Safari to Katavi

remarkable hippos and crocodiles

Katavi National Park is a very remote conservation area located in western Tanzania, well over 700 km from the nearest international airports at Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam.

This is a fabulous savanna reserve and a real collector’s item, said to have the highest biodensity of any area in Africa. The wildlife viewing on the central wetland plains during the Jun-Oct dry season can be extremely rich, with prime sights including the most incredible hippo pools and fearsome crocodile tunnels.

Katavi is very remote, it experiences extremely low visitor numbers and contains at least one truly excellent place to stay, the esteemed Chada Camp. For these reasons the area has become something of a holy grail for safari aficionados.

Unfortunately a visit to Katavi is unavoidably expensive, the costs of getting here alone are very significant.

Another thing that has always slightly nagged at us is that it’s very difficult to properly explore Katavi in all its glory over a typical 3-4 night stay. We would love to head up into the surrounding mountains, where beautiful waterfalls are said to plunge into mysterious forests. You could maybe stay for a week or two and get a much broader feel for the place, but who would ever have the time or funds available to do that?

The reserve is most commonly visited in combination with the fabulous chimpanzee reserve of Mahale Mountains, the combination adding up to one of the best weeks on safari that it is possible to have.

Katavi tends to feature in an extremely low proportion of trips to Tanzania. It tends to appeal mainly to very experienced safari travellers, who have a very generous budget and plenty of time. Almost everyone combines with the chimpanzee reserve of Mahale Mountains.

The usual stay duration is 3-4 nights, depending on the flight schedules.

Seasonality

The best time of year for safari in Katavi is generally considered to be the Jul-Oct dry season, when the animals converge on the floodplains.

Getting there

Despite its remoteness, Katavi National Park is relatively easy to access, with light aircraft schedules coming in from parks in the north and south of the country to the local Ikuu Airstrip, usually twice per week during the main safari seasons.

Your safari vehicle and guide is provided by the camp in which you are staying.

Where to stay

Katavi is home to just a handful of small camps. This is not a place for the big commercial operators, but for small safari companies which tend to be more passionate and intent on delivering authentic safari experience.

All but one of the camps are located around the two grassy plains and tend to operate their safari on overlapping areas.

The stand-out option is undoubtedly the superb Chada Camp, which is the original and still the best in the area, although also the most expensive.

an iconic and elusive safari location