day picnic or a coffee break as you watch wildlife all around you.

The ugalla river flows slowly westwards beyond the boundaries of the national park into the complex waterways and west lands of the Moyowosi swamps, which will eventually drain into Lake Tanganyika. This vast and remote domain must surely be one of the greatest unexplored wildlife treasures of all of Africa.

Nkondwe Water Falls - Issa Valley - Chimpanzee Explore

From the Ugalla River National Park, we will drive via Uvinza, Uvinza is an ancient town known for its salt production. During the German colonial period the town was named Neu Gottorp and a railway line was constructed in the 1900s linking it to Dar es Salaam., Salt has been extracted from the brine springs in the Uvinza area for many centuries. This ancient salt mine is one of the historical economical sites for Africa.

Compared to other long‐term chimpanzee study sites, Issa Valley had a relatively high diversity in medium and large mammal species present, with 36 species documented. We encountered common duiker (Sylvicapra grimmia) most frequently, followed by yellow baboons (Papio Cynocephalus) and bushbuck. Chimpanzees ranked fifth overall. Chimpanzees, on the other hand, were predicted to most frequently encounter bushbuck, klipspringer, and hartebeest—all woodland species. The forest behind the Valley is the source of Nkondwe waterfalls in Lugufu River, which flows toward lake Tanganyika, a beautiful place to spend a night before you proceed to Mahale or Katavi.

Drive via Mpanda Town to Katavi National Park

After breakfast at the waterfalls drive to Katavi National Park, Tanzania is so full of “don’t miss” wildlife destinations that safari enthusiasts will just have to accept that they cannot all be done in one safari. However, Katavi plains are a must for the enthusiast, Katavi is 4471 sq km large and protects only part of an even large ecosystem. Extensive open plains alternate with board-leafed woodlands, flat-topped acacia bush country, and wide swamps and lakes. The park is 30km from Mpanda Town. We will arrive by afternoon ready for a game drive before a long shower

The wild animals have free domain over a huge hinterland of several thousand square kilometers both within and outside the park, virtually undamaged by man. they can move live and multiply here. Elephants can be seen daily and the numbers of buffalo are phenomenal with heard upon heard of 1000 strong grazing the dried out flood plains. Hippo and crocs numbering in 1000s yet increasingly confined to shrinking pools and mud wallows, with regular fights erupting amongst the hippo bulls. Large herds of topi also concentrate into the flood plains

Full Day in Katavi National Park

Large areas of the park are hardly ever visited such as the Mlele escarpment with its waterfalls, lake Paradise and the country between Katavi is one of those places that have not altered since early European explores first started entering Africans interior and it is the kind of place that gave this continent its reputation for being impassable, of huge scale and swarming with the big game you will need at least three days.

Katavi -Mpanda- Zanzibar

You will have breakfast in the park followed by a game drive before you drive to Mpanda. You will fly from Mpanda to Zanzibar for a beach Holiday.