GOMBE STREAM NATIONAL PARK

Gombe offers excellent hiking and wildlife viewing opportunities. Gombe has an amazing variety of natural environments. The arboreal slopes of the Great Rift Valley and the evergreen forests standing in the local valley bottoms support a wonderful diversity of wildlife. The park is the haven to numerous primate species, but supreme among them is the chimpanzee. Gombe provided a significant refuge not only for the endangered great apes that are suffering a loss of habitat everywhere within their range but also for endemic wildlife. Gombe is a place of utter peacefulness and incredible beauty, with the most stunning sunsets to be found anywhere.

Gombe is the second smallest park. Length of the Park is slightly more than 10 km The park is located 16 km north of Kigoma town on the shores of the world’s second deepest Lake Tanganyika in westem Tanzania. It encompasses an area of 56 square kms and is a fragile remnant of chimpanzee habitat-a thin strip of ancient forest set in mountains cut with steep valleys clinging to the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The significance of the nature values of Gombe was noticed early in 1943 when it was designated as a game reserve Gombe gained its popularity by the pioneering research activities initiated by Jane Goodall in 1960 which is believed to be the longest running study of the primates in the world. The conservation status was upgraded to that of National Park in 1968. Gombe National Park was opened for tourism in 1978 after its chimpanzees – habituated to human visitors. Gombe shelter and protects about 100

chimpanzees.

Park headquarters is located at mitumba 26 kms from Kigoma town. Park is centered at 35M 0791840, 9486915 of Kigoma region.

Drive, schedule or charter a flight from Dar es Salaam, Mwanza or Arusha, or take slow or fast train from Dar es Salaam, or ferry along the shore of Lake Tanganyika from Burundi or Zambia to Kigoma. To reach Gombe you must travel by boat from Kigoma the mark: Take a local tax or charter boat from Kigoma to Gombe one two nights are recommended