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Isolated, untrammelled and seldom
visited, Katavi is a true wilderness, providing the few intrepid
souls who make it there with a thrilling taste of Africa as it
must have been a century ago.
Tanzania's third largest national
park, it lies in the remote southwest of the country, within a
truncated arm of the Rift Valley that terminates in the shallow,
brooding expanse of Lake Rukwa.
The bulk of Katavi supports a
hypnotically featureless cover of tangled brachystegia woodland,
home to substantial but elusive populations of the localised
eland, sable and roan antelopes. But the main focus for game
viewing within the park is the Katuma River and associated
floodplains such as the seasonal Lakes Katavi and Chada. During
the rainy season, these lush, marshy lakes are a haven for
myriad waterbirds, and they also support Tanzania’s densest
concentrations of hippo and crocodile.
It is during the dry season, when
the floodwaters retreat, that Katavi truly comes into its own.
The Katuma, reduced to a shallow, muddy trickle, forms the only
source of drinking water for miles around, and the flanking
floodplains support game concentrations that defy belief. An
estimated 4,000 elephants might converge on the area, together
with several herds of 1,000-plus buffalo, while an abundance of
giraffe, zebra, impala and reedbuck provide easy pickings for
the numerous lion prides and spotted hyena clans whose
territories converge on the floodplains.
Katavi’s most singular wildlife
spectacle is provided by its hippos. Towards the end of the dry
season, up to 200 individuals might flop together in any
riverine pool of sufficient depth. And as more hippos gather in
one place, so does male rivalry heat up – bloody territorial
fights are an everyday occurrence, with the vanquished male
forced to lurk hapless on the open plains until it gathers
sufficient confidence to mount another challenge.
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