AUTHENTIC CHIMPANZEE SAFARIS & PERSONALIZED TOURS IN MAHALE WITH AFRICANMECCA

Although Mahale is mainly a base for visitors to take part in a chimpanzee observation safari, there are many other activities on offer, from cultural and historical visits to nearby towns to simply chilling out in your own, private Shangri-La. Energetic wildlife enthusiasts may choose to spend the afternoons looking for some of the other nine primates in this location.

Greystoke Mahale offers a special guided primate walking tour in western Tanzania, looking especially for the silver monkey and the shaggy red colobus. This begins with a 10 minute boat trip and follows a leisurely ramble of up to five hours, through differing eco-zones where you will appreciate the tremendous diversity of flora and fauna, especially the wonderful range of avian life and the amazing numbers of butterflies.



The chimpanzee safari is a very different but primary experience. There is a habituated group whom you may approach. Paper face masks that cover your nose and mouth may be provided by your accommodation and strict rules are enforced as to the time you can spend and the distance you must maintain between the famous M troop and yourselves. Small groups of six AfricanMecca guests or less may only make one chimp trek a day and observe them for only an hour. Children under 12 are not allowed. But the rewards are well worth the strenuous uphill trek and the restrictions.

Your first intimation of their nearness is a growing chorus of pant-hoots, one of a variety of signals exchanged by the “mock men” as they were known to the earlier natives. As you round a bend, you may suddenly find yourself in a playground where a community of up to 60 individuals swing through the tree canopy, sit grooming each other against tree boles, or nurse and suckle their young. Infant chimpanzees are carried and suckled for their first five years, protected by their mothers from attack by other adults, jealous alpha males or dominant females.



The community is no utopia, but rather like a human housing project where many inhabitants are peaceful and mutually supportive, but a few ambitious males fight for supremacy and a number of raucous youngsters get up to all kinds of mischief. Remember to keep your distance, move slowly and back away if any approach you.

Morning or afternoon activities on an adventure tour in Mahale could include a kayak or dhow trip on Lake Tanganyika, or even fishing by regulated authorization outside the protected shallow coastal zone of the park where 400 species of fish, including varied cichlids, well-known aquarium favorites, 96% of which are found nowhere else in the world, swim in the shallow and deep waters. Snorkeling to view them is permitted unless there is danger from crocodiles or hippopotami. Liability waivers need to be signed on arrival!