CHIMPANZEE SAFARI GUIDE ON GOMBE STREAM NATIONAL PARK

Gombe Stream National Park is legendary for the Kasakela community of wild chimpanzees which were studied by Dr. Jane Goodall for over 50 years, contributing to the drive to combine the preservation of primate wildlife habitats with the development of eco-tourism and the beneficial involvement of indigenous human communities in Tanzania.

Set in a fringe of tropical rainforest on the fringes of Lake Tanganyika in western Tanzania, Gombe is a dream AfricanMecca chimpanzee tour destination pioneered by the works of Dame Goodall, where it is possible to take guided forest treks to watch the chimps both at play and interacting socially.



During her research time at Gombe, Jane made many new discoveries about chimpanzees, detailing their social hierarchy, their calls and previously unsuspected behavior. They hunted other primates such as red colobus monkeys for meat, communicated purposefully with one another and made and used simple tools.

In 1960, when she was 26 years old, she observed one male she had named David Greybeard prodding in a termite mound with few straws of grass, to retrieve it laden with termites which he proceeded to eat. Later she saw him with another male, preparing twigs to use as tools to ‘fish’ for termites.



Apart from the chimps, Gombe Park boasts many other attractions. The tanned sandy beaches of Lake Tanganyika, one of Africa’s oldest, largest and deepest lakes, at the end of an arm of the Great African Rift Valley, is one of the most stunning places to relax and enjoy sailing, snorkeling, fishing and simply chilling in the ambience of this incredibly beautiful East African holiday wilderness venue.

On the steeply forested Rift Valley escarpment, incredibly lovely Gombe waterfalls tumble hundreds of feet down lushly carpeted rock faces. The small park at 56 square kilometers (22 sq. m) is home to two other chimpanzee communities and many other primates and mammals, as well as over 200 and 250 species of birds and butterflies respectively.

After a long, tough, road drive taking several days or a small aircraft flight of three to five hours from Dar-es-Salaam or Arusha, the park must finally be reached by boat, a distance of 10 miles (16 km) from Kigoma which can sometimes be a choppy aquatic journey lasting two hours by private speedboat or more on water taxis.



Ujiji close to Kigoma was the place where Stanley met Dr. Livingstone and is said to have uttered his historical greeting. Explorers Richard Burton and John Speke have also set their foot there. The area was also notorious as a 19^th-century route for ivory and slave traders. It takes a great deal of money and effort to make a Tanzania chimpanzee safari, but it is something you will never forget or regret.

As Jane Goodall explained in her research, books and endless talks including TED, the time she spent with the chimps (mankind’s nearest cousin, sharing 98% of our genetic coding), enriched both her personal life and her understanding of our own behavior and our place in our speck of natural world amidst a wider boundless universe.