Katavi is as dramatic as anywhere you'll ever see, and this is what we try to reflect. Life as an adventure, the world as a living, breathing thing: Man as a detail.

Katavi National Park remains one of the greatest wildlife experiences of Africa. Miles from anywhere, it has an almost mythical status and, it’s thought, a greater density of mammals than any other Tanzanian reserve. Rivers groan with hippopotamus and crocodiles, and massed on the plains are the last great herds of buffalo in East Africa, up to 1000 head.

Katavi belongs to the beasts of Africa, it always has. As if they were created here, and the primeval soup still runs through its veins. Almost everywhere you look there’s something grazing, bellowing, fighting, mating, hunting. Days on the hoof in Katavi can be wild beyond belief.

This is the place for the wildlife connoisseur, and the traveler who thinks the African bush can offer up no more surprises.

Happily indulged, watching the elephants head out to water as dusk falls, you feel like one of the last great pioneers; binoculars in your hand, Africa filling your head.

In this mega-beast land all animals need a really good place to hole up, and for a decade Man’s retreat has been Chada Katavi, hidden on a shady spit of acacias and tamarinds on the edge of the Chada plain.

Since we first hammered in the guy ropes ten years ago - the only camp in a million wild acres - it has evolved into a rather civilised campaign HQ. Come dinnertime, the mess is nothing short of splendid, silverware gleaming and glasses shining in the lamplight.

Hidden in the trees that flank it are just six guest tents with fine wooden furniture, woven rugs and beds spread with crisp white Egyptian cottons. The tents are large, romantic and airy and the bathrooms bush deluxe.

Days on the hoof in Katavi can be wild beyond belief, and Chada Katavi is the perfect place to return to after a day of safari adventure. Steaming hot showers await, and the thoroughly good white wine on your porch table is perfectly chilled.

From USD 450 per person per night sharing (fully inclusive)

info@thesafaricompany.net

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