Livingstone Safari

After breakfast, speedboat transfer north along the Lake Tanganyika shoreline to Gombe Stream National Park. Trek through the rainforest with your expert guide in search of the habituated Kasakela chimpanzee community — the group studied by Jane Goodall since 1960 and the most intensively researched animals in the world. Spend one hour observing the chimpanzees at close range in their natural forest home. Return by speedboat to Kigoma. Dinner and overnight at Kigoma Hill Top Hotel.

Light aircraft flight from Kigoma south along the Lake Tanganyika shoreline to remote Mahale Mountains National Park — accessible only by air and boat, with no roads in or out. Arrive for lunch at the lakeside lodge. Afternoon acclimatisation walk in the Mahale forest and briefing from the expert chimp trackers on the M-group's current territory. Dinner and overnight at Mahale lodge.

Full-day forest trek with expert trackers in Mahale Mountains National Park in search of the M-group — approximately 60 habituated individuals that make up the largest habituated chimpanzee community in the world. The Mahale chimps have been habituated since the 1960s by Kyoto University researchers and are extraordinarily relaxed around people, allowing close and unobstructed observation. Spend one hour with the group watching the complex social dynamics of chimpanzee life unfold. Afternoon at leisure — snorkelling or kayaking on Lake Tanganyika. All meals and overnight at Mahale lodge.

Morning snorkelling or kayaking on Lake Tanganyika before breakfast. Then light aircraft flight from Mahale to Katavi National Park — Tanzania's most remote and least-visited national park, and arguably the site of the most dramatic game-viewing in all of Africa during the dry season. Afternoon game drive on the Chada floodplain where hippo pods of up to 1,500 animals jostle for space in the shrinking pools alongside enormous buffalo herds, stalking lions, wild dogs and the occasional leopard. Dinner and overnight at Katavi camp.

Dawn game drive in Katavi at first light — the best time to watch the hippos emerge from the pools and the predators making their last moves before the heat of the day. Buffalo herds of thousands, elephant families at the water's edge and the possibility of lion kills at the hippo pools make this one of Africa's most spectacular morning game drives. Return flight to Dar es Salaam or Arusha for your international connections.