Welcome to Katavi
1. Katavi National Park
1. Katavi National Park
Katavi National Park, Tanzania’s third
largest national park (4471 km²), is the heart of one of the biggest and
richest wildlife areas in Tanzania. Located along the rift escarpment in
western Tanzania, it offers incredible scenery including immense wetlands,
roaring waterfalls and original miombo woodlands, where the Sable antelopes
often hide. During the dry season, huge herds of buffalo, zebras and impalas
gather with elephants, waterbucks and duikers around the drying water reserves
of Lake Katavi and Lake Chada.
Lake Rukwa, a huge shallow internal lake of
varying size, is found South East of the protected area complex and is
bordering Rukwa and Lukwati Game Reserves. Together with the surrounding
hunting blocks and forest reserves this area is one of the biggest and richest
wildlife areas in Tanzania.
You can also observe many animals along the
remaining pools of the Katuma river which are bursting with hippos and
crocodiles. Here, at these remaining water sources, the lions, leopards and
wild dogs can be found searching for their prey, watched by patiently waiting
vultures which share the trees with fish eagles, storks and vervet monkeys. As
soon as the first rains start, Katavi transforms again into a flowering
paradise with enormous swamps, lakes, rivers and waterfalls, attracting an
incredible diversity of bird life.
2.
Tourism Attractions
Exceptional Resources
- High habitat and species diversity with
high concentrations of large mammals
- Extensive wetlands and important water
catchments areas
- Wilderness character: The
Katavi-Rukwa-Lukwati protected area complex still retains a distinct
wilderness character.
- Interesting vegetation mosaic ranging from
wetlands and lakes to riverine vegetation and various types of woodlands
and shrublands (e.g. the woodlands of the inselbergs of Kapimbye, Kapapa
and Igongwe)
- Home to some endangered and unusual
species: wild dog, chetaahs (mostly seen in Mbuga ya Duma) roan and sable
antelopes (e.g. in the woods of Ilumbi), eland (often encountered at lake
Katavi, Kaselami Mbuga, the northern Chada plain, Kataukasi and Kakonje
Mbugas)
- Historical and cultural resources: The
Karema-Inyonga-Tabora slave route passed through the protected area
complex. Stone age and iron age sites, sites of 19th century towns,
Wamweru Hills and Katabi tree (14 km from the airstrip)
- Scenic diversity with escarpments, rugged
hills, flat alluvial plains, marshes, lakes and rivers. Scenic spots are:
hot springs, waterfalls Ndido, Chorangwa, Lukima, Iloba, and beautiful
views from the top of the escarpment down into the Rukwa valley (e.g. the
view of the steep Mlele escarpment close to Mpunga Mbuga).
- Large herds of animals at Magogo Pools,
Lake Katavi, Ilyandi sandridge, Katisunga Mbuga and Kasima Springs, Lake
Chada.
- Katuma valley, Paradise springs in dry
season
- Hippo schools at Ikuu springs, Ikuu bridge
and Sitalike. Crocodiles are found in large numbers in the Katuma riverbed
and at the Ikuu bridge in caves as well as in Kapapa River, Rungwa River
and Ndido falls.
3.
Wildlife
In Katavi National Park Wildlife features
include large animal herds, particularly of Cape Buffaloes, zebras, wildebeest,
giraffes, and elephants, plus along the Katuma river, crocodiles and
hippopotami which upon annual dry seasons results in mud holes that can be packed
with hundreds of hippos. Carnivorous animals that roam this park are cheetahs,
wild dogs, hyenas, leopards, and lions. Some sources claim a very high
biodiversity in the park, although there are also reports of wildlife decline
due to illegal hunting and poaching, presumably 'bush meat' sustenance. Katavi
has fewer human visitors and jeeps conducting game drives than other Tanzania
parks. While the park has unique and sensitive environment with big animals.
4.
Gallery
5.
Access to the park
Getting to Katavi for visitors will likely
be arranged by the hosting camp, with one of the available charter flight
services being Safari Air Link. Alternatively, Auric Air operates scheduled
flights into Katavi National Park. All flights will require landing on a dirt
airstrip; the Ikuu airstrip (near the Ikuu Ranger post) has minimal services.
It is very approximately a three-hour flight from Katavi to Dar es Salaam and
two-hours flight to Mwanza via a small, bush-compatible light aircraft. A
flight to Arusha is similarly ~3 hours distant.
Access to Katavi via ground transportation:
estimates vary widely; it is generally discussed not in hours but in days. The
town of Mbeya is (550 km/340 miles) distant and is described as a
"...tough but spectacular..." drive; Google Maps indicates that Mbeya
is 838 km from Dar es Salaam, making the total distance approximately 1,400 km
(870 mi) and requiring 20+ hours. The most direct route to Dar es Salaam as per
Google Maps is approx. 1250 km (~800 miles) and requiring 16+ hours. Arusha is
similarly distant: 1000+km /13.5 hours. The percentage of transit on unpaved
surfaces is unknown, but parts of all of these routes will definitely be on
dirt roads. Since all of the above times from Google Maps assume an average transit
speed of 80 km (50 mph), all these indicated travel times should be considered
to be optimistic.
6.
When to Visit Katavi National Park
It therefore makes the perfect combination with Ruaha. But while Ruaha has good game viewing all year round the Katavi floodplains become lakes through the rains and this water and green grass attracts wildlife increasingly as the ecosystem dries out again. This is why everything at Katavi comes in big herds, eg. Topi, Zebra, Sable, Roan, Giraffe, with some of the last great herds of Buffalo in Africa congregating on its plains. So the game viewing gets better and better through the dry but is still surprisingly good for the first few months of the green season and especially good for birding in the green season.
7.
Location
Katavi National Park is located in Mpanda
District, Rukwa Region in Western Tanzania. Currently, the main road that
connects Mbeya and Sumbawanga with Mpanda town and Kigoma still crosses the
park. The main entrance gate is close to Sitalike village, which is located
along that main road 40 km south of the district capital Mpanda and 205 km
north of the regional capital Sumbawanga.
8.
Access to Katavi National Park
By air:
Fly directly to Katavi: This is the easiest
way to reach Katavi at Sitalike or Ikuu airstrips. Another airstrip is
available at Mlele
Safari Air Link runs the only scheduled
flights between Katavi/Mahale to Ruaha, Selous, and Dar es Salaam/Zanzibar
(Terminal 1 Julius Nyerere International Airport).
Fly to Tabora or Kigoma: Regular flights
are operated by Precision Air from Dar es Salaam to Tabora and Kigoma. From
there you will have to continue by public transport or other arrangements.
By railway:
To Tabora and Mpanda: From Dar es Salaam
regular trains go to Tabora from Tanzania Central Railways (from where they
continue to Kigoma or Mwanza). From there a connection goes to Mpanda. The
entire trip requires two travel days.
To Mbeya: By Tazara Railway or Bus from Dar
es Salaam to Mbeya (Iyunga), then by road using public transport.
By road:
By road from Dar es Salaam/Mbeya: Drive to
Mbeya in one day, then head to Sumbawanga and Sitalike/Katavi National Park.
This is a two to three-days safari (17hrs approximately).
Take the adventurous route and come by car
from Arusha/Tabora: via Babati, Singida, Nzega and Tabora. There are two
alternatives: Tabora to Mpanda or Tabora to Inyonga, Mlele and then to
Sitalike/Katavi National Park.
By road from Kigoma via Uvinza and Mpanda
to Katavi National Park.
9.
Accommodations
Tented Camps & Lodges
Chada Camp
Flycatchers Seasonal Camp
Katavi Wildlife Camp (Fox family)
Katuma Katavi Camp
Palahala Luxury Tented Camp
Katavi National Park Video
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