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 Set deep in the heart of
the African interior, inaccessible by road and only 100km (60 miles)
south of where Stanley uttered that immortal greeting “Doctor
Livingstone, I presume”, is a scene reminiscent of an Indian Ocean
island beach idyll.
Silky white coves hem in the azure waters of Lake Tanganyika,
overshadowed by a chain of wild, jungle-draped peaks towering almost
2km above the shore: the remote and mysterious Mahale Mountains.
Mahale Mountains is home to some of Africa’s last remaining
wild chimpanzees: a population of roughly 800 (only 60 individuals
forming what is known as "M group"), habituated to human visitors by
a Japanese research project founded in the 1960s. Tracking the
chimps of Mahale is a magical experience. The guide's eyes pick out
last night's nests - shadowy clumps high in a gallery of trees
crowding the sky. Scraps of half-eaten fruit and fresh dung become
valuable clues, leading deeper into the forest. Butterflies flit in
the dappled sunlight.
Then suddenly you are in their midst: preening each other's
glossy coats in concentrated huddles, squabbling noisily, or
bounding into the trees to swing effortlessly between the vines.
The area is also known as Nkungwe, after the park's largest
mountain, held sacred by the local Tongwe people, and at 2,460
metres (8,069 ft) the highest of the six prominent points that make
up the Mahale Range.
And while chimpanzees are the star attraction, the slopes
support a diverse forest fauna, including readily observed troops of
red colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys, and a kaleidoscopic array
of colorful forest birds.
You can trace the Tongwe people's ancient pilgrimage to the
mountain spirits, hiking through the montane rainforest belt – home
to an endemic race of Angola colobus monkey - to high grassy ridges
chequered with alpine bamboo. Then bathe in the impossibly clear
waters of the world’s longest, second-deepest and least-polluted
freshwater lake – harboring an estimated 1,000 fish species - before
returning as you came, by boat.
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