Gombe Stream National Park is Tanzania’s smallest protected conservation area, it is most sought after when it comes to Chimpanzee in the wild in the country straddling the western border of Tanzania and the democratic republic of Congo overlooking the eastern showers of Lake Tanganyika and an escarpment on the other end elevated between 775 meters and 1500 m above sea level. The 52 Square Kilometer National Park is a unique destination first gazette as a game reserve in 1943 and upgraded to the status of a national park in 1968, the park became famous as a result of research work by the primatologist Jane Goodallin history it is one of the longest researches that has been conducted.
Gombe Stream National Park is one of the other 2 places in Tanzania where to find chimpanzees. The vegetation of the national park comprises grasslands, woodlands, and a tropical rain forest, its main resident species is the chimpanzee which was made famous during the research time of Jane Goodall, there are other primates present within the national park including red-tailed monkeys, red colobus monkeys, olive baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, bush pigs, hippos, shy bushbucks and other small antelopes, leopards, to mention a few. There are over 200 species of birds recorded in the national park including African fish eagles, African paradise flycatchers, palm nut vultures, red-chested cuckoos, ross’s turaco, yellow romped tinker bird, and African broadbill among other species.
Things to do in the national park include chimpanzee tracking, it is one of the best places to encounter the chimpanzees, they live within the forest freely, and travellers can have the chance to get face-to-face interactions with man’s closet relatives, they are playful primates roaming from one tree to another, the primates live in communities of up to 100 members led by an alpha Gombe is one of the best places of East Africa, Game viewing will lead visitors to seeing other animals of the park like bush pigs, leopards, reedbucks although they are rare to see. Visit Lake Tanganyika, one of Africa’s longest lakes and deepest along which visitors can do sport fishing and canoeing, and boat cruises.
Gombe Stream National Park can be visited at any time of the year but best during the dry season which begins from June -to mid-October, and December to February, it is dry during this time and the trails of the forest are much easier to track, the wet season is ideal too just that it comes with less flexibility and difficult in doing tourism activities like chimpanzee tracking. Gombe National Park can be accessed by boat from Kigoma, can be a public boat or a private one, by air there are domestic flight handlers thatroute to the destination for example Precision Air, safari Airlink, and Air Tanzania to mention a few. Someone can drive from Arusha to Kigoma after which take a speed boat to the national park.
In conclusion, Gombe Stream National Park can be visited together with other ecosystems on the northern circuit for example Tarangire National Park, and Serengeti National Park for the great wildebeest migration, and to the far south to experience unique ecosystems like the Ruaha national park and Mikumi national park.