Katavi National Park
Isolated, untrammelled and seldom visited, Katavi is a true wilderness, providing the few intrepid souls who make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa as it must have been a century ago.

Tanzania’s third largest national park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow, brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.

The bulk of Katavi supports a hypnotically featureless cover of tangled woodland, home to substantial but elusive populations of the localized eland, sable and roan antelopes. However, the main focus for game viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada.

It is during the dry season, when the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes into its own. The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, forms the only source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking floodplains support game concentrations. An abundance of giraffes, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for the numerous lion pride and spotted hyena clans whose territories converge on the floodplains.