Katavi National Park is a safari park for safari enthusiasts. Katavi, located near the Mahale Mountains in Western Tanzania, is off the beaten path and only sees a few visitors every year.
Katavi is Tanzania’s third-biggest national park, covering 4,471 square kilometers (1,726 square miles), and one of the country’s least frequented. There are no luxury hotels here; instead, there are a few of no-frills serious safari camps where the sole topic of conversation is safari. Katavi’s guests are drawn to it because of its isolation, with the added benefit that game watching may be as wild as you’ll find anyplace — Katavi is a prehistoric park, a genuine country of giants.
Anyone who visits this amazing jewel of a wildlife park will realize that they have just enjoyed an almost unrivaled safari experience!
Location
Katavi National Park is situated in Tanzania’s far west. It is one of the most beautiful and secluded locations in which we conduct safaris.
Katavi’s wildlife
Katavi provides one of the remaining really wild safari experiences on the continent and is frequently rented in conjunction with Mahale Mountains National Park. Visitors to Katavi will witness the majority of the animals that they would encounter in other national parks, including lions, elephants, leopards, buffalo, and wild dogs, to name a few. Katavi, on the other hand, is distinguished for its massive gatherings of diverse species.
Buffalo herds may number in the thousands, while elephant populations can number in the hundreds, something that is becoming increasingly unusual on the African continent. The sensation of absolute desolation is palpable, almost ancient, with these massive herds wandering the plains.
Perhaps Katavi’s most unique animal attraction is its hippos. The park has one of the largest herds of these ferocious creatures anywhere on the continent, with hippo sightings improving around the end of the dry season when the seasonal rivers dry up entirely. As a result, a growing number of hippos are limited to fewer and fewer water pools, resulting in intense territorial clashes between males!
The park’s enormous crocodile population is also affected by the lack of water, with crocs building shallow tunnels along the Katuma River’s banks to hide from the sun. Despite the lack of natural habitat, hippos and crocodiles seldom conflict, and it is not uncommon to see several massive 4.5-meter crocodiles laying peacefully close to a pod of hippos.
This park is nothing short of spectacular during the dry season, with extraordinarily high densities of animals concentrated on the park’s last sources of water. This park’s uniqueness comes from the incredible density of animals as well as the overwhelming sense of remoteness.
Katavi is a serious contender for Africa’s best game-viewing park if you want to avoid the throng. The lodging options are luxurious, yet they have an adventurous feel to them.
