I recently spent an exciting few weeks in the Republic of Congo and DR Congo. I was there updating the relevant chapters of the Lonely Planet Africa guide and writing a few magazine features. I got to do all kinds of cool things like sleep in a shipping crate, pay insane amounts of money for leaky dug-out canoes, eat dog food and have my enjoyment curtailed by a rebel army, M23, invading the town I was heading for.
But the best thing by far was visiting the forest national parks in the Republic of Congo and have close up encounters with gorillas, visit forest clearings filled with elephants, bongo, chimps, gorillas and buffalo (you might have seen those on the recent David Attenborough series, Africa).
The following was published on the BBC Worlwide website a couple of days ago (and for those outside the UK here is the link to the real thing; http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20130117-gorilla-spotting-in-the-republic-of-congo) but for those people in the UK here is copy and paste version.
Gorilla spotting in the Republic of Congo
(photo - Stuart Butler)
Three days of
uncomfortable buses and torn up roads, one day on a leaky dug-out canoe
puttering slowly upriver, one hour wading barefoot through the
thigh-deep waters of a jungle swamp – and finally, here I was, eyeball
to eyeball with a western lowland gorilla. This was exactly what I had
hoped for from a gorilla safari to the Republic of Congo.
The
Congo? Isn’t that the home of cannibalistic militias and rebel armies?
Isn’t that where Joseph Conrad set his Heart of Darkness novel and where
the blood-stained battlefields of Africa’s World War can be found?
Wrong. You are thinking of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the
lumbering giant at the heart of Africa. This is smaller Republic of
Congo, which lies to the north of its big bad neighbour. Sure, this
Congo has also taken a battering at the hands of power-hungry
politicians and has seen more than its fair share of war and misery
(most recently with a civil war during the 1990s and first few years of
the new century), but today the Republic of Congo is safe, stable and
open to trailblazing visitors in search of the ultimate jungle
experience.
There is no shortage of rainforest in the Congo; some
60% of the country consists of nothing but steamy lowland jungle, so
pristine that the rainforests are considered one of the richest and most
biologically important forest ecosystems on Earth. But it is only now,
after years of false starts, that access to the area is improving,
national parks are being established and a visitor-friendly
infrastructure has been put in place.
Even with the recent
improvements, visiting many parts of the country remains difficult. But
whether you splash through dank swamps or relax on the terrace of a
luxury lodge, there is no doubt that a safari to the Congo is a
wildlife-watching bonanza unlike any other.
Parc National d’OdzalaOne of the oldest national parks in Africa, established in 1935, the 13,600sqkm
Parc National d’Odzala,
located in the far northwest of the country close to the borders of
Gabon and Cameroon, has had a turbulent past. Once celebrated for having
around 20,000 gorillas, the population was decimated between 2003 and
2005 by several outbreaks of the horror movie-worthy ebola virus which
wiped out between 70% and 95% of the park’s gorillas. The park was also
neglected for about 20 years, thanks to conflict and the ebola
outbreak.
Today, the situation is much improved. Gorilla numbers
are growing, and the park has received a much needed boost with the
arrival of
Wilderness Safaris,
a company that actively manages park tourism on a day-to-day basis. The
goal of the Botswana-based company – the only one operating in the park
– is to use responsible tourism to build sustainable conservation
economies in Africa. By working alongside local communities, Wilderness
Safaris has embarked on a programme of rehabilitating the park’s
previously crumbling infrastructure, building
two luxury tourist lodges
and training local guides and rangers. The benefits to the park, the
wildlife, the local people and the tourist industry are already visible.
In fact, despite the park having re-opened to tourists only in August
2012, Wilderness reports that their exclusive fly-in safaris from
Congo’s capital Brazzaville are already heavily oversubscribed. And when
the activities on offer include face-to-face encounters with habituated
west lowland gorilla families, jungle walks with local Baka (or pygmy)
guides and pirogue trips downriver in search of birds and other
wildlife, it is hardly a surprise that Odzala has been garnering such
attention.
Parc National Nouabalé-NdokiWhen a
team from National Geographic magazine called this northern corner of
Congo “the worlds last Eden” in the mid-1990s, they chose their words
wisely. The 23,500sqkm
Parc National Nouabalé-Ndoki
is the world before the chainsaw. This vast region of swampy forest is
home to healthy populations of western lowland gorillas, forest
elephants, chimpanzees and more. And what makes this park so enthralling
is the ease with which these creatures are seen.
The forest is known for its natural clearings in which elephants and gorillas gather, and the
World Conservation Society
(WCS) has built viewing platforms alongside these clearings where
travellers can ogle the antics of Congolese megafauna. If you need to
get even closer to the wildlife, Nouabalé-Ndoki also has groups of
habituated gorillas.
Parc National Conkouati-DouliThe
Parc National Conkouati-Douli
is an altogether different experience to the previous two reserves.
This 5,049sqkm coastal area stretches from the beaches of the Atlantic
Ocean where turtles clamber ashore at night to lay eggs, through a band
of savannah and up into jungle-clad mountains where shy groups of
gorillas, chimpanzees and elephants slink through the shadows. As with
so many protected areas in Congo, the years of conflict meant that
conservation was very low on the government’s list of priorities, and as
such, this park, with its open terrain and easy access, suffered more
than most from human encroachment and poaching.
Today, the
day-to-day management of the park has been largely taken over by WCS,
and the society has started training new guides and rangers, cracking
down on poaching, establishing new accommodation for tourists, and
setting up safari-related activities such as river boat trips in search
of elephants or forest walks to look for shy and elusive gorillas. The
park also contains a chimpanzee rehabilitation sanctuary where
travellers can see young chimps, orphaned due to poaching, being
reintroduced to life in the wild.
Since the animals here are not
habituated to humans, sightings tend to be much more fleeting than in
the northern forest parks. But as poaching levels drop, the wildlife are
likely to become less fearful and encounters more frequent.
PracticalitiesFor
many people, just the name Congo implies adventure, and getting to most
national parks here is going to make you feel like an explorer.
Wilderness Safaris offer
packages
to Odzala National Park, where everything including flights from
Brazzaville is included. This is the recommended option for those who
require comfort on their safari.
Safaris to Nouabalé-Ndoki and
Conkouati-Douli are organised through the WCS and are better suited to
those with more time and stamina. You will have to make long overland
journeys by bus or private car from Brazzaville and be prepared to walk
long distances through the forest, even wading through swamps and riding
boats up-river.
No matter which park you choose to visit, you
must inform either the WCS or Wilderness Safaris in advance so that they
can prepare for your trip.
