Lake Burigi

The lake at the centre of the park

Lake Burigi lies inside Burigi-Chato National Park in the Kagera region of north-western Tanzania, and it is the feature the park is built around. TANAPA names it as one of the central features of the 4,707 square kilometre park, which was gazetted in 2019 out of former reserve lands.

The lake is part of a wider chain of water bodies, wetlands and papyrus swamp stretching between the hinterland of Lake Victoria and the Rwandan borderlands. TANAPA describes expansive freshwater vistas fringed by reeds and acacia woodland, meandering channels and marshes, quiet inlets and shallow bays frequented by hippo and waterbirds, and island-dotted bays that give the park what it calls its wild, watery character.

What is there

Hippo and crocodile. The calm inlets and backwaters are hippo country, and TANAPA’s safety guidance for the park is specific about keeping a wide berth from the shorelines and only going on the water with authorised guides and lifejackets.

Birds. This is the strongest reason to be here. TANAPA describes the park’s lakes and wetlands as a haven for both rare and endemic species, and names storks, herons, kingfishers and raptors along the backwaters and floodplains. Papyrus fringe, open water, acacia woodland and miombo all meet within a short distance, which is what produces the length of the list. See the bird watching guide.

Game around the shore. The wider park holds elephant, giraffe, zebra, buffalo, eland and roan antelope, with leopard and hyena among the predators, and the water draws them. See game drives.

Getting onto the water

This needs stating carefully, because it is the question most people will have. TANAPA lists guided boat excursions among the park’s activities but qualifies them as available “where permitted”, and states that fishing, boating routes and lake access are controlled, restricted to authorised guides and approved launches. Off-road driving is restricted to protect the wetlands and papyrus fringes.

In practice that means a boat trip on Lake Burigi is something to confirm in advance rather than assume. Where it is available, the boat safari guide covers what a wetland boat trip involves.

Guided nature walks are permitted in designated areas only — see walking safaris.

Getting there and staying

Access is through the national park. TANAPA names Chato, Biharamulo, Muleba and Karagwe as the main approaches, with all-weather gravel roads from Mwanza, Geita, Chato, Bukoba and Kibondo, and regional flights to Mwanza, Bukoba and the Geita and Chato airstrips. The guide to reaching Tanzania’s north-west covers what those gravel roads and regional flights involve in practice.

For accommodation, TANAPA lists public and special campsites inside and around the park, special campsites requiring advance booking, alongside partner lodges and tented camps near the lake shores and woodland edges. See the camping safari guide.

Tsetse and mosquitoes are active in this landscape and TANAPA advises carrying repellent.

Because the lake sits inside a national park, reaching it means paying TANAPA’s conservation fee, charged per person per 24 hours under the authority’s published tariff booklet rather than by the camp. No figure is given here: the rate for Burigi-Chato could not be verified against that booklet for this guide, and a wrong number would be worse than none. Campsites are a separate head again. The guide to what a day inside a Tanzanian park costs sets out how the charges are built.

Seasons

Kagera is in the Tanzania Meteorological Authority’s bimodal Lake Victoria zone: two rainy seasons a year, Vuli from October to December and Masika from March to May. TANAPA gives Burigi-Chato a temperature range of 21 to 29 degrees Celsius at around 1,000 metres elevation, and names June to October and December to February as its peak seasons.

Common questions about Lake Burigi