Size

4471 sq km (about 2780 sq miles)

Location

South-western Tanzania, east of Lake Tanganyika

To Do

Walking, driving and camping safaris

Best Time

Dry season: May – October and mid–December to February.

Accommodations are one seasonal luxury tented camp, a rest house and campsites inside the park, as well as hotel and lodge accommodation at Mpanda 40 km (About 25 miles) away.

Katavi National Park is remote, hard and wild. It sits on a high, wide flood plain in south-western Tanzania.  This is a true African safari, just you and the wilderness- an untouched landscape.  There’s little chance you’ll have to share Tanzania’s third biggest park with anyone else, except an abundance of wildlife.

The park main features are the watery grassy plains t the north, palm-fringed lake chalet in the southeast, and the Katuma River.  Katavi boasts Tanzania’s greatest concentration of both crocodile and hippopotamus.  The hippo is the world’s third largest land animal, spending its nights devouring up to 60 kg of fodder before returning to its aquatic home.

Katavi immortalises legendary hunter, Katavi, whose spirit is believed to possess a tamarind tree ringed with offerings form locals begging his blessing.  Katavi lion and leopard have no shortage of prey: delicately bounding impala, beefy eland, lack legged topic, zebra and herds of up to 1,600 buffalo wandering the short grass plains.  A kaleidoscope of more than 400 bird species flits across the acacia, the riverbanks the swamps and palm groves while flotillas of pelican cruise the lakes.  Elephants graze in the marshlands, up to their sizeable waists in reeds.

If travelling by road, allow plenty of time to get there and back. The park maintains an airstrip for charter planes.