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MAHALEMOUNTAINS
Mahale Mountains, like its northerly neighbour Gombe Stream, is
home to some of Africa’s last remaining wild chimpanzees: a
population of roughly 800, habituated to human visitors by a
Japanese research project founded in the 1960s. Tracking the
chimps of Mahale is a magical experience. The guide's eyes pick
out last night's nests - shadowy clumps high in a gallery of trees
crowding the sky. Scraps of half-eaten fruit and fresh dung become
valuable clues, leading deeper into the forest. Butterflies flit
in the dappled sunlight.
Then suddenly you are in their midst: preening each other's glossy
coats in concentrated huddles, squabbling noisily, or bounding
into the trees to swing effortlessly between the vines.
The area is also known as Nkungwe, after the park's largest
mountain, held sacred by the local Tongwe people, and at 2,460
metres (8,069 ft) the highest of the six prominent points that
make up the Mahale Range.
And while chimpanzees are the star attraction, the slopes support
a diverse forest fauna, including readily observed troops of red
colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys, and a kaleidoscopic array of
colourful forest birds.
You can trace the Tongwe people's ancient pilgrimage to the
mountain spirits, hiking through the montane rainforest belt –
home to an endemic race of Angola colobus monkey - to high grassy
ridges chequered with alpine bamboo. Then bathe in the impossibly
clear waters of the world’s longest, second-deepest and
least-polluted freshwater lake – harbouring an estimated 1,000
fish species - before returning as you came, by boat.
About Mahale Mountains National Park
Size: 1,613 sq km (623 sq miles).
Location: Western Tanzania, bordering Lake Tanganyika.
Getting there
Charter flight from Arusha, Dar or Kigoma.
Charter private or national park motorboat from Kigoma, three to
four hours.
Weekly steamer from Kigoma, seven hours, then hire a local fishing
boat or arrange with park HQ for pickup in park boat, another one
or two hours.
What to do
Chimp tracking (allow two days); hiking; camping safaris;
snorkelling; fish for your dinner.
When to go
Dry season (May-October) best for forest walks although no problem
in the light rains of October/November.
Accommodation
Two seasonal luxury tented camps.
Two small resthouses, large campsite. |
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