12-Day Western Circuit: Saanane, Rubondo, Gombe & Mahale

A member of the Gip Adventure team meets you at 08:00 at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar es Salaam, at Kilimanjaro International Airport or at your hotel, and checks you in for your domestic flight to Mwanza, Tanzania's lively city on the southern shore of Lake Victoria.

On arrival at Mwanza Airport you are met again and driven to your lakeside resort at Ilemela – a tranquil hideaway close to the city, often called the gateway to the Serengeti, with stunning views over the shoreline of Lake Victoria. The kitchen serves local cuisine and light gourmet dishes alongside a continental-style breakfast.

Settle in and, as the afternoon cools, enjoy an evening walk along the shores of the lake, which can be arranged on request. Dinner and overnight in Mwanza.

After a hearty breakfast, at around 08:00 you transfer by boat to Saanane Island National Park, a 15–20 minute crossing from Mwanza. Tanzania's smallest national park lies just 2 km south-west of the city centre and covers 2.1 km² – it was once only 0.5 km², before neighbouring Chankende Island was added.

Established as Tanzania's first zoo in 1964, upgraded to a game reserve in 1991 and to a national park in 2013, the island is named after Mzee Saanane Chawandi, its former owner. It is also the only park in the country ever to have been bombed – accidentally, on 1 April 1979, during the Uganda–Tanzania War. Today buffalo, eland, impala, zebra, wildebeest, warthog, dik-dik, bushbuck, rock hyrax, porcupine, clawless otters, vervet and patas monkeys, crocodiles, tortoises, agama lizards and pythons share the island with more than 40 resident and migratory bird species. The island offers spectacular views over southern Mwanza and Lake Victoria.

Enjoy a picnic lunch on the island and a short spell of game viewing on foot along the designated trails, then continue onwards to your lakefront camp on Rubondo Island, a place that immerses you in a unique ecosystem barely touched by people. Dinner and overnight on Rubondo.

After breakfast at around 08:00, set out for a full day exploring this magnificent island park, with a picnic lunch along the way and a shorter excursion in the afternoon before returning to camp for dinner.

Rubondo is one of Africa's most unusual destinations and its largest island national park. The main island covers 240 km², measuring 28 km from north to south and 10 km from east to west, while the park as a whole – protecting 11 smaller islets, none much larger than 2 km² – spans 457 km². Its highest point, the Masa Hills, rises to 1,486 m, some 350 m above the lake. The island is uninhabited and 80% remains forested, with acacia woodland, grassland, rocky outcrops and sandy beaches each sheltering their own wildlife.

Popular activities include walking safaris, boat excursions, canoe trips, sport fishing and chimpanzee treks. Lake Victoria is free of bilharzia and swimming is reputedly safe at the beaches in front of the camp – though crocodiles do occasionally cruise past, so look before you leap.

After breakfast at around 08:00, enjoy a final half-day excursion on Rubondo, with lunch back at camp and an hour to relax.

In the afternoon you transfer west to Kigoma on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Your hotel there is a perfect place to unwind, with a warm, inviting atmosphere, private verandas, lively staff, every modern comfort and breathtaking views across the lake. Dinner and overnight in Kigoma.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you transfer to Gombe Stream National Park, 16 km north of Kigoma, for your first full day of exploring. Established in 1968, Gombe Stream is one of Tanzania's smallest parks at just 56 km², a narrow, mountainous strip running some 16 km along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika and climbing about 5 km inland to the peaks of the rift escarpment. Steep valleys cut through the hills, many carrying permanent streams, and the forest is home to the chimpanzees that have been studied here continuously since 1960, along with olive baboons, red colobus, blue, red-tailed and vervet monkeys and two species of nocturnal bushbaby.

Enjoy a picnic lunch, followed by a short spell of game viewing, before arriving at your lodge, set in the shade of ancient forest trees on the lakeshore with complete privacy, a small library, professional staff and breathtaking views. Gombe is rich in life, with more than 35 mammal species, over 250 bird species and many reptiles. All meals and overnight in Gombe.

Chimpanzee tracking is the main activity in Gombe, and today you follow your ranger through the forest to find the descendants of the chimpanzees studied here since 1960. You may catch them huddling together, hunting, bounding into the trees or swinging from branch to branch, their glossy coats shining in the dappled light.

Spend the afternoon swimming, fishing or walking along the lakeshore, and keep an eye on the treetops for the park's smaller primates and birds. Dinner and overnight in Gombe.

Your third full day in Gombe combines more time with the chimpanzees with hikes to the Kakombe and Mkenke waterfalls and up to Jane's Peak for sweeping views over the forest and Lake Tanganyika.

In the afternoon, choose between birdwatching, a boat safari or canoeing along the shore, and finish with a sundowner and bonfire on the beach. Dinner and overnight in Gombe.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you transfer south along Lake Tanganyika to Mahale Mountains National Park, with lunch on the way and a half-day excursion on arrival. Like its northern neighbour Gombe, Mahale is home to some of Africa's last remaining wild chimpanzees – around 900 of them – and lies 100 km south of Kigoma, curving for 50 km along the lake.

Your luxurious lodge stands on the beach next to the Mahale forest, with breathtaking views over the clear water. Enjoy a sundowner around a crackling fire or a candlelit barbecue on the beach, and fall asleep to the chirping of crickets and the hooting of the chimpanzees. Dinner and overnight in Mahale.

Mahale's mountain ridge runs 50 km from north to south, with seven peaks above 2,000 m, the highest being Nkungwe at 2,462 m. Its western slopes plunge steeply into the lake, creating some of the most spectacular scenery anywhere on Lake Tanganyika.

Today you track the chimpanzees through the forest, with the chance to see other primates including lesser and greater galagos, olive baboons, Angolan pied colobus, western red colobus and vervet monkeys, as well as porcupine, mongoose, buffalo, sun squirrels and, rarely, leopard. Dinner and overnight in Mahale.

Mahale is a meeting place of natural grandeur – Lake Tanganyika, the Mahale range, the rainforests of the Congo and the miombo woodlands of Tabora – and the only park in Tanzania where wildlife from eastern, western and southern Africa can be seen together. Its 1,613 km² are divided into a low-use zone (24%) and a wilderness zone (76%).

Spend the day on a walking safari, birdwatching, mountain climbing, boating, canoeing, snorkelling or fishing, visit the sacred sites of the Tongwe people, or enjoy a picnic on the beach. Dinner and overnight in Mahale.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you transfer back to Kigoma and check in to your hotel in Kigoma.

In the afternoon, enjoy a tour of this historic area. Ujiji, 10 km south of Kigoma and the oldest town in the region, is where, on 28 October 1871, Henry Morton Stanley found Dr David Livingstone during the search for the source of the Nile and reputedly uttered the immortal words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" Dinner and overnight in Kigoma.

After breakfast at around 08:00, you are transferred to Kigoma airstrip for your domestic flight to Dar es Salaam or Kilimanjaro International Airport, connecting with your onward international flight.

This itinerary can also be extended into Tanzania's northern or southern circuits, or to Zanzibar.