Gombe National Park
Description: The smallest of Tanzania’s national parks, Gombe is a narrow strip of chimpanzee habitat on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its chimpanzees – habituated to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall’s studies. The matriarch, Fifi, the last surviving member of the original community, only three years old when Goodall first set foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen by visitors. Tracking the chimps is a fascinating experience.
It’s likely that you will observe them grooming each other in small groups, squabbling noisily, or bounding from tree to tree swinging on vines. Watching a mother chimp with her offspring is truly remarkable. Difficult to reach and relatively expensive, Gombe has few visitors each year.
Location: Just north of Kigoma, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika. Usually requires flight with Precision Air from Dar es Salaam (daily) or a shared charter flight from Arusha that flies on Tuesdays and Fridays only. A train (takes 2-3 days) from Dar might be possible.
Things 2 Do: Chimpanzee tracking, hiking, swimming/snorkeling, night walks
Time: Set aside at least 4 days (1 to get there, 1 to return and at least 2 nights actually in the park).
Animals: Chimpanzees, baboons, red-tailed and red colobus monkeys, more than 200 bird species.
Accommodations
$
TANAPA bandas
$$$
Kigoma Hilltop
“Access 2 Tanzania was awesome! Visiting Africa and going on Safari was on my bucket list and A2T fulfilled it completely. My husband likes spontaneity but I insist on long term planning so when my husband told me he wanted to go to Tanzania in just over 3 weeks I laughed. Two days later he came to me with a plan that Casey and he put together. I was dumb-founded. It was not a canned tour planned by A2T for a group. It was a private itinerary planned by my husband and Casey to accommodate exactly what WE wanted to do and where WE wanted to go. We left for Tanzania 3 weeks later! Amazing!
We changed plans many times after the initial plan and Casey was very patient and accommodated us with no resistance. Casey always had answers to our questions and gave us recommendations that we would never had thought of. A2T didn’t just give ‘lip service’ they provided what they said they would and told us what they could not. I questioned this because they offer so many wonderful options and I wondered what we would actually get when we arrived. Another thing I was pleased with is that during our planning Casey did not constantly try to ‘up sell’ us.
‘Wilfred’ was our guide and he was wonderful. He is such a nice, good and fun person. We felt so lucky to have him. That said, we spoke to others from A2T and they also felt the same about their guides so it is clear A2T chooses their guides carefully. (We still feel lucky to have Wilfred throughout our safari!)
I wish I could remember the names of all the others that we met and who helped us from A2T. We didn’t run into one bad seed. It’s been 5 months since we returned from Africa and although the names are not clear in my mind the warm, wonderful and exciting feeling of Africa will never fade.
If you have the opportunity to go to Africa go with Access 2 Tanzania! AMAZING!!”