Katavi Parc National

Aperçu

Afrique's Most Extraordinary Secret

Katavi is not a park for everyone é and that is entirely the point. It is a park for those who have already seen the famous places and want something older, rawer, and more completely their own. Une nature sauvage qui reçoit moins de visiteurs en une année entière que le Serengeti n'en reçoit en une seule journée.

Le parc tire son nom d'une légende. The Wabende people who have lived in this landscape for generations speak of Katabi é a great hunter of extraordinary gifts, whose spirit, they say, still inhabits the ancient tamarind tree near the shore of Lake Katavi. Les habitants déposent des offrandes aux racines de cet arbre, cherchant la bénédiction de Katabi avant une chasse. Whether the spirit listens or not, the wildlife that surrounds the tamarind tree in the dry season is so dense, so concentrated, and so undiminished by human pressure that it requires no supernatural explanation é only the accident of geography and the blessings of remoteness.

Katavi lies in Tanzanie's far southwest, in the Rukwa Rift Basin é a truncated arm of the Great Western Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa. L'escarpement Lyamba Iya Mfipa s'élève à l'ouest ; la falaise de Mlele mure le parc à l'est. Entre eux s'étend un paysage qui est, en son cœur, un vaste système d'inondation saisonnière : the Katuma River feeds the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada, whose annual expansion and contraction é swelling to shallow inland seas in the wet season and retreating to shrinking muddy pools in the dry é drives the ecological drama that makes this park extraordinary. The park was first protected by the Germans in 1911, was declared a national park in 1974 at 2,200 kmé, and was significantly expanded in 1997 to its current 4,471 kmé.

It is Tanzanie's troisième plus grand parc national é yet it received just over 1,500 foreign visitors in 2012/13, in a year when Tanzanie's entire national park network was visited by 900,000 people. That ratio é a park this large, this ecologically extraordinary, seeing this few visitors é is virtually without parallel anywhere in Afrique. No other major park on the continent offers this combination of scale, wildlife density, and genuine solitude. Les trois camps permanents du parc accueillent chacun un maximum de douze invités. On any given day in peak season, there may be fewer than thirty-six human beings in the entire 4,471 kmé. The animals here are unhabituated é they react to a Land Cruiser with the wariness of wild animals, not the indifference of zoo exhibits. Cette méfiance est quelque chose qui, une fois expérimentée, change la façon dont vous vous sentez à l'égard de tous les autres safaris auxquels vous avez participé.

Park Statistics

First Protected1911 (German Govt.)

Parc national Est.1974

Expanded1997 (to 4,471 kmé)

Total Area4,471 kmé

Ecosystem Area12,000+ kmé

Altitude~900m (Rift floor)

Katisunga Plain425 kmé

Buffle (saison sèche)15,000+ (herds of 1,000+)

Éléphant (saison sèche)Up to 4,000 converging

Lion~200 (Vulnerable)

Hippo & CrocodileTanzanie's Densest Pop.

Bird Species400+

Permanent Camps3 (max. 12 guests each)

Annual Visitors<2,000

Afrique's Most Exclusif Major Park

Moins de visiteurs par an que le Serengeti n'en reçoit en une seule journée. Tanzanie's most primeval wilderness é unchanged, unhurried, and entirely your own.

Le spectacle déterminant

The Hippo Pools é Rien de tel sur Terre

Demandez à tous ceux qui ont visité Katavi ce dont ils se souviennent le plus. La réponse est presque toujours la même : the hippos. Not because Katavi is the only place in Afrique with hippos é but because what happens to those hippos in the final weeks of the dry season is something that is indisponible ailleurs sur le continent africain, et peut-être pas ailleurs sur Terre.

À mesure que la saison sèche progresse de juin à octobre, la rivière Katuma rétrécit. The Chada and Katavi floodplains é vast, glittering expanses of water in the wet season é retreat to smaller and smaller pools. Et comme les bassins se contractent, les hippopotames n'ont nulle part où aller. Tanzanie's densest hippo population has no choice but to crowd together in the remaining water: des centaines d'animaux dans des bassins objectivement trop petits pour eux, pressés flanc contre flanc, face à face avec des taureaux rivaux, l'eau prenant la couleur d'une sauce chaude à cause de la présence concentrée de tant de corps énormes. En octobre, il n'est pas rare de compter six cents hippopotames dans un seul bassin.

Les conséquences de cette compression sont dramatiques et violentes. Male hippos are among the most territorial mammals in Afrique é their territorial aggression, normally spread across a reasonable stretch of river, is here magnified by confinement into something that looks like a battlefield. Males rear up, open their mouths to expose the enormous curved canine tusks that can reach half a metre in length, and slam into each other with a force and violence that sounds, from the riverbank, like two boulders colliding. Les combats sont réels et sanglants. Subordinate males are bitten, gashed, and occasionally killed. The water turns pink. Marabouts, cigognes et crocodiles observent de proximité avec un intérêt professionnel.

Meanwhile, the Nile crocodiles é some of the largest in Tanzanie, reaching four and a half metres é face their own dry-season challenge. Incapables de trouver suffisamment d'eau pour s'immerger, ils se retirent dans des grottes creusées dans les murs de boue en ruine de la berge de la rivière, émergeant pour se prélasser sur le rivage aux heures les plus chaudes de la journée. Entre grottes et berges, les crocodiles et les hippopotames développent un agencement extraordinaire : ils partagent l'espace restant des vasières avec une retenue qui dément la réputation des deux espèces. It is not uncommon to watch a four-metre crocodile resting its head on the back of a sleeping hippo é an image that looks impossible, but which Sentiers du Havre guides see every dry season at the Katuma pools.

No other park in Tanzanie é and no other park in Afrique de l'Est é produces this spectacle. C'est, pour ceux qui en sont témoins, l'une des expériences animalières les plus puissantes et les plus durables de leur vie.

The Hippo Pools é Key Facts

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Tanzanie's Densest

Hippo population é nowhere denser in the country

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Up to 600

Hippopotames comptés dans une seule poule (octobre)

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Territorial Battles

Les mâles se battent violemment alors que les bassins diminuent en octobre

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4.5m Crocodiles

Retraite dans des grottes aux parois de boue alors que l'eau se retire

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Rivière Katuma

Primary dry-season water source é the battleground

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AugéOct Best

Peak of the spectacle é October most extraordinary

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No Other Safari

Nulle part ailleurs sur Terre ce phénomène ne se reproduit

Katavi é À quoi s'attendre Month by Month

January

Woodland & Open Plains

Saison d'observation des oiseaux

February

Flooded Floodplains

Green & Wet

March

Floodplains é Peak Rains

Migrant Birds

April

é

MOST CAMPS CLOSED

May

Drying Begins

Camps Reopening

June

Rivière Katuma et plaines inondables

? Ouverture de la saison sèche

July

Katisunga Plain & Katuma

? Excellent

August

Tous les circuits fluviaux et lacustres

? Haute saison

September

Hippo Pools Intensifying

? Spectacular

October

Piscines d'hippopotames au maximum

?? Most Extraordinary

November

Rains Arriving é Dispersal

Pluies courtes

December

Woodland & Wet Floodplains

Birding Excellent

Geography

Four Distinct Landscapes

Katavi est plus varié qu'il n'y paraît sur une carte. Within the Rukwa Rift Basin, four overlapping landscapes create a wildlife mosaic that rewards exploration in every direction é from the sweeping grassland heart to the dark miombo woodlands on its flanks.

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La plaine de Katisunga

Tanzanie's Second-Greatest Plain

At 425 square kilometres, the Katisunga Plain is the beating heart of Katavi and é after the Serengeti's short-grass plains é the most spectacular open grassland landscape in Tanzanie. Les guides locaux l'appellent le « petit Serengeti », et la description est appropriée en termes d'échelle, voire de renommée : vaste savane plate et sans arbres qui, pendant la saison sèche, scintille d'herbe dorée et abrite des concentrations d'animaux sauvages qui défient toute description. Jusqu'à 4 000 éléphants peuvent converger vers les marges de la plaine à mesure que l'eau se retire. Des troupeaux de buffles de 1 000 individus et plus se déplacent en masses sombres et tonitruantes à travers l'herbe. Giraffe, zebra, eland, hartebeest, topi, waterbuck, and reedbuck graze in numbers that recall an Afrique from before the age of fences. And watching all of it, from positions in the treeline, are Katavi's 200 lions é waiting for the herds to concentrate at the water.

425 kmé Buffalo Herds 1,000+ 4,000 Elephants Le cœur de la faune du parc

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La rivière Katuma et les piscines d'hippopotames

L'Espace Spectacles

The Katuma River is Katavi's lifeline é the only permanent water source during the dry season, and the stage for the park's defining wildlife spectacle. S'écoulant de l'intérieur des forêts à travers la plaine inondable de Katisunga et alimentant les lacs saisonniers, il transporte tout l'écosystème sur son dos. As the dry season advances, the river narrows and deepens at certain pools é and these pools become the focus of every animal in the park. La vue classique de Katavi : standing on the bank of the Katuma in September, watching six hundred hippos in a pool a hundred metres across, listening to the distant roar of a territorial fight as two bulls rear and slam, while a line of four-metre crocodiles basks on the opposite bank é this is what people come to Katavi to see, and this is what no other park on Earth can offer.

Hippo Pools Crocodile Caves AugéOct Peak Predator Concentration

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Miombo Woodland

Le sanctuaire des antilopes

The vast majority of Katavi's area is covered by miombo woodland é Brachystegia et Julbernardia arbres dans une canopée dense et basse qui crée un intérieur tacheté, semblable à une cathédrale, très différent des plaines inondables ouvertes. C'est l'habitat des résidents les plus rares et les plus recherchés de Katavi : roan and sable antelope é two of Afrique's most spectacular members of the family Bovidae, found in only two of Tanzanie's national parks (Katavi and Ruaha). Eland, autre spécialiste des forêts, atteint dans le miombo de Katavi des densités de population rarement observées ailleurs dans le pays. The woodland is also the territory of leopard and African wild dog, and in the wet season it fills with birdsong and migrant species from across the continent.

Roan & Sable Antelope Leopard Country Wild Dog Territory Oiseaux de saison humide

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Les escarpements du Rift

Les murs du désert

Katavi sits on the floor of the Rukwa Rift, and on both its western and eastern flanks the rift walls rise steeply as the Lyamba Iya Mfipa and Mlele escarpments é dramatic forested cliff faces that frame the park's horizon in every direction and remind visitors of the geological forces that shaped this landscape over millions of years. The escarpments contain forested terrain that provides habitat for species absent from the floodplain, including the tsetse-fly-dense woodland that é paradoxically é has protected the area from livestock and human settlement and therefore allowed the wildlife to persist in its current extraordinary density. The surrounding game reserves é Rukwa, Lukwati, and Luafi é form a 12,000 kmé buffer that connects Katavi eastward to the Ruaha ecosystem and northward to the chimpanzee forests of Mahale.

Rift Valley Walls 12,000 kmé Ecosystem Forested Escarpment Mahale Connection

Faune

Les animaux de Katavi

Katavi's wildlife is not notable for its variety é it is notable for its quantity. Les concentrations de buffles, d'éléphants, d'hippopotames et de crocodiles en saison sèche dans la plaine inondable de Katisunga et dans les bassins de la rivière Katuma sont, par la simple mesure de la densité de grands animaux par kilomètre carré, parmi les spectacles fauniques les plus intenses qui subsistent sur le continent africain.

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Cape Buffalo

Afrique's Greatest Herd Spectacle

Katavi's Cape buffalo are the park's most spectacular animals in terms of sheer scale é the dry season brings an estimated 15,000 buffalo to the Katisunga Plain and river margins, moving in herds that regularly exceed 1,000 individuals. A single herd of a thousand buffalo, moving across open golden savanna in a dense black mass with a lion pride trailing at a respectful distance é this is a wildlife spectacle that most African parks can no longer offer anywhere. Les grands troupeaux étaient autrefois communs sur tout le continent ; today, in most of Afrique de l'Est, buffalo move in groups of dozens or hundreds at most. À Katavi, le troupeau de plusieurs milliers de personnes reste la norme. C'est l'un des derniers endroits sur Terre où cela est vrai.

Herds of 1,000+ 15 000 au total pendant la saison sèche Lions in Attendance Katisunga Plain

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African Elephant

4 000 convergeant vers la plaine inondable

Le grand écosystème Katavi-Rukwa abrite une importante population d'éléphants qui, pendant la saison sèche, quitte les forêts et les réserves de chasse environnantes vers la plaine de Katisunga et la rivière Katuma. Up to 4,000 elephants have been estimated converging on the park's water sources at the peak of the dry season é a concentration that places Katavi among the most important elephant viewing destinations in Tanzanie. Des taureaux individuels de taille exceptionnelle sont régulièrement photographiés aux piscines de Katuma, où ils viennent s'abreuver en fin d'après-midi aux côtés des troupeaux de buffles pendant que les lions se couchent à l'ombre à proximité, calculant leurs chances. La vue d'un troupeau d'éléphants pataugeant dans le Katuma au coucher du soleil, avec l'escarpement rose brillant derrière eux, est l'une des images les plus emblématiques de Katavi.

Up to 4,000 Converging Large Bulls at Pools Scènes de rivière au coucher du soleil Peak: JuléOct

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Lion, Leopard & Predators

200 Lions dans un Parc d'Abondance

Katavi's approximately 200 lions face no shortage of prey é surrounded by 15,000 buffalo, 4,000 elephants, and thousands of zebra, giraffe, reedbuck, and hartebeest, the park's resident prides hunt in a landscape that more closely resembles the African savanna of a century ago than most prides on the continent ever experience. The lions here have perfected open-plain buffalo hunting é and watching a pride of ten or twelve work a buffalo herd of several hundred on the Katisunga Plain is a predator experience that rivals anything the Serengeti or Masai Mara produces. Les léopards sont présents dans toutes les zones boisées et riveraines, bien que les observations soient moins fiables. Chasse au guépard en pleine prairie. Les meutes de lycaons africains parcourent le miombo. Les hyènes tachetées suivent chaque mise à mort.

~200 Lions Buffalo Hunting Specialists Wild Dog & Cheetah Hyena Abundant

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Roan, Sable & Rare Antelope

Woodland Specialists

For the antelope specialist, Katavi offers species that are genuinely rare in the rest of Tanzanie. Roan antelope é large, horse-like, and magnificently horned é are more easily observed here than in almost any other park in Afrique de l'Est; les guides expérimentés les décrivent comme étant visibles de manière plus fiable dans la forêt de Katavi que partout ailleurs dans le pays. L'antilope noire, la plus grande des antilopes africaines, se déplace à travers le miombo en petits troupeaux, les cornes en flèche des mâles étant parmi les plus spectaculaires de la faune du continent. Lichtenstein's hartebeest, defassa waterbuck, Bohor reedbuck (in enormous numbers é up to 3,000 converge at the Katisunga floodplain in the dry season), puku (uncommon and locally distributed), zebra, giraffe, topi, impala, and eland complete one of the most diverse ungulate communities in western Tanzanie.

Roan Antelope Sable Antelope 3,000+ Reedbuck Puku é Rare

Ce qui rend Katavi écologiquement unique

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Tanzanie's Densest Hippo & Crocodile Population

No other park in Tanzanie é or in Afrique de l'Est é hosts hippo and crocodile concentrations of this density. Tanzanie's entire national park system contains no equivalent to Katavi's dry-season hippo pools. The sight of 600 hippos crammed into a single shrinking pool, with massive crocodiles sharing the bank in an uneasy truce, is one of the most primally powerful wildlife spectacles on Earth é and it is available only here.

Unique sur le continent

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Les derniers grands troupeaux de buffles

The thousand-strong buffalo herd was once the norm across sub-Saharan Afrique. Today, in most of the continent, the great herds have fragmented é a consequence of hunting, disease, habitat loss, and livestock pressure. In Katavi, they remain. The park is one of only a handful of places left in Afrique where a visitor can stand on an open plain and watch a single herd of more than a thousand buffalo move as a single organism across the landscape. This is not a spectacle of conservation management é it is a remnant of the original Afrique.

Dernier des grands troupeaux

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Trois camps, trente-six invités maximum

The entire permanent accommodation capacity of Katavi Parc National is thirty-six guests é twelve in each of the park's three camps. No other major national park in Afrique has a lower carrying capacity. Chaque jour de la haute saison, le rapport kilomètres carrés/invités du safari est extraordinaire. La plupart des clients qui visitent Katavi ne rencontrent aucun autre véhicule lors des safaris de la journée. This is not a coincidence é it is park policy, and it is why the animals are unhabituated, why the silence feels real, and why Katavi feels the way that Afrique should always feel.

Exclusivité maximale

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400+ Bird Species

Pendant la saison des pluies, lorsque les lacs saisonniers se remplissent et que les plaines inondables sont sous l'eau, les cours d'eau de Katavi attirent des concentrations extraordinaires d'oiseaux d'eau : open-billed storks, saddle-billed storks, pink-backed pelicans, spoonbills, African fish eagles, lilac-breasted rollers, and masses of migratory waders from Europe and Asia. In the dry season, the shrinking water concentrations bring raptors é bateleur, martial, and long-crested eagles é in numbers that concentrate around the animal carcasses and shallow pools. Over 400 species in total; l'observation des oiseaux en saison humide est de classe mondiale.

Best: NovéApril

Experiences

Safari Activities

Private Game Drive

The game drive circuits of Katavi é along the Katuma River, across the Katisunga Plain, and through the Chada floodplain é are unlike any other game drives in Tanzanie. En l'absence d'autres véhicules sur la piste, votre guide donne le rythme et le circuit entièrement autour de la faune. Les promenades à l'aube sont les meilleures pour l'activité des prédateurs ; des promenades en fin d'après-midi interceptent les troupeaux de buffles et d'éléphants alors qu'ils se dirigent vers le Katuma pour s'abreuver, tandis que les lions sortent de l'ombre. En pleine saison sèche, les animaux sont si concentrés que les déplacements durent rarement plus de quelques kilomètres avant de produire des rencontres d'une intensité extraordinaire.

Dawn drives from 6:00 AM é predators most active

Circuits de la rivière Katuma, de la plaine de Katisunga et de Chada

Private vehicle é never shared with strangers

Bush picnic on the floodplain é buffalo optional

Hippo pool drives é best at the end of the dry season

Safari à pied

Guided walking safaris with armed rangers are available from all three of Katavi's camps and deliver an entirely different experience from the game drive é one that is, arguably, more authentically Katavi than anything achieved from a vehicle. On foot, in the presence of thousand-strong buffalo herds and hippo pools thirty metres away, the scale of this place é and the reality of being a small, bipedal animal in it é becomes vividly apparent. Sentiers du Havre guides at Katavi are among the most experienced walking safari rangers in western Tanzanie.

Fly-Camping

Fly-camping in Katavi é pitching a minimal bush camp in a high-wildlife-traffic area, far from any lodge é is one of the most extraordinary experiences available in Tanzanie. Sleeping in a tent on the edge of the Chada floodplain, with the sounds of buffalo moving past in the dark and hippos calling from the river, under a sky so far from city lights that the Milky Way is sharp enough to cast a shadow é this is what many guests describe as the moment they understood why they had come so far. Disponible pour les clients désireux de sortir pleinement du lodge.

Specialist Birding

With 400+ species and habitats ranging from open floodplain to closed miombo to active river margin é Katavi's birding is exceptional. The wet season (NovemberéApril) is the finest time for birding, when the seasonal lakes fill and become enormous waterbird staging areas: open-billed and saddle-billed storks, pink-backed pelicans, African skimmers, spoonbills, and masses of Palearctic migrants. La saison sèche concentre les rapaces de manière spectaculaire autour des mares à hippopotames et des carcasses d'animaux. Sentiers du Havre can arrange specialist birding guides for dedicated birding days.

Photography Safari

Katavi is one of the finest and most underrated photography destinations in Afrique. The combination of extraordinary subjects é the hippo pool battles, the thousand-strong buffalo herds, the elephant silhouettes against the escarpment at sunset é with near-total absence of other vehicles (and therefore other photographers competing for position) produces opportunities that are, at this point in Afrique's history, almost uniquely available here. Sentiers du Havre can arrange photography-focused itineraries with positioning optimised for golden-hour light on the Katuma and the Katisunga plain.

Le Tamarinier & Visite Culturelle

A visit to the famous tamarind tree near Lake Katavi é the tree in which, according to Wabende tradition, the spirit of the hunter Katabi still resides é is one of Katavi's most distinctive cultural experiences. Des guides interprètent l'importance des offrandes laissées aux racines et la place de l'arbre dans la cosmologie locale. The surrounding communities é Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Fipa, Tatoga, and Nyakusa peoples é maintain rich cultural traditions, and community visits available through Sentiers du Havre provide genuine insight into the human dimension of life on the edge of this wilderness.

KataviéMahale Combination

The Katavi and Mahale Mountains combination is widely regarded as one of the finest and most distinctive safari experiences in Tanzanie é and Sentiers du Havre rates it among the most memorable itineraries we offer anywhere in the country. À partir de the vast hippo-filled floodplains of Katavi, a short charter flight north brings you to the chimpanzee forests of Mahale on the shores of Lake Tanganyika é two parks, two completely different worlds, linked by a 45-minute flight and an unforgettable contrast in scale and intimacy.

Quand y aller

Katavi é Un parc de saison sèche avant tout

Katavi is, more than almost any other park in Afrique, a dry-season destination. La saison des pluies disperse les animaux dans la forêt et rend l'accès routier extrêmement difficile. La saison sèche les concentre avec une force sans précédent. Plan accordingly é and the later in the dry season you come, the more extraordinary the spectacle.

August é October

?? MOST SPECTACULAR

Late Dry Season é The Hippo Pools at Maximum Intensity

Hippo pools at maximum density é up to 600 per pool in October
Les batailles territoriales entre taureaux s'intensifient à mesure que les pools diminuent
Plus de 15 000 buffles dans la plaine de Katisunga et au bord de la rivière
Jusqu'à 4 000 éléphants convergeant vers les eaux restantes
Lion prides most active é hunting buffalo on the open plain
Zero vegetation é perfect wildlife visibility in all directions
October is very hot é temperatures 35é40éC in midday
October rains possible é some camps close late October

June é July

? EXCELLENT

Early Dry Season é Dry Season Opens, Wildlife Concentrating

Dry season begins é wildlife starting to concentrate at water
Cooler, more comfortable temperatures é ideal for walking safari
Hippo pools building up é significant concentrations from July
Des troupeaux de buffles actifs dans la plaine de Katisunga
Des troupeaux d'éléphants arrivant des réserves animalières environnantes
Quelques oiseaux aquatiques résidents et rapaces de début de saison
Hippo pools not yet at maximum é spectacle builds through August

November é March

SAISON VERTE

Wet Season é Birding Paradise & Transformed Landscape

Spectacle extraordinaire d'oiseaux d'eau alors que les lacs se remplissent et gonflent
Oiseaux migrateurs arrivant d'Europe, d'Asie et de l'Arctique
Lush, photogenic landscape é flowering woodland and flooded plains
Very few other visitors é complete solitude guaranteed
Remises importantes dans tous les camps (là où ils sont ouverts)
Wildlife disperses é game drives less productive than dry season
Certaines pistes sont impraticables ; la plupart des camps ferment en avril et mai

April é May

PARK LARGELY CLOSED

Longues pluies La plupart des camps sont fermés

De longues pluies rendent la plupart des pistes impraticables, un sol de coton noir
Les trois camps permanents sont généralement fermés en avril et mai
Air access only é road entry not recommended
Sentiers du Havre recommande de combiner une visite de Katavi avant avril avec les montagnes Mahale, qui restent ouvertes toute l'année.

Sentiers du Havre Note on October in Katavi

October is the most extraordinary month in Katavi é and also the most demanding. The heat is intense (35é40éC by midday), the dust is thick, and some lodges begin to close as the rains approach. But the wildlife spectacle at the hippo pools in October is like nothing else available in Tanzanie é or, in our experience, anywhere in Afrique. Pour les clients qui supportent la chaleur et souhaitent assister à quelque chose de véritablement unique, nous recommandons le mois d'octobre sans réserve. Réserver early: October availability at Katavi's three camps is extremely limited, and the month fills months in advance.

L'accord parfait

Katavi + Mahale é Western Tanzanie's Greatest Journey

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Katavi é The Savanna

Quatre à cinq jours sur la plaine de Katisunga et la rivière Katuma : thousand-strong buffalo herds, elephant by the hundreds at the water, the hippo pools in their most dramatic late-dry-season intensity, lion prides hunting in open terrain, and the silence of a park with fewer than thirty-six guests in the whole of its 4,471 kmé. An Afrique that feels genuinely prehistoric é and that nowhere else on Earth currently provides.

Prairies et rivières

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Mahale Mountains é The Forest

Three to four days in the Mahale Mountains Parc National, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika: chimpanzee randonnée in the Brachystegia forest of the Mahale Range, where habituated communities of wild chimpanzees é our closest relatives é move through the canopy and descend to groom, socialise, and play within metres of patient, quiet observers. La plus belle expérience de chimpanzé au monde, dans un parc national accessible uniquement par bateau ou avion charter.

Forest & Lake Shore

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The Link é 45 Minutes by Air

A charter flight of approximately 45 minutes connects Katavi's Ikuu Airstrip to Mahale's Greystoke Mahale airstrip é an extraordinarily short journey between two radically different worlds. The Katavi-Mahale combination is, in the voir of many experienced Afrique hands, the finest and most distinctive safari circuit available in all of Tanzanie é precisely because it offers, within a single journey, both the continent's most dramatic large-animal spectacle and its most intimate primate encounter.

~45 Min Charter Flight

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Lake Tanganyika Extension

Mahale itself sits on the shores of Lake Tanganyika é one of the world's deepest and oldest freshwater lakes, with endemic cichlid fish visible snorkelling just offshore and the extraordinary experience of watching the sunset over the Congo from a Plage at the foot of the Mahale Mountains. The lake extension adds a third dimension to the western Tanzanie circuit: savanna, forest, and freshwater ocean é three worlds in one journey, connected by small aircraft and a shared spirit of genuine wilderness discovery.

World's Deepest Lake

Practical Guide

Tout ce dont vous avez besoin to Know

Getting to Katavi

Envolez-vous vers l'aéroport Julius Nyerere, Dar es Salaam (DAR) ou Kilimandjaro (JRO)
Charter ou vol régulier vers la piste d'atterrissage d'Ikuu : ~3é5 hrs from Dar (connection req.)
Safari Air Link, Auric Air et Coastal Aviation desservent régulièrement Katavi
Most camps operate a shared charter from Arusha or Dar é check with Sentiers du Havre
Overland from Sumbawanga: ~40 km south of Mpanda é rough roads, dry season only
Sentiers du Havre organise tous les vols, transferts et logistique du camp pour nos clients

Hébergement

Only three permanent camps in the entire park é total capacity: 36 guests
Chada Katavi (Nomad Tanzanie): luxury tented camp, Chada Plain é from ~$1,000/night
Mbali Mbali Katavi Lodge: hilltop views over Katisunga é from ~$700/night
Katavi Wildlife Camp (Foxes): classic tented camp, Katuma Plain é from ~$450/night
Tous les camps incluent la pension complète et les activités de safari
Most camps close April and May é some from late March
Réservez tôt : le mois d'octobre se remplit des mois à l'avance dans les trois propriétés

Entry & Regulations

Visa touristique pour la Tanzanie: $50 USD (la plupart des nationalités, demande en ligne)
Park entry fee: ~$30é35 par personne per day (non-resident)
Walking safari fee: additional ~$25é30 per group
Frais de véhicule : 40 $ par véhicule et par entrée
Malaria zone é prophylaxis strongly recommended; mouche tsé-tsé présente dans les bois
Mouche tsé-tsé : vêtements amples de couleur claire recommandés pour les safaris
Tous les frais inclus dans Sentiers du Havre packages é no hidden costs

FAQ

Common Questions

Quelle est la meilleure période pour visiter Katavi ?

The dry season from June to October is Katavi's time é and within that window, August through October is the finest. Plus on arrive tard dans la saison sèche, plus le spectacle des hippopotames devient extraordinaire à mesure que les bassins rétrécissent. October is the most dramatic month of all, with pools of six hundred hippos and continuous territorial battles é but it is also the hottest, with temperatures reaching 40éC by midday. Juin et juillet offrent une excellente observation du gibier et des températures plus confortables. Sentiers du Havre recommends October only for those prepared for the heat é but for those who are, there is nothing like it anywhere in Afrique.

How expensive is Katavi é is it worth it?

Katavi is one of Tanzanie's more expensive parks to visit, primarily because of the cost of reaching it (charter flights from Dar or Arusha are substantial) and the all-inclusive nature of the three camps, which must cover full operations in an extremely remote location. Flights alone typically cost $800é$1,500 par personne return, and camps start at around $450 par personne per night all-inclusive. For guests who make the investment, however, the experience is consistently described as among the most extraordinary in their safari lives é a 4,471 kmé park that is, effectively, your private wilderness for the duration of your stay. Sentiers du Havre advises on combining Katavi with Mahale to maximise the value of the journey west.

Quelle faune est garantie chez Katavi ?

In the dry season (JuneéOctober), hippo and crocodile sightings at the Katuma pools are as close to guaranteed as anything in safari. De grands troupeaux de buffles sont visibles sur pratiquement tous les safaris. Les éléphants sont régulièrement rencontrés en grand nombre. Lion sightings are excellent é the park's 200 lions have an abundance of prey and are frequently seen in the open. Giraffe, zebra, reedbuck, topi, waterbuck, eland, and hartebeest are abundant. Roan antelope é rare and sought-after é are more reliably seen here than anywhere else in Tanzanie. Les observations de léopards et de lycaons sont possibles mais non prévisibles.

Katavi est-il adapté aux familles avec enfants ?

Katavi convient mieux aux voyageurs adultes et aux adolescents plus âgés. The three camps all have minimum age requirements é typically 12 years and above é and the park's remoteness, heat, and the potentially alarming intensity of the hippo pool encounters make it less appropriate for young children. Les safaris demandent patience et tolérance à la chaleur et à la poussière. Les familles avec des enfants plus âgés (14+) qui ont déjà parcouru les parcs du Circuit Nord et qui souhaitent relever un véritable défi en pleine nature trouveront Katavi extraordinaire. Sentiers du Havre discutera individuellement de l'adéquation de la famille lors de la planification de votre itinéraire.

Puis-je faire un safari à pied à Katavi ?

Yes é and it is one of the finest walking safari experiences available in Tanzanie. The combination of open terrain (the Katisunga Plain and floodplain edges), unhabituated wildlife, and the proximity of the hippo pools makes walking in Katavi a genuinely intense experience. Armed rangers accompany all walks. The sensation of standing in the open, with a herd of buffalo two hundred metres away and a lion the guide has located in the treeline é aware of you, watching you, uninterested in approaching é is one that no game drive can replicate. Sentiers du Havre recommends at least one half-day walk for every Katavi guest.

Comment Katavi se compare-t-il aux autres parcs tanzaniens ?

Katavi offers something that no other Tanzanie park can match: the combination of absolute remoteness, zero crowds, and wildlife density in the dry season that rivals é and in certain species categories, exceeds é the Northern Circuit. Là où le Serengeti offre l'ampleur et la Migration, Katavi offre l'intimité et les bassins d'hippopotames. Là où Ruaha offre une diversité de prédateurs, Katavi offre une abondance de prédateurs aux côtés du spectacle de buffles et d'hippopotames le plus extraordinaire du pays. It is not the park for first-time Tanzanie visitors é but for those who have done the Northern Circuit and want Afrique at its most raw, it is, in Sentiers du Havre' experience, the park that stays with people longest.

Planifiez votre Katavi Safari

Moins de deux mille personnes par an sont témoins de ce que propose Katavi. Let Sentiers du Havre make sure you are among them é and make sure you are there at the right moment.

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