Rubondo Island National Park

Rubondo Island National Park occupies an archipelago of islands in the southern part of Lake Victoria, accessible by boat or small aircraft from Mwanza. The main island, 75 kilometres long, is almost entirely forested — a dense canopy that provides refuge for one of Tanzania's more unusual wildlife stories.

In the 1960s, Frankfurt Zoo relocated a group of chimpanzees to Rubondo when their original habitats were threatened. Those chimps — and their descendants — now live wild and semi-habituated in Rubondo's forest. Tracking them through the island canopy, accompanied by a guide in a boat-only-accessible park, is one of Tanzania's quirkier safari experiences.

Alongside the chimps, the island supports hippos, sitatunga (a semi-aquatic antelope), African fish eagles, and over 300 bird species. The fishing — for enormous Nile perch and tigerfish — is world-class.