Mahale Mountains National Park

Why Mahale Is Africa’s Great Chimp Wilderness

Mahale is one of the most remote and beautiful parks in Africa — a 1,650-square-kilometre range of forested mountains that plunges into the impossibly clear water of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania’s far west. There are no roads in; you arrive by light aircraft and then by boat along a shoreline of white sand and jungle.

Its fame rests on its chimpanzees. Mahale protects around 900 of them, and the M-group — studied by Japanese researchers since the 1960s — is habituated to people. Trekking into the forest to sit quietly among a wild chimp family, a few metres away, is one of the great wildlife experiences anywhere on the continent.

Beyond the chimps, Mahale is simply sublime: snorkelling over technicolour cichlid fish, kayaking the lake, and forest walks beneath Nkungwe Peak. It is a fly-in, higher-end destination that rewards the effort and expense many times over, and pairs beautifully with a Serengeti safari or a Zanzibar beach finish.

Wildlife Highlights

• Wild chimpanzee trekking with the habituated M-group — around 900 chimps in the park
• White-sand beaches and crystal-clear swimming on Lake Tanganyika
• Snorkelling over hundreds of endemic, jewel-coloured cichlid fish
• Forest walks beneath Nkungwe Peak (2,462m), the park’s high point
• Kayaking, sunset dhow cruises, and total wilderness seclusion

How a Visit Works

Mahale is fly-in only: scheduled and charter flights run from Arusha or via Kigoma to an airstrip near the park, followed by a boat transfer along the lake shore to the camps. A small number of camps operate, most famously Greystoke Mahale, and they typically close during the long rains. Chimp treks set out in the morning with park guides and can involve steep, humid forest walking.

An hour’s climb into the forest and suddenly we were sitting among the M-group, a mother and infant an arm’s length away. Then we swam in the lake to cool off. Nowhere else is like it. — Guest review, TripAdvisor

Wildlife Highlights

• Wild chimpanzee trekking with the habituated M-group — around 900 chimps in the park
• White-sand beaches and crystal-clear swimming on Lake Tanganyika
• Snorkelling over hundreds of endemic, jewel-coloured cichlid fish
• Forest walks beneath Nkungwe Peak (2,462m), the park's high point
• Kayaking, sunset dhow cruises, and total wilderness seclusion

Things to Do

• Chimpanzee trekking with a park guide
• Lake Tanganyika boat and beach time
• Forest walks and birdwatching