Katavi National Park

Katavi National Park receives fewer than 2,000 visitors per year. In a single busy afternoon at the Serengeti, you might see ten times that number. At 47,000 square kilometres, Katavi is one of the largest national parks in Africa — and one of the least visited. It is reachable only by charter flight, and there are no luxury lodges here, only fly-camps that are dismantled at the end of each season. This is deliberate.

The Katuma River is the lifeblood of Katavi. In the dry months, it shrinks to a chain of muddy pools, and hippos that would normally be spread across a dozen water sources crowd together in their hundreds. Watching 200 hippos in a single pool, with lions prowling the edges and elephants drinking at sunset, is one of the most raw and visceral safari experiences Africa offers. There is no other park in Tanzania — perhaps in Africa — where the wildlife concentrations can match what you will see in Katavi in September.

Accommodation here is fly-camping — simple tents on the floodplain, lit by lanterns, with the sounds of hippos grunting and lions calling through the night. No fences, no generators, no paved paths. When your guide wakes you at dawn for a game drive, the coffee is made on a camp stove and the landscape outside your tent is exactly as it was a century ago. This is what makes Katavi feel so profoundly different from the Northern Circuit.