Katavi National Park covers 4,471 km² of western Tanzania, about 40 km south of Mpanda. It began as a game reserve, was gazetted as a national park in 1974 and was extended to its present size in 1997. The park is built around the Katuma River and the seasonal floodplains of Lake Katavi and Lake Chada, which are broad grassy expanses for most of the year. Its reputation rests on the late dry season, when the Katuma shrinks to a chain of pools and hundreds of hippos crowd into the remaining mud, with crocodiles retreating into riverbank caves. Very large herds of buffalo, together with zebra, giraffe, elephant and their attendant lions, gather along the same water. Katavi is one of the least-visited parks in the country — around 1,500 international visitors in a year — because access is by charter flight or a long unpaved drive. Camps are few and offer game drives and walks with little other traffic.
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