Mahale is arguably the most beautiful park in Tanzania. Forested mountains rise straight out of Lake Tanganyika — the second-deepest lake in the world — and the beaches at their foot are white sand with clear water offshore.
It protects one of the largest known populations of wild chimpanzees, studied continuously since Japanese researchers began work here in the mid-1960s. The habituated Mimikire group is tracked on foot through steep forest; sightings are common but never guaranteed, and the terrain is demanding.
There are no roads. Access is by charter flight to Mahale airstrip followed by a boat transfer, or by the slower lake ferry. That isolation is the point: it is one of the few places where you can track chimpanzees in the morning and snorkel over cichlid reefs in the afternoon.