Burigi-Chato National Park

One of Tanzania’s newest and least explored parks

Burigi-Chato National Park sits in north-western Tanzania between the hinterland of Lake Victoria and the Rwandan borderlands. TANAPA gives it 4,707 square kilometres and dates its establishment as a national park to 2019, making it one of the largest national parks in the country and one of the newest.

It was created out of former reserve lands, and TANAPA is candid that it is still in the early stages of tourism development. That is the correct expectation to bring. What it offers is a very large, very quiet mosaic of rolling hills, open savannah, miombo woodland, wetland and lakes, with Lake Burigi as its central feature — and almost nobody else in it.

The park is also ecologically continuous with Rwanda’s Akagera National Park across the border, and TANAPA describes it as part of that broader network.

The landscape

Burigi-Chato is a water park as much as a savannah one. TANAPA names the shorelines of Lake Burigi, the Chato wetlands and their papyrus channels, hippo backwaters in the calm inlets and shallow bays, and island-dotted bays that give the park what it calls its wild, watery character. Away from the water there is open savannah for classic game viewing and belts of miombo woodland.

The wetlands are what distinguish it from most of Tanzania’s savannah parks, and they are also why access to the water is controlled — off-road driving is restricted specifically to protect the wetlands and papyrus fringes.

Wildlife

TANAPA lists elephant, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, eland and roan antelope among the large mammals, with leopard and hyena among the predators. Roan is the notable one: it is a difficult animal to see anywhere in Tanzania’s accessible parks.

Birds are the park’s strongest suit. TANAPA describes the lakes and wetlands as a haven for both rare and endemic species, and names storks, herons, kingfishers and raptors along the backwaters and floodplains. The mix of open water, papyrus, savannah and miombo in one place produces a long and varied list. See the bird watching guide.

What there is to do

TANAPA’s published activity list for Burigi-Chato is game drives, guided boat excursions where permitted, guided nature walks in designated areas, bird watching, picnics and bush meals, and filming and photography.

Game drives across open woodland and plains, with the honest selling point being big skies and very few vehicles.

Boat excursions on Lake Burigi, which TANAPA qualifies carefully — “where permitted” — because lake access and boating routes are controlled and must use authorised guides and approved launches. Ask before assuming a boat trip is available.

Guided nature walks in designated areas only.

Bush meals and picnics, and photography, which the park’s emptiness and its sunset shorelines genuinely favour.

Where it sits, and what that means

The park straddles Kagera and Geita regions. Geita Region was itself created by government proclamation in March 2012 and inaugurated in November 2013, out of parts of Mwanza, Kagera and Shinyanga, and covers 21,879 square kilometres — of which 19,933 square kilometres are land and 1,946 square kilometres are water. That water figure is a useful indication of the landscape: this is a well-watered part of Tanzania, and the park’s wetlands are the same system that makes the region what it is.

Its neighbours matter too. Lake Burigi and the Chato wetlands sit inside the park itself. Chato is the lakeside district town on the Lake Victoria shore to the east. Rwanda’s Akagera National Park is across the border to the west, and the two form parts of the same ecological landscape rather than two separate systems that happen to adjoin.

The practical implication of a park this size with this little traffic is that distances inside it are long and there is very little to fall back on. TANAPA’s own guidance for self-drivers — ample fuel, spares, daylight driving, and telling someone your route — is written for a reason.

Getting there

TANAPA describes the main approaches as via Chato, Biharamulo, Muleba and Karagwe, with signposted park gates, and all-weather gravel roads connecting from Mwanza, Geita and Chato, Bukoba and Kibondo.

By air, regional flights serve Mwanza, Bukoba and the Geita and Chato airstrips, with transfers best arranged through operators. Self-driving is possible, but TANAPA’s advice is to carry ample fuel and spares because services are sparse, to travel in a well-maintained four-wheel-drive, to keep to daylight driving, and to tell someone your route and expected arrival time. The guide to reaching Tanzania’s remoter parks by road and air covers what the regional flight network and the long gravel drives actually involve.

Burigi-Chato is a TANAPA park, so entry is a conservation fee charged per person per 24 hours under the authority’s published tariff booklet rather than a rate a camp sets. No figure is given here, because the rate for this park could not be verified against that booklet for this guide and a wrong number would be worse than none at all. Campsites and special campsites are separate heads again. The guide to what a day inside a Tanzanian park costs at the gate sets out how the charges are built and why the VAT basis is worth asking about.

Staying

TANAPA lists public and special campsites inside and around the park, with special campsites requiring advance booking, alongside what it describes as a growing selection of partner lodges and tented camps near the lake shores and woodland edges. It names June to October and December to February as the peak seasons and advises reserving early. The camping safari guide covers what park campsites involve in practice.

Safety

The wetlands hold hippo and crocodile, and TANAPA’s guidance is to keep a wide berth from shorelines and only to go on the water with authorised guides and lifejackets. Tsetse and mosquitoes are active, so carry repellent. Roads are remote. Stick to designated tracks and observe speed limits; drones require prior written permission.

Seasons

Burigi-Chato lies across Kagera and Geita regions, both of which the Tanzania Meteorological Authority places in its bimodal Lake Victoria zone. That means two rainy seasons: Vuli from October to December and Masika from March to May. TANAPA gives the park a temperature range of 21 to 29 degrees Celsius and an elevation of around 1,000 metres.

Geita Region’s own government gives regional rainfall of 900 to 1,200 millimetres a year with an average temperature of 22 to 30 degrees Celsius, and describes a dry season from early June to September. The national seasonal guide explains why the lake basin runs on two rainy seasons where most of western Tanzania runs on one.

Common questions about Burigi-Chato