Katavi National Park- Safari
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Located in the far West of the country, Katavi is a safari park for the safari enthusiast. Often combined with nearby Mahale, Katavi it’s a park that receives very few travellers due to its inaccessibility and subsequent expensive cost of flights. The reward of spending the time and money to get here, however, is one of the last places in Africa that can take you back to bygone era; Katavi is nothing short of magical.
Huge herds of buffalo and vast lion prides duel daily, whilst hippos and crocodiles gather in pods and nests not found anywhere else in Africa. The park is truly wild with very few camps and very few visitors. Many safari connoisseurs would argue that this is the quintessential Tanzani safari park; we certainly believe it to be the countries best kept secret.
Katavi is one of the few places left in Africa today where you genuinely feel that you could have slipped back a thousand years. The volume of game here is outstanding, with some researchers believing that the concentrations are even higher than in Ngorongoro. There is certainly a high cost in getting here, but this fact has actually protected the park from the crowds that have affected other areas and when you eventually get to Katavi, the lodge prices are reasonable with the majority of the camps being very high quality and taking an approach to safari that should maybe be copied by other operators in other parks!
What Katavi excels at beyond all else is that there are very few places left in Africa offering as wild and untouched an experience as here. Combine this park with Mahale, specifically at Nomad Tanzania’s Greystoke, and there is a good argument that this is the finest week to be had in Africa!
Katavi: The game
There are very few parks in Africa that showcase buffalo and lion duels quite so well; game drives here can be seriously explosive! Katavi is equally famous for its crocodile and hippo populations which gather in ridiculous numbers. The huge hippo pool can see 600 hippo at its peak and there is nowhere else in Africa where crocodiles hibernate in dens like in Katavi. Animals in Katavi have not really read the species behavioural rule book! Elephant herds and good numbers of zebra, giraffe, topi, leopard, waterbuck, hyena and very occasionally wild dog make this a park to compete with the finest safari experiences in the world.
Katavi: Safari activities
The main activity in Katavi is daytime game driving. Night safari is not permitted. Some of the camps operate walking safari and Nomad Tanzania’s Chada Camp operates exceptional short fly camping trips with nights spent out under the stars.
Katavi: When to go
Like the Selous and Ruaha, Katavi is a classic dry season park with the game getting progressively better towards the end of the year. As the water holes and rivers dry up game congregates around the remaining river system and the park gets seriously good. With the rivers being the only source of water for miles around, herds move down from the surrounding hills and rely on the water to be found here. July to October is absolutely peak season for Katavi but more and more travellers are trying Katavi out of season, if only to have the park completely to themselves!