The park is located on the southwestern corner of Lake Victoria in the Geita region about 150 km (95 miles) west of Mwanza. Lake Victoria is the second-largest lake in the world. The park has 456.8 km2 of which 236.8 km2 is dry land and 220 km2 is water comprising 11 small islets of varying sizes.
Welcome to Rubondo Island National Park
Rubondo Island was gazetted officially as National Park in 1977. It is an important breeding ground for both migratory bird and fish species especially Tilapia and Nile perch as for a long time it stood to be the only area in the waters of Lake Victoria which was well protected and preserved.
About 80% of the park is covered by a dense forest thus providing a variety of habitats for indigenous wildlife such as Sitatunga, hippos, bushbucks, velvet monkeys, genet cats, crocodiles, bush pigs, etc sharing the ecological niches with the introduced species such as chimpanzees, elephants, giraffes, black and white colobus monkeys, suni and African grey parrots.
How To Get There.
Rubondo Island can be reached by Air Chatters and Public transport & then boats to the park.
(A)By Air: Rubondo Island can be reached both by charter/air. Visitors who prefer to travel by air should in advance check with the tour operators in Bukoba, Mwanza, Arusha, and Dar es Salaam for flight schedules.
(B) By public transport and Boat: By public transport leads you from Mwanza to Nkome via Geita town which is approximately 3-4 hours (164km) drive, 100km through a tarmac, and 64 rough roads. At Nkome Rangers post you can be picked up by park boat and will take 1 hour to the park. Another route is Mwanza to Mganza through Bukoba road (270km – 5hrs), Biharamulo to Mganza through Chato – Bukoba road, and from Bukoba to Mganza through Bukoba – Chato road. At Muganza you can take a taxi or motorcycle (5min) to Kasenda where Park boats are parked and there you will be picked up by a park boat and will take about 20-25 min to the park.
Note: Communication and transport arrangements should be done prior to the park visit.
Best Time To Visit Park.
The best time is from June through September and the wet season is from November to March when wildflowers are flourishing and plentiful butterflies
For bird watchers is from December to February when most migratory birds are nesting.
PARK ATTRACTIONS.
The park is bestowed with magnificent attractions that tourists can enjoy these include a diversity of wildlife including elephants, giraffes, bushbucks, hippos, yellow-spotted otters, crocodiles, chimpanzees, and sitatunga, and offers the best fish breeding sites. other attractions are bird diversity with more than 400 species of nesting birds resides the park. The grey parrot, introduced in 2000 when 34 birds were rescued from illegal trade, is a spectacular newcomer. Another noisy specimen is the African fish eagle.
Chimpanzees – currently being habituated – few Chimps are now used for tourism Habituation Experience (CHEX). One can travel by car to Chimps’ areas and join the chimps’ habituation crew and be a part of habituation.
Other mammals: Other mammals that are frequently seen are Giraffes, Hippopotamus, Sported necked otters, Bushbucks and Velvet Monkeys. Colobous monkeys, Genet Cats, Marsh Mongoose, Suni, and Elephants.
Magnificent view of evergreen dense primary lowland Congolese forest-More than 80% of Rubondo Island National Park is covered by an intense primary lowland Congolese forest. Thus providing a variety of wildlife habitats sharing similar ecological niches such as elephants, giraffes, chimpanzees, black & white colobus monkeys, Suni, African grey parrots, etc.
Variety of water birds at Birds’ Island: RINP is one of the sites with the highest density and concentration of Birds in Tanzania. Also, RINP provides the best habitat for birds migrating between the southern and northern hemispheres.
