Gombe Stream National Park
The forest where chimpanzee research began, reached only by boat.
Overview
Gombe is a narrow strip of steep forest and grassland on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, about 16 kilometres north of Kigoma, and one of the smallest national parks in Tanzania. Jane Goodall arrived here in 1960 and recorded chimpanzees making and using tools, which ended the idea that tool use was ours alone; the Gombe Stream Research Centre, founded in 1967, has followed the same communities ever since, making this the longest continuous study of wild chimpanzees anywhere. For a visitor that history is tangible — the trekking is on the same steep valley paths, with individuals that have names and known mothers going back five generations. Olive baboons, red colobus, red-tailed and blue monkeys all share the forest, and the baboon troops here have been studied almost as long as the chimpanzees. The lake itself is clear, warm and full of endemic cichlids.