Accommodation: Chada Katavi – safari tents, Greystoke Mahale – thatched bandas

Destinations: Katavi National Park – Western Tanzania, Mahale National Park, Western Tanzania

Activities: Game drives in open 4-wheel drive vehicles, guided walks, chimpanzee trekking, walks on beach, boat trips, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, fishing, forest walks

Arrive: Arusha airport Depart: Arusha airport

What to expect from this 8 day Western Tanzania Retreat:

Safaris in western Tanzania are superb and offer contrasting wildlife experiences. If you are looking for a Tanzania safari where there are few visitors, Western Tanzania is the place to visit. One of Africa's most remote safari parks, Katavi has excellent game, including prolific buffalo and lion, and an unbeatable feeling of wilderness.

Totally different from Tanzania's safari parks, Mahale is a thickly-forested and mountainous. On one side is the huge Lake Tanganyika, and on the other the best place in Africa to watch wild chimpanzees at close quarters. This Tanzania safari is a superb wildlife experience, in parks that are very remote and beautiful.

Days 1 - 3: Katavi National Park, Tanzania

Depart from Arusha airport at 08:00 for a charter flight to Katavi National Park (Monday departure). You will arrive at 12:00 and after a short transfer from the airstrip you will arrive at Chada Katavi for lunch.

Chada Katavi occupies a woodland spot on the edge of Chada Plain, in the heart of Katavi National Park. Six large safari tents are widely separated for privacy within the open acacia woodland. This Tanzania safari camp has a tented library and lounge, and also a separate bar and dining area. The campfire is a favourite after dinner for guests to enjoy drinks and admire the African night skies.

Chada's knowledgeable safari guides will lead you on 4WD game drives which may take a whole day to explore areas of the park, accompanied by a picnic lunch. Katavi National Park has plenty of open country and is particularly good for walking safaris, which are always accompanied by an armed game scout.

Katavi's isolation has helped it to remain untouched and largely unvisited; by light aircraft it takes four or five hours to reach here from Dar or Arusha. However, the result is that whilst the Serengeti National Park sees around 120,000 visitors per annum, Katavi has only a few hundred visitors per year. Katavi offers incredible scenery including huge wetlands, waterfalls, miombo woodlands, where Sable antelopes are often found.

During the dry season, huge herds of buffalo, zebra and impala gather with elephant and waterbuck around the drying Lake Katavi and Lake Chada. Lions, leopards and wild dogs are seen hunting for prey. As soon as the rains start, Katavi National Park transforms into a flowering paradise with enormous swamps, lakes and rivers which attract an incredible diversity of bird life.

Days 4 - 7: Mahale National Park, Tanzania

Flights to Mahale depart at 12:20 on a Thursday, so you have time to relax and enjoy a last morning game drive before departing for Ikuu airstrip. The flight takes just over one hour and upon arrival at the airstrip there is an approximately 90 minute dhow trip down the lake to reach Greystoke Mahale. You arrive at camp in time for a delicious lunch on your Tanzania vacation. You will relax in your new surroundings before departing on an afternoon activity.

Accommodation at Greystoke Mahale is in six wooden bandas looking out across the beach, with interiors fashioned from seasoned dhow timber. The double suites are open-fronted, with a dressing room and an upstairs chill out deck. The adjoining bathrooms are accessible via a short boardwalk and have flush toilets and powerful showers.

Covering about 1,600km² of the Mahale Mountains, Mahale National Park is home to around 1,000 chimpanzees. Most significantly, one group of Mahale chimps have been habituated by researchers since 1965. Currently led by an impressive alpha male, the M-group, as they are commonly known, has around 56 chimps. They go where they want and when they want but are relaxed near people, so it's possible to track and observe them from very close quarters.

Other activities include forest walks where you can see other primates, bushbuck, bushpig, and amazing birds and butterflies. Fishing, kayaking out into the lake or along the shoreline, beach dinners under the stars, and sundowners on the dhow.

Days 8: Flight to Arusha, Tanzania

After a full morning game drive ending at the airstrip (picnic lunch provided) on your Tanzania safari, you will depart at 13:45 to fly back to Arusha arriving late afternoon.

Included:

• Teas & Coffees
• Transfers
• All meals
• Excursions
• Guiding fees
• Accommodation
• Internal Charter flights
• Park entry fees
• Laundry

Not included:

• Medical and travel insurance
• Gratuities for guides and staff
• Flights to and from Arusha
• International flights
• Visa fees