Katavi

TANZANIA | KATAVI NATIONAL PARK

Located in western Tanzania, the remote Katavi National Park is a great stop along the western circuit tourist route. Encompassing Lake Katavi, the Katuma River and picturesque Lake Chala, Katavi National Park stretches across roughly 4500 square kilometres of unspoilt Tanzanian woods, open savannah and wetlands.

This park is the third largest in the country and is home to the world’s largest herds of buffalo. It boasts a wide array of bird and animal life, including leopard, elephant, zebra, lion and the densest hippo and croc populations in the country. Visitors can enjoy excellent bird and game viewing, and fascinating walking safaris.

REGION HIGHLIGHTS

Head out with your guide on 4x4 to spot the wildlife in the area.

The wide open spaces of the Chada flood plains with extra wide angle visibility make for a unique brand of rambling. At times you can feel impossibly insignificant against backdrops of golden grass, distant herds of buffalo and piercing blue skies. Yet again, we redefine the meaning of a walk in the park.

In our fly camps we strip away all but the basic necessities to get you as close to the Africa wilderness as you’ll ever want to be. We give you safety and comfort, a proper, sweet sleep under the stars, and a major bucket-list experience.

ACCOMODATION

These are a selection of lodges that we feel combine well for this journey. However we do also have a range of options to consider in each region, and can tailor them to you preference.

Chada Katavi Fly Camping

It’s a deeply respected tradition at Chada to escape from main camp and sleep out in the real middle of nowhere. It’s what we LOVE doing. There is no place in the world that feels like Katavi and nothing gets you quite as close to that feeling than fly camping. We send an advance party out to pitch camp and walk you in for couple of hours, to arrive just before sunset. The trick is to leave as much as possible behind: stuff, other people, current affairs. This is your chance to see Katavi like we did before we had a “proper” camp. (Some may argue this is the "proper" camp.) There’s a million wild acres of Katavi to head into, where humans hardly ever venture. Part of our skill is keeping you safe in such a wild place, the other is picking the perfect campsite, beside open floodplains, under the shadiest trees, for the widest stretch of night-sky.

Chada Katavi

Little has changed at Chada Katavi since the Nomad Tanzania founders arrived 20 years ago. From the air you have to look carefully to spot camp, you'll find your eyes are immediately drawn to such wide open spaces. That's the promise of Katavi, total absorption into the natural world and the place virtually to yourself. Chada Katavi is much the same camp that it was when it began - designed to be a stylishly simple bushcamp, with everything you need and nothing you dont, small and intimate with just six East African safari tents. Each of them is spacious and comfortable with wide-open fronts giving you panoramic views of the plain and animal life that constantly comes and goes. In fact, you often don't have to leave your tent veranda to see game of all kinds. Elephant are frequent visitors, attracted to the same shady fruit trees as our guests, and vast herds of buffalo graze on the flood plain in front of camp.