Katavi National Park

Katavi is the third largest national park in Tanzania and among the least visited, which is the whole character of the place: a few hundred people a year come where the northern parks take hundreds of thousands. The Katuma river and the Katisunga and Chada floodplains dry back through the season into shrinking pools, and what happens then is the reason to be here, with hippo packed into mud wallows in the hundreds and buffalo herds moving across the plain in numbers rarely seen elsewhere.

What you actually see

• The drying pools - hippo crowded into shrinking mud in the late dry season.
• The buffalo herds - concentrations running into the hundreds and thousands.
• The Katisunga floodplain - open grassland flooding and drying with the seasons.
• The emptiness - one of the least visited large parks on the continent.

When to go

June to October, and the later in that window the better for concentrations. The wet season from November to April floods the roads and most camps close. Access is difficult year round.

Honest expectations

Getting here is expensive and slow: flights are limited and the road journey is very long and rough. Facilities are few and camps close for months. Malaria and tsetse fly are present and tsetse are persistent in the woodland.

Nearby

Lake Rukwa is southeast, and Mahale Mountains are north.