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WESTERN CIRCUIT & NEW
TOURIST DESTINATIONS
WESTERN
CIRCUIT
Attractions around Mwanza
include a short boat excursion to Saa Nane Island (literally “eight o’clock
island”) which has a large variety of reptiles and small game: a visit to the
scruffy beach resorts on Ukerewe Island: and a visit to the Sukuma Museum (15km
out of Mwanza on the Musoma road) where there is a spectacular drum collection.
Once a week, usually on Saturdays, the locals put on the riveting Sukuma Snake
Dance, with live pythons.
KAGERA
REGION
Kagera Region is located in
the northwestern corner of Tanzania. Bukoba, Kagera Region's capital, is a fast
growing town with an attractive waterside setting. Situated on the shore of Lake
Victoria, Bukoba lies only 1 degree south of the Equator and is Tanzania's
second largest port on the lake. Kagera comprises of five administrative
districts: Bukoba, Muleba, Karagwe, Ngara and Biharamulo. The region neighbors
Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi and lies across the lake from Kenya. This location
makes Kagera an ideal place for business and a perfect stop for tourists
traveling between any of these nations and Tanzania. You may arrive in Kagera by
air from Mwanza, road from Rwanda or Uganda or by ferry from Mwanza.
Tourism
Kagera is considered to be
one of the loveliest parts of Tanzania given its staggering scenic beauty,
variety of nature, friendly inhabitants and strong cultural history. Bukoba is
located in the heart of Africa just next to the equator on the Tanzania western
shore of Lake Victoria. It is the major commercial center of Kagera Region.
Lake Victoria
The first foreigner to
discover lake Victoria was explorer John Speke, after months of braving dense
forests and tropical diseases in his search for the source of the Nile. Lake
Victoria, shared by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, was named after the Queen of
England and is the world's largest tropical lake and the second largest
freshwater lake. Covering a total of 69,000 square kilometers, the lake is as
large as Ireland.
Despite its huge size, the murky lake is not that deep - only
100 meters at its deepest. The lake lies in the Rift Valley of East Africa, a
3,500- mile system of deep cracks in the earth's crust running from the Red Sea
south to Mozambique. Although this region of Africa is better known for its
large cats and the herds of wildebeests, zebras and giraffes that roam the
savanna plains, its most diverse and endangered ecosystems are to be found under
water.
Lake Victoria’s vastness
(400 km long and 280 km wide), blue waters and extensive white sand shores are
awe-inspiring. It has a number of Islands, each with its unique beauty and
enchantment.
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Western Circuit National Parks
Kagera Region hosts
Biharamulo, Burigi, Ibanda and Rumanyika and Orugundu Game Reserves, a National
Park situated on Rubondo Island and a wildlife sanctuary based on Saa Nane
Island.
Mahale
Mountains National Park
Set deep in the heart of the
African interior, inaccessible by road and only 100km (60 miles) south of where
Stanley uttered that immortal greeting “Doctor Livingstone, I presume”, is a
scene reminiscent of an Indian Ocean island beach idyll. Size: 1,613 sq km (623
sq miles).
Location: Western Tanzania, bordering Lake Tanganyika. Silky white coves hem in the
azure waters of Lake Tanganyika, overshadowed by a chain of wild, jungle-draped
peaks towering almost 2km above the shore: the remote and mysterious Mahale
Mountains. 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.
HOW TO GET
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.
BEST TIME
TO VISIT MAHALE
Dry season (May-October)
best for forest walks although no problem in the light rains of
October/November.
TOURIST
ACTIVITIES
Chimp tracking (allow two
days): hiking: camping safaris: snorkelling: fish for your dinner.
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Rubondo
Island National Park
Rubondo Island is tucked in
the southwest corner of Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest lake, an
inland sea sprawling between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. With nine smaller
islands under its wing, Rubondo protects precious fish breeding grounds. Has
Size: 240 sq km (93 sq miles).
Location: Northwest Tanzania, 150 km (95 miles) west of Mwanza. A pair of fish eagles guards
the gentle bay, their distinctive black, white and chestnut feather pattern
gleaming boldly in the morning sun. Suddenly, the birds toss back their heads in
a piercing, evocative duet. On the sandbank below, a well-fed monster of a
crocodile snaps to life, startled from its nap.
It stampedes through the crunchy
undergrowth, crashing into the water in front of the boat, invisible except for
a pair of sentry-post eyes that peek menacingly above the surface to monitor our
movements. Tasty tilapia form the
staple diet of the yellow-spotted otters that frolic in the island’s rocky
coves, while rapacious Nile perch, some weighing more than 100kg, tempt
recreational game fishermen seeking world record catches. Rubondo is more than a water
wonderland.
Deserted sandy beaches nestle against a cloak of virgin forest,
where dappled bushbuck move fleet yet silent through a maze of tamarinds, wild
palms, and sycamore figs strung with a cage of trailing taproots. The shaggy-coated aquatic
Sitatunga, elsewhere the most elusive of antelopes, is remarkably easily
observed, not only in the papyrus swamps it normally inhabits, but also in the
forest interior. Birds are everywhere. Flocks of African grey
parrots – released onto the island after they were confiscated from illegal
exporters – screech in comic discord as they flap furiously between the trees.
The azure brilliance of a
malachite kingfisher perched low on the reeds competes with the glamorous,
flowing tail of a paradise flycatcher as it flits through the lakeshore forest.
Herons, storks and spoonbills proliferate in the swampy lake fringes,
supplemented by thousands of Eurasian migrants during the northern winter. Wild jasmine, 40 different
orchids and a smorgasbord of sweet, indefinable smells emanate from the forest.
Ninety percent of the park
is humid forest: the remainder ranges from open grassland to lakeside papyrus
beds. A number of indigenous
mammal species - hippo, velvet monkey, genet and mongoose - share their
protected habitat with introduced species such as chimpanzee, black-and-white
Colobus, elephant and giraffe, all of which benefit from Rubondo's
inaccessibility.
HOW TO GET
THERE
Scheduled flights from
Arusha, Lake Manyara, Serengeti and Mwanza in peak season, charter flights only
in low season.
By road from Mwanza and then boat transfer. Contact the Park for transport
details.
BEST TIME
TO VISIT
Dry season, June-August.
Wildflowers and butterflies
Wet season November-March. December- February best for migratory birds.
TOURISTIC
ACTIVITIES
Walking safaris, boat
excursions, sport fishing, chimpanzee treks, plans for canoe trips.
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Gombe
Stream National Park
An excited whoop erupts from
deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices, rising in
volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking crescendo. It is the famous
‘pant-hoot’ call: a bonding ritual that allows the participants to identify each
other through their individual vocal stylisations. To the human listener,
walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling
outburst is also an indicator of imminent visual contact with man’s closest
genetic relative: the chimpanzee.
Gombe is the smallest of
Tanzania's national parks: a fragile strip of chimpanzee habitat straddling the
steep slopes and river valleys that hem in the sandy northern shore of Lake
Tanganyika. It has the Size: 52 sq km (20 sq miles), Tanzania's smallest park.
Location: 16 km (10 miles) north of Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in
western Tanzania.
Its chimpanzees – habituated
to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who
in 1960 founded a behavioural research program that now stands as the
longest-running study of its kind in the world. 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.
Chimpanzees share about 98%
of their genes with humans, and no scientific expertise is required to
distinguish between the individual repertoires of pants, hoots and screams that
define the celebrities, the powerbrokers, and the supporting characters. Perhaps
you will see a flicker of understanding when you look into a chimp's eyes,
assessing you in return - a look of apparent recognition across the narrowest of
species barriers. The most visible of Gombe’s
other mammals are primates.
A troop of beachcomber olive baboons, under study
since the 1960s, is exceptionally habituated, while red-tailed and red Colobus
monkeys - the latter regularly hunted by chimps – stick to the forest canopy. The park’s 200-odd bird
species range from the iconic fish eagle to the jewel-like Peter’s twin spots
that hop tamely around the visitors’ centre. After dusk, a dazzling night
sky is complemented by the lanterns of hundreds of small wooden boats, bobbing
on the lake like a sprawling city.
HOW TO GET
THERE
Kigoma is connected to Dar
and Arusha by scheduled flights, to Dar and Mwanza by a slow rail service, to
Mwanza, Dar and Mbeya by rough dirt roads, and to Mpulungu in Zambia by a weekly
ferry.
From Kigoma, local lake-taxis take up to three hours to reach Gombe, or
motorboats can be chartered, taking less than one hour.
BEST TIME
TO VISIT
The chimps don't roam as far
in the wet season (February-June, November-mid December) so may be easier to
find:
better picture opportunities in the dry (July-October and late December.
TOURIST
ACTIVITIES
Chimpanzee trekking: hiking,
swimming and snorkelling:
visit the site of Henry Stanley's famous “Dr Livingstone I presume” at Ujiji
near Kigoma, and watch the renowned dhow builders at work.
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