Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania

The Park is located in western Kigoma Region of Tanzania, 20 kilometers north of Kigoma, the capital of Kigoma Region.

Gombe is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania with only 13.5 square miles (35 square kilometers) of protected land along the hills of the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.

The terrain is distinguished by steep valleys and the forest vegetation ranges from grassland to woodland to tropical rainforest.

Accessible only by boat, the park is most famous as the location where Jane Goodall pioneered her behavioral research conducted on the chimpanzee populations. The Kasekela chimpanzee community (featured in several books and documentaries) lives in Gombe National Park.

Gombe’s high levels of diversity make it an increasingly popular tourist destination. The Park is known for being the best Park in the country for tracking chimpanzees. Chimpanzee tracking in the Park takes place in the morning and afternoon of which the activity is the major activity in the Park.

The experience you get from chimpanzee tracking in Gombe can rarely be found in any other African national park which also offers chimpanzee tracking.

Chimpanzees are dubbed as one of the world’s endangered species and chimpanzee tracking in the ancient forests is really a magical experience that every tourist should not miss to experience.

All the treks in the Park are accompanied by a park guide at all times and governed by strict health, park regulations and code of conduct in order to safeguard park visitors and the chimpanzees.

Chimpanzees share about 98.7% of human genes and they are as individually unique as humans thus you will be amazed at how these wild creatures accept you as they go about their everyday activities. Besides chimpanzees, primates inhabiting Gombe include beachcomber olive baboons, red Colobus, red-tailed monkeys, blue monkeys, and Vervet monkeys.

Red-tailed monkeys and blue monkeys have also been known to hybridize in the area and the park is also home to over 200 bird species.

There are also many species of snakes, bush pigs, and occasional hippos and leopards. Visitors to the park can trek into the forest to view the chimpanzees, as well as swim and snorkel in Lake Tanganyika with almost 100 kinds of colorful cichlid fish.

The best accommodation in the Park is called Gombe forest lodge which is situated close to the shores of Africa’s deepest lake (Lake Tanganyika).