Rubondo Island

This is a little park covering the whole of an uninhabited island in the middle of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest fresh-water lake and one of the sources of the Great Nile.

Rubondo Island, in the southwest of Lake Victoria, is one of Tanzania’s smallest National Parks and occupies an entire island in Lake Victoria. The 240 sq km island, also known as “The Jewel of Victoria”, provides an unforgettable experience for visitors, including the main island and 11 smaller islets, combining the breathtaking natural beauty of a forest refuge with the relaxing tranquility of sandy lake-shore beaches.

The Island is some 28 km in length along the north-south axis and between 3 and 10 km wide. There are NO vehicles on Rubondo – the island is untouched by pollution from modern day transportation and one of the only places that offers a truly ecological break. Rubondo Island boasts a unique diversity of flora and fauna. Only here can the visitor be sure of seeing Sitatunga and have the chance of observing small gangs of chimpanzees. Other mammals frequently seen include hippos, otters, bushbucks and vervet monkeys. Rarer sightings are genet, colobus, marsh mongoose and suni antelope.

Birds are everywhere! Rubondo is a paradise for bird-lovers, with nearly 430 species documented on the island. The diversity of habitats, from open woodland to papyrus swamps and evergreen forest, together with its geographical location in the heart of Africa, attracts numerous resident and migrant species. The island has an abundance of herons, storks, egrets, ibises, cormorants, kingfishers, flycatchers, bee-eaters, hornbills and birds of prey, including the highest density of fish eagles anywhere in the world.