This park is well known for being a habitant to the last remaining wild chimpanzees in Africa, the Mahale Mountains National Park covers an area of 1613km² and it was gazetted in 1985. The park is located approximately 128 km south of Kigoma town on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika.
It’s the western boundary of the park where the adjacent 1.6 km wide strip of Lake Tanganyika’s waters is found. This is where the Waholoholo and the Watongwe tribes are found hence being considered to be a traditional home to them. Visitors to the park may enjoy the Kansyana which was the first camp that was established around the park by the Japanese primate researchers along the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the early 1965s. They used this camp as a base for chimpanzee habituation.
Mahale Mountain runs from northwest to southeast hence forming a rugged terrain with a number of hills hence the highest peak around being Mount Nkungwe which is 2462m above the sea level.
Cultural tourism, this can be one of the interesting activity around the park which includes visiting the nearby villages including the Waholoholo and the Watongwe tribes. Visitors can also visit the Kigoma town and the historical town of Ujiji. Whereby Kigoma is the capital of Kigoma District and the economic centre of the region plus Ujiji being a historical town to the German colonial rule in Tanganyika.
Lake Tanganyika is a habitant to over 250 fish species; this encourages spot fishing an activity by the enthusiastic visitor to Mahale national park. These unique fish species can be caught by snorkeling around the lake with special license from the park authority.
Mountain climbing, this is done around the Mahale mountain ridge and this takes 2-3 days to reach mount Nkungwe peak, the best time to do mountain climbing here in the park is said to be between the dry season of May-October and camping on the mountain is possible and visitors can be able to see kerosene lamps spreading over lake Tanganyika while the local fishermen are carrying out fishing of small fish at night.
Game viewing, can also be done around the park and during the activity, visitors move around the park hence being able to see some of the animals including elephants , lions, hippos, buffaloes, leopards and giraffes. This is said to be a long safaris which can take over seven days while in Mahale national park.
Chimpanzee tracking, this is also done through walks from the beautiful lowland forest, in the process of trekking visitors will get chances of encountering with a vast array of birds and animals. A group of habituated chimpanzees gives opportunity to the visitors to track chimps in their natural habitat hence being the prior on the agenda tourist attraction to the park.
