Mahale Mountains National Park is located in the western Tanzania, bordering Lake Tanganyika. The park covers an area of 1,613 sq km (623 sq miles) and can be accessed using charter flight from Arusha, Dar or Kigoma. The other means includes charter private or national park motorboat from Kigoma, three to four hours.

Mahale Mountains is home to some of Africa’s last remaining wild chimpanzees, a population of roughly 800 and only 60 individuals forming what is known as "M group. Trekking the chimpanzees of Mahale Mountains 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.

Then suddenly you are in their midst: cleaning each other's glossy coats in concentrated groups, power struggle 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.

While chimpanzees are the celebrity 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 immerse in the impossibly clear waters of the world’s longest, second-deepest and least-polluted freshwater lake – harbouring an estimated 1,000 fish species.