Gombe Stream National Park

 

The major attraction of the Gombe Stream National Park is the chimpanzees, made famous by Jane Goodall in 1960 when she established the area as a chimpanzee research station.

Despite its tiny size of only 52 sq km, it's a magnificent, dense tropical forest rising steeply from Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania. Although the chimpanzees are the park's star attraction they are not its only one. There are many other species, including baboon, vervet monkey, red colobus monkey, blue monkey and bush babies. Gombe also hosts a wide variety of bird species.

Gombe lies on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika and it is not accessible by road or by air. The easiest way to visit Gombe is on a daytrip, using a chartered motorboat, and to go on a guided forest walk.

A Gombe safari is a great opportunity to meet a chimpanzee up close. After a day of hiking you can take a swim in the crystal clear waters of Lake Tanganyika, the world's longest and second-deepest lake.