Katavi National Park

Tanzania

Katavi is rough, rugged and extreme in so many respects. 

At nearly 5000 km?, Tanzania's third largest park, and with the least visitors in Tanzania, Katavi is Tanzania's wildest safari destination by far! The park lies in the Rukwa Rift just east of Lake Tanganyika.

Dense brachystegia woodlands are cut by seasonal rivers with broad floodplains which are further broken up by the great seasonal lakes of Chada and Katavi. With access very restricted in the rains, Katavi is a classic dry season reserve between June and November when game concentrations are at their greatest.

Tsetse fly and dry heat during the season are small prices to pay for intense game viewing without crowds. The park has massive herds of buffalo, elephant, zebra, giraffe and other ungulates in the woodlands and plains. The dormant riverbeds and remaining pools are home to huge pods of mud-wallowing hippos and cave-dwelling crocodiles and attract plains game and predators in a big way – there’s no shortage of safari-action in Katavi!

This is an expensive destination suited to serious safari enthusiasts who prefer to have it mostly to themselves (Katavi is off the traditional circuit and  practically devoid of any villages and habitation of any sort).