Gombe StreamNational Park

Gombe Stream National Park, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, is where Jane Goodall began her landmark study of wild chimpanzees in 1960 — the longest-running study of any wild animal population. Tanzania's smallest national park, Gombe is a strip of steep, forested valleys reachable only by boat, and trekking to see its habituated chimpanzee communities is one of Africa's most moving wildlife encounters.

Gombe was declared a national park in 1968. Its forested ridges run down to clear-water beaches on Lake Tanganyika, one of the deepest and oldest lakes in the world.

Chimpanzee trekking is the reason to come. Accompanied by park rangers, visitors follow forest trails to find one of the habituated communities descended from the chimpanzees Jane Goodall first studied. Olive baboons, red colobus and red-tailed monkeys are common, and the forest and lakeshore are rich in birdlife.

After trekking, you can swim or snorkel in the lake among colourful cichlid fish, or visit Jane Goodall's former feeding station and the viewpoint where she watched the chimps.