Katavi National Park is exceedingly remote. Its isolation has helped it to remain untouched, but has also meant that it's either exceedingly difficult (by road) or fairly expensive (by air) to visit. By air takes four or five hours from Dar, however the result is that whilst the Serengeti National Park sees around 120,000 visitors per annum, Katavi might have just 250.

Once there, Tanzania's third largest national park won't disappoint you. Two enormous plains of knee-high golden grass – Chada and Katasunga –dominate the park, surrounded by varied woodlands. Katavi is at its best in the dry season, when the plains fill with thousands of zebra, topi and impala. Hartebeest, giraffe, and Defassa waterbuck are also very common, there's a large population of resident elephants, and some impressive herds of buffalo. It's a great park for watching lion-buffalo interactions. Spotted hyena are frequently seen, whilst leopard appear on the woodland fringes, but are more elusive. Wild dog do live here, but tend to stick to the escarpment and are rarely seen on the plains.

During the dry season, the Katuma and Kapapa rivers are the only water for miles. As the game files down to drink, hundreds of hippo congregate in the tiniest waterhole and enormous crocodiles sit out the heat in river-bank mud-holes. Katavi hosts large flocks of open-billed storks, saddlebills, spoonbills, crested cranes and pink-backed pelicans. Raptors are plentiful whilst the woodlands are home to species as diverse as African golden orioles, paradise fly-catchers and pennant-winged nightjars.

Katavi is a name to conjure with; it's one of the best parks in Africa. Many safari operations would love to start camps here, but the logistics and costs are difficult, so at time of writing, there are only two small, permanent safari camps in the park sharing this 4,500km2 of wilderness.

Once in Western Tanzania, Katavi combines particularly well with a trip to Mahale Mountain National Park.


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