TANZANIA: Air Tanzania To Commence Regional Flights

Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL), is planning to start flying to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

The airline’s managing director, Mr Ladislaus Matindi, revealed the company’s plans during the company workers’ congress, saying all routes would be active from the next financial year.

There is a significant improvement since the government started reviving ATCL and what we are currently targeting is to improve delivery of services and increase the number of routes, he said.

The workers congress’ chairman, Mr Emmanuel Koroso, said ATCL is an established airline, but it faced financial challenges that affected its overall business operations.

Initiatives by the government to revive ATCL are commendable, but we are facing some challenges that can only be resolved through dialogue, Mr Koroso said.

He mentioned some of the challenges as changing the working culture for some of the employees, which will help them compete with other foreign airlines.

Mr Koroso also said shortage of human and financial resources was also making it difficult for the airline to run efficiently, but he called on the employees to work hard.

Air Tanzania offers a sole international route to Moroni, Comoros and 12 domestic routes, including Bukoba, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Mtwara, Mbeya, Mwanza, Songea, Tabora and Zanzibar.

The carrier manages a fleet of four aircraft consisting of one Bombardier Q300 and three Q400 airliners.

Further, the company expects to add two more Bombardier CS300 and one Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to its fleet.

They will arrive in the country later this year, according to the Tanzania's State house director of communication, Mr Gerson Msigwa.

Boeing reported recently on its official website that the United Republic of Tanzania has ordered one 787-8 Dreamliner, which is valued at $224.6 million.

I am pleased to welcome Air Tanzania as the newest member of the Dreamliner family, said Mr Van Rex Gallard, the Boeing Commercial Airplanes vice president for Latin America, Africa & Caribbean.

Tanzania has received its third aircraft of the six that President John Magufuli administration plans to acquire in order to revive State-owned Air Tanzania.

On Monday, the third aircraft touched ground at the Julius Nyerere International Airport (JNIA) on Monday.

The plane, a Bombardier Q-400, touched ground at 5.07 PM, with President Magufuli gracing the event to receive it.

The government has purchased the plane for $32 million from Canada's Bombardier Aerospace.

Two years ago, Tanzania developed a programme to revitalise its national carrier, Air Tanzania.

The programme included purchasing six new aircraft between 2016 and 2018, payment of debts and provision of start-up capital, improvement and modernisation of business systems.

We will receive three more aircrafts. This time, jets. We will have a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and two Bombardier C300 series. They will arrive before the end of this year, President Magufuli said.

On Monday, the president also laid a foundation stone for installation of four radar systems in the capital Dar es Salaam.

The radars are to be installed at the JNIA, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza and Songwe airports within 18 months. The project is part of the Tanzania's Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) strategy to improve civil aviation in the county.

The project will also facilitate search and rescue operations in case of emergency or air accidents.

This will enable the country meet the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s standards and guidelines, TCAA director-general Hamsa Johari said.

Air Tanzania was established as Air Tanzania Corporation (ATC) on September in 1977 after the collapse of the regional East African Airways.

Since then, the airline had been operating at a loss and depending on government subsidies.

The airline lost all its regional and international routes after grounding its aircraft which included Nairobi, Johannesburg, Jeddah, Milan, Frankfurt, London and Mumbai.

Meanwhile, A Tanzanian minister says women participating in the Miss Tanzania beauty pageant should be considered for employment at the State-run airline Air Tanzania (ATCL).

Information, Culture, Arts and Sports minister Harrison Mwakyembe argues that by recruiting them, the beauty competition will be seen as a bridge to success for Tanzania’s beautiful ladies.

Dr Mwakyembe spoke on Saturday while officiating this year’s Miss Tanzania's pageant.

He said he believes participants in the beauty contest have all the criteria to be recruited at Air Tanzania, insisting that he would push for their employment at the national carrier.

All they need is to undergo a three-month training at the National Institute of Transport before joining the ATCL team, he said.



Tourism Observer

MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambique's Tourism |Industry Welcomes Visa On Arrival, Dodoma Airport For 24 Hour Service

The government of Mozambique has now, for a significant number of nationalities, introduced Visa on Arrival, doing away with the cumbersome method of tourists having to apply in advance given the lack of global diplomatic representation.

44 border posts have been designated for the purpose including all the international airports such as Maputo but also Pemba, Nampula, Beira, Vilanculos and Inhambane.

In addition have key land border posts been designated for the purpose including land borders from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.

Visa on Arrival are also available at the port of Maputo to encourage cruise ship stops and enable visitors to come on shore without the previous bureaucracy involved.

The cost of a Visa, which allows entry and one additional re-entry, was given as US Dollars 50 per person.

Mozambique's tourism industry has welcomed the move and is looking at vastly improved arrival figures for the years ahead even though language challenges remain a factor as the penetration of English remains relatively low.

Runway lights at Dodoma Airport has been completed. This will enable the airport, which currently handles only about 10 flights a day, to operate around the clock.

Night landings are now possible but presently not likely to happen. Right now do our flights operate during day times only and so do all other airlines flying charter or schedule to DOD.

But this is progress for the aviation industry and for instance urgent medical evacuations can now take place even at night after the lights were installed.

Airlines even begin to offer flights into and out of Dodoma at night to make better use of their fleet but that is still under plan .

The airport is served by Air Tanzania, Auric Air and Flightlink among other airlines flying daily or multiple times a week to Tanzania's political capital.

Dodoma one of Tanzania's airports earmarked for expansion and modernization and with the new lighting system in place has this objective been fulfilled.

The IATA code for Dodoma is DOD while the ICAO four letter code is HTDO. The runway length was given at 8.038 feet length or 2.450 metres, all tarmac.

In 1973, Dodoma was designated as the new political capital of Tanzania. New Parliament buildings were erected and plans were drafted to shift all government Ministry offices to Dodoma by the early 1980's.

However, due to limited water supplies and other environmental factors, this proved impossible and the plan was all but forgotten.

Most ministries and all embassies are still in Dar Es Salaam. Although Dodoma retains the title of capital city of Tanzania, government officials only travel to Dodoma for a few weeks each June when the government is in session.

There are many daily buses from Dar es Salaam. Driving time is seven to eight hours with a stop in Morogoro. Luxury buses leave from Ubungo. Around 11 AM buses from Dar and Dodoma leave which are air conditioned and have more leg space.

There are buses to and from Arusha via Kondoa to the north. The road is not paved, and can be bad in the rainy season. The highway is known as the Great Northern Highway.

Travel time is often in excess of 12 hours, and breakdowns are common. The best plan would be to use Kondoa as an intermediate overnight point and continue north or south the next day.

There are also buses to and from Iringa. Travel time is about six hours on a winding gravel road of varying quality. The road passes right over the Mtera Dam which is worth a look.

Dodoma is situated on the Central Railway Line which goes from Dar Es Salaam to Mwanza or Kigoma. However, the train currently (March 2010) only operates between Dar Es Salaam and Dodoma due to damage near Tabora.

If you are in a hurry the better choice is by bus. If the train service is running again and you are heading west, train is better, especially in the rainy season.

Air Zara flies daily with the exception of Saturday between Dodoma and Dar es Salam for 250.000 TSH on Monday and Thursday, also to Mbeya.

Tickets can be bought at the New Dodoma Hotel. Mission Aviation Fellowships' MAF) small planes fly throughout the country; they have a regular shuttle between Dodoma and Arusha every Monday and also fly regularly to Nairobi and Mbeya.

It is also possible to join other flights, for more information see their website and subscribe to their Joiner List.

There are many minibuses (dala dala) in Dodoma and getting around is easy. Taxis are plentiful too. There are three bus stations: city, at a place called Jamatini; medium distance, at the Saba Saba bus stand, to moderate-distance places such as Mpwapwa and Mvumi.

Long-distance buses leave from the main stand near the Parliament buildings. Some companies, eg. Scandinavia, maintain their own bus stands.

Another way to get around is by bike. There are several places in town which sell or rent (5.000 TSH/day) bikes.

TANZANIA: Air Tanzania Bombardier Q300 May Be Disposed Off Because Of Age

Speculation is growing over the fate of Air Tanzania's aging Bombardier Q300 aircraft which maintenance input has been growing almost correspondingly with age and use.

While the aircraft, MSN 474 only joined the ATCL fleet in 2008 under registration 5H-MWF is the plane nevertheless now 20 years old and maintaining continued airworthiness is becoming a challenge due to the downtimes this causes.

Initially operated by Air Pelangi did the aircraft then make its way across the world and flew for such airlines as Brymon Airways, British Airways City Express, BA Connect and FlyBe before in February 2008, i.e. 9 years ago ending up on the Tanzanian registry for Air Tanzania.

The aircraft did suffer one mishap while being operated by Air Tanzania, namely a cracked windscreen not long after takeoff from Kigoma to Dar es Salaam (TC119) in January 2012 but at the time did the plane return safely to Kigoma before being repaired and returned into service.

Last year Air Tanzania received two brand new Bombardier Q400NextGen's and a third is on order and due for delivery this year, as are incidentally two Bombardier CS300's, the first such planes sold to an African airline as reported here at the time.

If suggestions by the same source from Dar es Salaam of accurate previous news are correct will Air Tanzania very likely dispose of the aged Q300 aircraft and acquire a fourth brand new Bombardier Q400NextGen instead, further boosting dispatch reliability and also increasing seat capacity on the turboprop fleet.

Watch this space for breaking and regular aviation news from the wider Eastern African region.

UGANDA: Precision Air To Relaunch Entebbe Flights

Tanzania Precision Air services Plc, the only publicly quoted airline company in Tanzania listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, has announced their intention to relaunch flights to Uganda through the Entebbe International Airport.The scheduled flights are expected to start from 01st July 2017.

The announcement which was made an hour ago stated that Precision Air will operate four flights per week with two nonstop flights from Dar es Salaam and two services routing via Kilimanjaro.

Commenting on the relaunch, Precision Air’s commercial Director Mr. Robert Owusu, said that the decision to relaunch flights to Entebbe came after a market study which revealed that there was significant demand for flights between Tanzania and Uganda after rival Fastjet pulled out of the route in early December last year.

Apart from the business relationships Tanzania and Uganda have a very rich history and we are going to honor that history by connecting the two countries through our services. We will start with four flights per week every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Passengers between Tanzania and Uganda should expect affordable and reliable flights he said.

Precision Air suspended flights to Entebbe back in 2013 during the route rationalization process and network restructuring. Mr. Owusu said that after the company reviewed their decisions taken at the time they concluded that Entebbe was a worthy addition to Precision Air’s already established extensive network on domestic routes and to Nairobi.

'Tickets sale is expected to commence on the of 10th March 2017 and passengers can book either directly by visiting the our website, our sales offices or through their preferred travel agents. We encourage early booking for best fares and we remind our passengers to take advantage of our online booking for discounted fares' Mr.Owusu added in closing.

Precision Air is currently the only IATA member in Tanzania and has recently announced a codeshare agreement with Etihad allowing the airline to offer more connection for passengers. Operating from Dar es Salaam does Precision Air fly to Arusha, Bukoba, Kigoma, Kilimanjaro, Musoma, Mtwara, Mwanza, Tabora, Zanzibar and Nairobi and from July onwards also to Entebbe again.

Details about the opening of a Precision Air office in Uganda will be announced shortly here, so keep watching this space for breaking and regular aviation news from across the Eastern African region.

TANZANIA: Ivory Worth Sh4.6 Billion Seized

Police in collaboration with Interpol in Southern and Eastern zones have arrested nine people in possession of 1.2 tonnes of ivory with a value of Sh4.6 billion. These are part of a group of 256 people being held for various crimes including human trafficking, drug abuse, illegal migration, trading in minerals, possession of firearms and vehicles.

The Director of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Mr Diwani Athumani told journalists at a media briefing that the two-day joint operation was broadened by the participation of officials from the ministry of Energy and Minerals, Tanzania Revenue Authority, Tanzania Electric Supply Company, Immigration department and the Wildlife division. Code-named 'Operation Usalama III', the operation was part of the wider mission of eradicating crime.

"The crackdown covered eight zones which are; Northern zone, covering Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Tanga and Manyara regions; Central zone, covering Dodoma, Morogoro and Singida and Dar es Salaam zone covering Kinondoni, Ilala, Temeke and Coastal regions," said the DCI.

Others were Southern highlands (Mbeya, Iringa, Ruvuma and Njombe), Lake (Mwanza, Kagera, Shinyanga, Mara, Geita and Simiyu), Western (Kigoma, Tabora, Rukwa and Katavi), Southern (Lindi and Mtwara) and Zanzibar, for Unguja and Pemba.

According to Mr Athumani, the operation was a by-product of a two-day meeting held in Matola, Mozambique, between May 26-27, by 27 member countries of the Southern Africa Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation (SARPCCO) and Eastern Africa Police Chiefs Co-operation Organization (EAPCCO).

The DCI said that during the operation, 10 stolen vehicles were identified, whereby five originated in England, three in South Africa and two in Malaysia. "We are still inspecting five others to establish their ownership," he said.

The police also identified 12 stolen motorbikes and investigations on 18 others are on-going. Other items that were seized include 83 grammes of heroin, 398 kilos of marijuana, 30 kilos of khat, one shotgun, 11 home-made guns, 104 riffles, and one arrow. Also on the list are counterfeit products like perfumes and cigarettes.

"We also netted 43 suspected illegal immigrants; 18 Congolese, 22 Burundians, two Rwandans and one Kenyan. All of them would be taken to court after completion of investigations and other procedures," the DCI said.

TANZANIA: Mahale, Apes Village

Is this an emergency? It’s the middle of the night and we can hear shouting coming from the lake. Is it a guest? Or an intruder? Is the voice angry? Or frightened? Am I frightened? There’s no time to decide now. I am still buttoning up my shorts as I break into a run along the sandy path that leads out of the forest onto the beach.

In the moonlight I can see the mountains of the Congo 30 miles away on the far shore of Lake Tanganyika. And then I see him. The silhouette of a man is gesticulating wildly from a longboat moored just offshore. “Habari?” I shout in my best basic Swahili. “Chakula. Kigoma,” he shouts back.

The penny drops. Provisions that were missing from our resupply boat from the town of Kigoma, 80 miles north along the lake and a stone’s throw from where Livingstone met Stanley, have finally arrived. At three o’clock in the morning.

If this isn’t real, it’s an incredible dream. In front of me the thickly forested slopes of the Mahale Mountains loom over a chieftain’s longhouse that is throwing moon shadows on the white sand under my feet. This is the main lodge area of Greystoke Mahale, built in the architectural style of the local Kitongwe people, and the heart of one of Africa’s most remote safari lodges.

It also looked like a worthy residence for the current Lord and Lady Greystoke, namely me and my wife, Sarah. We were working as relief managers for a month while the real Lord and Lady G, Steve Ladd and Kiri Maloney, both from New Zealand, took a well-earned rest.

Before we met, Sarah had worked as a camp manager at safari lodges all over southern Africa. My own qualifications were less specific but included a spell in the Army, writing about wilderness destinations, and an embryonic career as an after-dinner speaker. All that experience proved extremely useful in a job that is a mixture of man-management, complicated logistics, and the people skills required to make our clients feel they were honoured guests at an exotic country estate – albeit one in a remote jungle in the heart of Africa.

Unlike most safari camps, where guests come and go on a daily basis, Greystoke Mahale sees a light plane only twice a week, so almost everyone stays for either three or four nights; by the time they left, we often felt we knew them like friends.

The camp was built by an Irish adventurer, Roland Purcell, who sailed a fishing dhow, Isabella, down Lake Tanganyika in the mid-Eighties and landed in the bay. The prow of the boat can still be seen in the rock bar and much of the camp is built from the recycled wood of other vessels. Dhows are also used for sunset cruises and to transport the guests on the 90-minute journey from the airstrip.

Apart from the pristine beauty of the location, Greystoke’s main attraction is the chance to see one of the largest populations of wild chimpanzees in the world. Greystoke is in the territory of M group, a community of more than 60 chimps that have been habituated to short spells of human contact.

By chance, our time coincided with an unprecedented episode in the ongoing soap opera in the Mahale Mountains. As dictators toppled in the far north of Africa, the chimps staged their own Mahale Spring. After biting another of the dominant males, unprovoked and in the middle of a grooming session, Pimu, the alpha male, was made to pay for his bullying ways. His bloody demise at the hands of his fellow chimps created a power vacuum with two other powerful males, Primus and Alofu, jockeying to succeed him.

For our neighbours, the Japanese researchers who have been studying this group of chimpanzees since the mid-Sixties and whose camp was a 20-minute boat ride along the lake, it was a hugely important event and led to some fascinating discussions around the camp fire when they joined us for dinner with the guests.

For in this looking-glass world, it was impossible not to see our own human behaviour reflected back at us. From their facial expressions, so similar to our own, we could read the chimps’ passing emotions. The bullying, politics and in-fighting of the big males contrasted starkly with the extraordinary tenderness of a mother with her children: tickling, playing tag and on one occasion teaching her baby to use a leaf stem as a tool for eating ants.

Particularly touching to watch was an older, infertile female who had carved out a role for herself as a surrogate mother and was often to be seen clutching one of the babies in her arms, and keeping him out of harm’s way when the big boys came out to play.

The occasions when the chimps came into the camp itself were always unforgettable as they climbed into the trees in front of the guest bandas and casually wandered through the main staff area. But the mood of the group could also change with bewildering speed, peaceful periods of grooming interrupted by a cacophony of pant-hoots, whimpers, barks and tantrum screams whenever one of the big males approached.

Sharing a workplace with the creatures of the forest was a unique experience. At night we would fall into a deep slumber, lulled by the gentle suck of the waves on the beach on one side and the throbbing pulse of the jungle on the other. Walking to work through the forest every morning, birdsong ringing in our ears, we would encounter giant multicoloured butterflies, baboons, monkeys, bushbucks and bush babies, while often bumping into our own resident family of warthogs complete with grandma and hyperactive youngsters.

But behind the scenes, life as a manager of a safari lodge in such a remote location has its challenges. Resupply – by light plane or by boat from Kigoma – is something between an art and a science. The ordering of food and beverages, spare parts and building materials, must be carefully calculated and prioritised. Fresh fruit and vegetables are sourced from a village 90 minutes away by dhow, where Nomad Tanzania, the company that owns the camp, has a project helping farmers to grow food, buying their fresh produce and helping to build schools and a health centre.

The camp can take up to 12 guests, who stay in six beautifully-designed bandas hidden on the edge of the forest, with views over the beach and the lake.

To look after them, there are at least 20 staff at any one time – guides, trackers, cooks, waiters, boatmen, room attendants, askaris (nightwatchmen) and fundis (general workmen). And a delightful, hard-working and friendly group of people they were. We came to respect hugely their unfailing good cheer, knowledge of the forest, and ability to produce culinary miracles in a remote jungle setting.

One of their most popular dishes was the sashimi we would serve our guests at the rock bar on the headland after a successful fishing expedition. Kuhe, the lake’s top delicacy, served with soya sauce and wasabi, was a taste sensation. It was always the perfect way to end a day spent watching the chimps, swimming in the lake, walking to the forest waterfall with its cascading series of pools, or watching hippos and their babies swimming under the wooden dhows in the clear waters of the lake.

On our guests’ final night, a table would be laid out on the beach and Sarah or I would make a toast. And the toast was always the same: “To the chimps of Mahale.” They were, after all, the reason we had all made the long journey to this unique corner of Africa.

Nomad Tanzania (nomad-tanzania.com) operates seven safari camps across Tanzania. Prices vary with camp and season: from £405 to £470 per person per night. A four-night stay at Greystoke Mahale during the low season (Nov 1-Dec 19 and May 31-June 30) costs from £2,630 per person (based on two sharing). This includes accommodation, return flight between Arusha and Mahale, activities (excluding fishing at £30pp), all food and beverages (excluding champagne) and laundry, but is exclusive of park fees and international flights.

TANZANIA: Precision Air To Fly To Pemba May 2016

Precision Air, Tanzania's only publicly quoted airline, has confirmed that Pemba, the second largest island of the Zanzibar archipelago, will be added to their domestic network come 24th of May, using an ATR turboprop aircraft.

The island will initially be served three times a week, in conjunction with flights to Unguja, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The flights are expected to boost both tourism and trade between the Tanzanian mainland and Pemba and also makes it easy to fly from Unguja to the sister island.

Precision currently flies from its hub in Dar es Salaam to Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Mwanza, Mtwara, Kigoma, Tabora, Musoma, Bukoba and Unguja / Zanzibar and Pemba will be the 11th destination across their domestic route network.

Precision Air is part owned by Kenya Airways and provides essential feeder services to flights then connecting passengers via Nairobi into the KQ network across Africa, Europe, the Gulf, India and the Far East.

TANZANIA: Precision Air Returns To Musoma

Precision Air just announced their imminent return to Musoma, after halting services two years ago due to the poor conditions of the runway and apron which led to damage to one of their ATR aircraft. Following major improvements made by the Tanzania Airport Authority has the airline, after assessing the status of the airport, agreed to resume flights with immediate effect.

The Dar es Salaam to Musoma flights will operate every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for the time being, joining 10 more Precision Air destinations across the country and beyond, those being Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Mwanza, Bukoba, Tabora, Kigoma, Mtwara, Nairobi and now Musoma.

Precision Air’s Commercial Director, Mr. Robert Owusu said that the move was triggered by the demand in the market. He stated that the flight has been positioned to cater for passengers who had to drive from Musoma to catch flights in Mwanza. ‘We had temporarily suspended the Musoma route due to the airport’s unfavorable conditions which had caused damage to the aircraft.

Since then, there have been some improvements made to the airport infrastructure that make it safe for our aircraft to land and take-off from there. As service providers, we also understand the inconveniences that passenger from Musoma had to go through by driving for about 4 hours to catch flights in Mwanza. We believe our flights to Musoma will not only stimulate trade in Musoma but also the tourism industry’.

Precision Air operates an all ATR aircraft fleet comprising both the ATR 42 and the larger ATR 72 models which are well suited to fly in and out of secondary and tertiary airports and aerodromes.

TANZANIA: Air Tanzania Resumes Flights On The Dar es Salaam-Mwanza Toute.

Giving a new option for Tanzanians and the business community to fly Air Tanzania Company Limited (ATCL) has now resumed flights on the Dar es Salaam-Mwanza route.

“The Dar es Salaam-Mwanza route is a key to ATCL’s overall business strategy of addressing our clients’ diverse requirements, which includes among others, providing more seat capacity and a quick turnaround in our scheduled flights,” said the Acting Managing Director of the state owned firm, Mr. Johnson Mfinanga.

He said that with the resumption of our scheduled flight between Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, Tanzanians will now have an option of flights.

ATCL’s 50-Seater Bombardier CRJ-200 will fly the route 14 times in a week. The CRJ 200 is touted for its efficient fuel consumption which translates into lower cost per trip.

ATCL operates the Bombardier Dash 8, The CRJ 200 and De-Havilland Dash 8 Q300 planes. The airline operates scheduled flights to Hahaya in the Comoros, and links the regional routes of Kigoma and Mtwara with Dar es Salaam.

TANZANIA: Gombe Stream National Park

Gombe Stream National Park

An excited whoop erupts from deep in the forest, boosted immediately by a dozen other voices, rising in volume and tempo and pitch to a frenzied shrieking crescendo. It is the famous ‘pant-hoot’ call: a bonding ritual that allows the participants to identify each other through their individual vocal stylisations. To the human listener, walking through the ancient forests of Gombe Stream, this spine-chilling outburst is also an indicator of imminent visual contact with man’s closest genetic relative: the chimpanzee.

Gombe is the smallest of Tanzania's national parks: a fragile strip of chimpanzee habitat straddling the steep slopes and river valleys that hem in the sandy northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Its chimpanzees – habituated to human visitors – were made famous by the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, who in 1960 founded a behavioural research program that now stands as the longest-running study of its kind in the world. The matriarch Fifi, the last surviving member of the original community, only three-years old when Goodall first set foot in Gombe, is still regularly seen by visitors.

Chimpanzees share about 98% of their genes with humans, and no scientific expertise is required to distinguish between the individual repertoires of pants, hoots and screams that define the celebrities, the power brokers, and the supporting characters. Perhaps you will see a flicker of understanding when you look into a chimp's eyes, assessing you in return - a look of apparent recognition across the narrowest of species barriers.

The most visible of Gombe’s other mammals are also primates. A troop of beachcomber olive baboons, under study since the 1960s, is exceptionally habituated, while red-tailed and red colobus monkeys - the latter regularly hunted by chimps – stick to the forest canopy.

The park’s 200-odd bird species range from the iconic fish eagle to the jewel-like Peter’s twinspots that hop tamely around the visitors’ centre.

After dusk, a dazzling night sky is complemented by the lanterns of hundreds of small wooden boats, bobbing on the lake like a sprawling city.

About Gombe Stream National Park
Size: 52 sq km (20 sq miles), Tanzania's smallest park.
Location: 16 km (10 miles) north of Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania.

Getting there
Kigoma is connected to Dar and Arusha by scheduled flights, to Dar and Mwanza by a slow rail service, to Mwanza, Dar and Mbeya by rough dirt roads, and to Mpulungu in Zambia by a weekly ferry.
From Kigoma, local lake-taxis take up to three hours to reach Gombe, or motorboats can be chartered, taking less than one hour.

What to do
Chimpanzee trekking; hiking, swimming and snorkelling;
visit the site of Henry Stanley's famous “Dr Livingstone I presume” at Ujiji near Kigoma, and watch the renowned dhow builders at work. .

When to go
The chimps don't roam as far in the wet season (February-June, November-mid December) so may be easier to find;
better picture opportunities in the dry (July-October and late December).

Accommodation
1 new luxury tented lodge, as well a self-catering hostel, guest house and campsites on the lakeshore.

NOTE
Strict rules are in place to safeguard you and the chimps. Allow at least 2 days to see them - this is not a zoo so there are no guarantees where they'll be each day.