Burigi-Chato

TANAPA's brochure traces the park back to 1970, when three reserves, Burigi, Biharamulo and Kimisi, became a national game reserve. The three were joined into a national park on 9 July 2019. It covers parts of five districts: Ngara, Karagwe, Biharamulo and Muleba in Kagera Region, and Chato in Geita Region.

The name joins Lake Burigi to Chato, the home district of President John Magufuli. According to the travel writer Philip Briggs, Magufuli backed the park as the centre of a new safari circuit in the north-west. He died in March 2021.

The reserves had a hard time before that. After the Rwandan civil war and genocide of 1994, huge numbers of refugees crossed the Kagera into Ngara District. BirdLife International says they threatened to overwhelm the Burigi reserve, and that poaching was severe and the vegetation badly damaged.

TANAPA describes the park as a country of five lakes. Lake Burigi is by far the largest: long and narrow, in a valley between hills, with papyrus swamp and forest along its edges and bays and inlets along its shore. BirdLife gives its size as about 30 km long and 4 km wide; other sources disagree, and we have not found a survey figure. It appears on nineteenth-century maps as Urigi.

West of Burigi the land drops to smaller lakes and swamps, and then to the Kagera River, which forms the border with Rwanda. On the far bank is Rwanda's Akagera National Park.

Away from the water, the park is open grassland, acacia woodland (where the giraffes are), mixed forest, and miombo, the broad-leaved woodland of central Africa. In the dry season the wetlands are where the animals go for water.

Mammals. TANAPA's brochure lists elephant, lion, buffalo, roan antelope, impala, leopard, zebra, giraffe, spotted hyena, sitatunga, oribi, topi, reedbuck, bushbuck, dik-dik, waterbuck and eland, the largest antelope in Tanzania.

Birds. The lakes bring waterbirds and both Palearctic and African migrants, as well as fish eagles. The shoebill is here but rare: BirdLife knows it from four birds seen in 1995, and TANAPA speaks of "a few individuals". Shoebill and wattled crane are the two birds TANAPA names for canoe trips on Lake Burigi.

Game drives on the park's tracks; walking safaris, short or long, with an armed ranger; canoeing and boat trips on Lake Burigi; birdwatching; and camping. The fee schedule also lists sport fishing and night game drives here.

Staying. Inside the park there are public and special campsites, and you bring your own camping gear. TANAPA's fee schedule also lists park rest houses, cottages and tents. Otherwise you stay in simple hotels and lodges in the nearby towns: Biharamulo, Ngara, Karagwe, Muleba, Bukoba, Chato and Geita.

Getting there. By road from Mwanza, Geita or Bukoba. By air, the nearest airport is Chato, about 40 km from the Kijuu gate at Kitete. Biharamulo and Bukoba airports are also close. There is an airstrip inside the park at Nkonje, which operators can use for scheduled or charter flights.

Fees. Burigi-Chato is in TANAPA's lower band, with one rate all year: USD 30 per non-East African adult per day, USD 10 for children aged 5 to 15 and TZS 5,000 for East African citizens, all before 18 per cent VAT, so USD 35.40 in practice. Public campsites are USD 30 per person per night and special campsites USD 50. Park rest houses, cottages and tents are USD 35 per adult, or USD 30 in a tent the park provides. Canoeing is USD 10 for up to three hours, a boat safari USD 20, sport fishing USD 25 a day, a walk USD 20–25, a night game drive USD 50 and a park guide USD 20 per group per day.

When to go. TANAPA gives short rains in November and December and long rains from March to April, with the dry season from June to September. Its best times are June to October and January to March. It gives daytime temperatures of about 21 to 29 °C.