Katavi National Park

Katavi is one of Africa's great secrets. At 4,471 square kilometres, it is Tanzania's third largest national park, yet it receives fewer visitors in a year than the Serengeti receives in a single week. The park sits in a remote arm of the western Rift Valley south of Mahale, ringed by miombo woodland and centred on three vast seasonal floodplains, Katisunga, Chada and Kapapa, each fed by rivers that shrink to a series of muddy pools by September.

The dry season here produces some of the most concentrated wildlife spectacles in Africa. As the plains dry out, buffalo gather into herds of a thousand or more, elephant families cluster around the last pools, and hippo pack into shrinking water in super-pods of two hundred or more, often stacked shoulder to shoulder on top of one another. Lion prides shadow the buffalo, leopards use the sausage trees along the Katuma River, and the resident giraffe population is notably large and dark-coated.

Because visitor numbers are so low, only three small camps operate inside the park, and drives can go hours without meeting another vehicle. Walking safaris are permitted with an armed ranger and are one of the finest ways to experience Katavi, tracing hippo trails across the floodplain at first light. Fly camping is available at the seasonal camps, spending a night out under mosquito nets in the middle of the wilderness with staff and rangers on hand.

Katavi combines beautifully with Mahale in a single fly-in itinerary. The scheduled bush flight connects the two on the same day, giving guests chimpanzees in the morning and a savannah floodplain in the afternoon. This is a park for repeat safari travellers who want raw, uncrowded Africa without compromising on wildlife density.