Gombe National Park
Welcome to Gombe Stream National Park Tanzania
Founded in 1968, Gombe National Park is situated in Kigoma area western Tanzania. It covers an area of about 52 square kilometres making it one of the smallest protected areas in Tanzania. This park is legendary for the Kasakela community of wild chimpanzees that were studied by Dr Jane Goodall for more than 50 years, leading to conservation of primate wildlife habitats with development of eco-tourism and the beneficial participation of native communities in Tanzania.
Chimps Tracking in Gombe Stream National park in Tanzania
Gombe Stream National Park is located along the tropical rainforest on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania. Its terrain is differentiated by steep valleys and forest vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest. It can be reached using a boat and it is mainly famous for its chimpanzees, olive baboons, red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, red colobus monkeys, more than 250 species of birds (especially the fish eagles, palm nut vultures, tropical boubou and trumpeter hornbills), bush pigs, bushbucks, snakes, hippos, leopards, over 100 types of beautiful cichlid fish, butterflies and many more.
Tourist activities in Gombe National Park
The famous tourist activities for you to engage in at Gombe Stream National Park include hiking and swimming, chimpanzee trekking, snorkelling in Lake Tanganyika or alternatively pay a visit to white sand and chill afterwards, pay a visit to the site of Henry Stanley, guided walks and others. While on your walking adventures to see chimpanzees and variety of forest natural wonders at Gombe, never miss paying a visit to Goodall Foundation’s old feeding station.
Best time to visit Gombe National Park
Gombe National Park can be visited at any time of the year, however, the wet season that starts from November to April usually makes it very challenging for visitors on chimpanzee safari to undertake their safaris a fact that the habitat becomes slippery and muddy. The dry season from June to September is characterized by little or even no rain and it is ideal for one to pay a visit to this park.
From December to March, the park is ideal for birding experiences given that most migratory and resident bird species confine in this park especially ospreys, pelicans, storks, vultures, rollers, barbets, cuckoos, eagles, owls, cormorants, trumpeter hornbills, crested guinea fowl, bizarre curly black topknots, kingfishers, bee-eaters, Livingstone’s Turaco and many others.
How to get to Gombe National Park
Kigoma is connected to Dar-es-salaam and Arusha by scheduled flights, to Dar and Mwanza by trail service, to Mwanza, Dar-es-salaam and Mbeya on road, to Mpulungu in Zambia by ferry. From Kigoma, there are local Lake Taxis that take visitors to Gombe and takes about 3 hours for you to get Gombe or use motorboat which will take not more than an hour.
Accommodation in Gombe National Park
Trips at Gombe National Park are complete when there are comfortable accommodation facilities for visitor overnight stay and for your safaris, we recommend the following. Gombe Forest Lodge features as the major area for visitor stay at this park.
Gombe Forest Lodge Tanzania
It is situated on the wooden platforms beneath mango groves on the Lakeshore, 7 well-furnished luxury tents of this lodge were designed to offer comfort without causing any impact on the park’s environment. It has 7 safari rooms that are named after the chimpanzees that are popular to the researchers from the Jane Goodall Institute. Others include Gombe Tented Camp and Kigoma Hilltop Hotel.
In conclusion, if you are interested in primate experiences then Gombe National Park is one of the best national parks that you shouldn’t miss to include in your bucket list. Besides chimpanzees, there are other primates and wildlife species for you to catch a glimpse including birds.
