You will be picked up from your accommodation in Kigoma very early at 6:00 am and transferred to the ferry station where you will meet your private speed boat. Then ride through Lake Tanganyika, the longest lake in Africa and the deepest lake in the World, for two hours before reaching the park. On arrival, you will have breakfast. After breakfast, start your excursion.

The most popular way to explore is on a guided chimpanzee trek, which takes you deep into the forest in search of close encounters with one of the habituated troops. With about 100 eastern chimpanzees in the park, sightings are guaranteed (although you may have to trek for a few hours to find them). These intelligent and sophisticated animals share over 98 per cent of the same genetic code as humans, and the similarities are evident in their unique personalities and family interactions. Once you find the troop, you can spend up to an hour watching them play, bicker, feed, and groom one another.

Chimpanzees aren’t the only wildlife you’ll find at Gombe, nor the only primates. You will also likely see olive baboons foraging for food on the lakeshore and endangered ashy red colobus and red-tailed monkeys swinging from the forest canopy. Blue and vervet monkeys are frequently spotted, while other forest dwellers include bushpigs, hippos, and leopards. Gombe is also home to over 200 bird species and 250 different butterflies, making it a nature photographer’s paradise.

Evening, walk back to the lake shore where you will be returning your speed boat to Kigoma town. On arrival at Kigoma, we will transfer you back to the hotel where the tour will end.

• meal plan: 
  • lunch
• accommodation:
  •  no accommodation on this day.