Gombe National Park

Gombe National Park is located in western Kigoma Region, Tanzania, 10 miles north of Kigoma. Gombe was established in 1968 and is one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania, with only 13.5 square miles 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 rain forest. 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. 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. The park is also home to over 200 bird species and bush pigs. There are also many species of snakes, and occasional hippopotami and leopards so 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.

Activities in Gombe National park

Gombe National Park boasts of all kinds of attractions and there’s just so much to keep you occupied, this wondrous park has something to offer irrespective of when you’re visiting. From abundant wildlife viewing, Chimpanzee tracking and sport fishing, these are the top things to do in Gombe National Park.

Chimpanzee trekking

Visitors can explore the park by trekking Chimpanzees and also come along other primates like the vervet monkey, red tailed monkey, blue monkey and beachcomber live baboon.

Game viewing

Apart from chimpanzee trekking, tourists on a safari to Gombe national park can view animals like bush pigs, bush bucks and reed bucks are often seen within the forests. Apart from viewing wildlife, tourists can also have opportunities of coming across many plant species.

Bird watching

Gombe national park is a home of over 200 bird species, both migratory and residential birds and the most commonly seen are trumpeter horn bill, palmnut vulture, fishing eagle and pied kingfisher among the rest Birding can be done while on a nature guided walk

Sport fishing

Tourists interested in making their safari more memorable can add fishing to their itinerary, tourists can engage in this activity with an experienced fishing guide as well as a fishing permit and must do this activity in the designated areas.

Nature guided walks

A nature guided walk can be taken to a Goodall foundations old feeding station this the first place where Dr Goodall was when studying the behavior of Chimpanzees.