Mahale Mountains National Park. 

Famous for containing some of the last remaining wild chimpanzees in Africa, the Mahale Mountains National Park was gazette in 1985, covers an area of 1 613 km² and is located about 128 km south of Kigoma town on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. The western boundary of the park protects an adjacent 1.6 km wide strip of Lake Tanganyika’s waters.

The land in and around Mahale is the traditional homeland of the Watongwe and Waholoholo tribes. Japanese primate researchers began exploring along the shore of Lake Tanganyika, south of Kigoma as early as 1961. In 1965, the researchers established their first camp, ‘Kansyana’, in Mahale and began habituating chimpanzees.

The terrain is mostly rugged and hilly, and is dominated by the Mahale Mountains chain that runs from the northwest to the southeast across the park. The highest peak (Mount Nkungwe) rises to 2,462m above sea level.

Exploring Mahale Mountains, Walking Trails.
The sun rises over the lake and sets behind the mountains, extending up to 2,462 m at Nkungwe Peak. There are no roads in the park; all the trails are walking routes. Numerous pathways and tracks allow visitors to enjoy fabulous forest walks, with varied wildlife encounters. Hundreds of colored butterflies (over 30 species) and forest birds dart across the sunlit paths, and the odd otter may be met near the lake.

Mahale Wildlife
Mahale paths are wandered by warthog and bush pig, and elephant, buffalo, yellow baboons and monkeys favor the northern regions. The lower, southern reaches are the terrain of rare roan and sable antelope, kudu and eland in the shadow of leopard and lion. The tree canopy is the domain of giant squirrels and red-legged squirrels, and excitable troops of vervet, red colobus and white spot nose monkeys, as well as potentially a new subspecies of Angolan black and white colobus monkey found on Mt Nkungwe, and chimpanzees

||{KIGOMA}  {SUMBAWANGA}  {UVINZA}  {TABORA}   {TRAIN TO KIGOMA}  {MV LIEMBA}  {FLIGHT TO WESTERN} {  KAGERA}||