An Update on a Republic of Congo Gorilla Safari

Join me for a thirteen day safari to Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo and Dzangha-Sangha National Park in the Central African Repubic. National Geographic photographer Michael Nicholls calls Nouabale-Ndoki “the last place on earth.”

I have room for four people. These parks accept only a limited number of visitors at a time.

This is not an easy safari. You must be physically fit and able to accept the likelihood of the unexpected happening.

When: we depart Brazzaville Oct 20, 2008 and return Nov. 1, 2008.

Overview of our destination: The tri-national parks of the Central African basin include Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central Africa Republic; Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo; and Lobeke National Park in Cameroon. These parks must be considered as among the most beautiful, accessible rainforests in Africa, and the last of their kind on the planet. We are visiting two out of three of these parks.

Dzanga-Ndoki National Park is the ancestral home of Ba’Aka pygmies who have helped establish its current tourism program. The park shelters diverse wildlife such as forest elephants, lowland gorillas, buffaloes, sitatunga and bongo antelopes, warthogs, numerous monkey species, leopards and a long list of endemic birds, which can be viewed from platform hides built above natural mineral clearings in the forests called baïs or salines. Nowhere else in Central Africa do you have such a high probability of seeing all this wildlife in one place.

Nouabale-Ndoki National Park offers similar attractions to DSNP but with one important distinction: its forests are pristine. They have never been logged. They are surrounded by swamps which make it difficult for poachers to access the forest for its trees and for the wildlife it protects.

The principal activity of NNNP is wildlife observation at Mbeli Bai. The lowland gorillas feed on a fruit here unique to this forest clearing. Mbeli Bai is also known for its sightings of forest elephants, sitatunga antelope, buffalo, red river hogs, otters, and crocodiles. Recently opened Mondika Camp is the best place to track a family of 12 habituated lowland gorillas.

Cost: I can only provide an estimated price of between $6000.00 and $6200.00 US. It depends on our final number of participants.

Visa requirements: Double entry visa for Republic of Congo and simple entry visa for Central Africa Republic.

Vaccinations: All recommended vaccinations for international travel to developing countries, including Yellow Fever. Your health certificate will be checked upon arrival in Brazzaville.

What safari includes:
Internal air ticket ( Brazzaville – Ouesso – Brazzaville )
Ground transportation and transfers
Boat rides (Ouesso – Bomassa – Bayanga – Bomassa – Ouesso)
Shared accommodation - Full board
One gorilla tracking permit per participant per national park.
One mangabey tracking permit (DNNP)
Two Bai walk (DNNP)
Net hunting with Ba’Aka (DNNP)

What safari excludes:
International flights
Visas
Tips
Drinks
Laundry services
Items of a personal nature
Extra gorilla permits (payable on the spot dependent upon availability).

Accommodation in Brazzaville to be decided upon when our final numbers are clear.

Fall 2008 Congo Gorilla Safari Itinerary:

Day One: We depart Brazzaville ROC on Mistral Air for Ouesso, a two hour flight. Arriving mid-morning, we depart for Bomassa, park headquarters for Nouabale-Ndoki National Park , by pirogue up the Sangha River , a journey of up to five hours. Tonight we overnight at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bomassa guesthouse.

Day Two: Bomassa is also the jumping off point for visits to Dzangha-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic . We are visiting DNNP first. After breakfast, we travel once again by pirogue to the CAR and ROC border at Lidjombo. After official formalities we transfer to 4 x 4 vehicles which bring us the remaining distance to Bayanga, park headquarters. For the next five nights we remain at Bayanga’s comfortable Doli Lodge overlooking the river. Next to the Doli Lodge is an interesting information centre on the park’s conservation projects.

Days Three, Four, Five and Six: Throughout the next 4 days it may be necessary to split up our group in order to undertake the different activities as follows:

Bai Hokou Research Camp – from here we track the only habituated lowland gorillas from their sleeping point the previous night. This is currently the largest number of lowland habituated gorillas (16) in Central Africa . Very few people have had the opportunity to be with them.

Dzangha Bai – this is a natural forest clearing where a variety of forest animals come to feed on the rich mineral salts found in the soil. Observing from a tree-line hide we hope to see forest elephant (there is daily average of 40-120 sighted in the Bai), bongos (the largest and heaviest forest antelope), sitatunga (swamp-dwelling antelope), red river hog and many bird species. This is a wonderful wildlife experience in the second largest rainforest in the world.

Ba’Aka Folk – we have the opportunity to mingle with the local pygmy tribe and to take part in their traditional net hunting in the forest. We will learn about their life in the forest, such as the medicinal plant gathering by Ba’Aka women.

Day Seven: We return to Bomassa by retracing our steps of Day Two. There should be time in the afternoon to walk to an interesting bai near park headquarters. We overnight at the Bomassa WCS Guesthouse.

Day Eight: We hike to Mondika Camp which involves a three hour trek through the forest. One area of this forest is flooded which requires a thirty minute immersion in hip-high water. In Mondika Camp’s vicinity are a family of habituated lowland gorillas. The camp has only recently opened to visitors and takes only four people at a time. We remain here for two nights. Mondika Camp consists of tents under thatch shelters. Long drop toilet and showers are outside.

Day Nine: Mondika Camp. We trek to see habituated lowland gorillas.

Day Ten: We return to Bomassa headquarters by retracing our steps through the flooded forest of Day Nine. From Bomassa we take a short drive to another river where we set off by pirogue to Mbeli Camp, which takes about an hour. Within a forty minute walk of camp is Mbeli Bai, an extensive forest clearing several hundred meters in length, where wildlife such as elephant, gorillas, buffalo and antelope come to feed. They can be observed from a hide located in the tree-line. We overnight at Mbeli Camp, which consists of four bungalows on stilts. There is no electricity. Showers and long drop toilets are outside.

Day Eleven: We remain at Mbeli Camp.

Day Twelve: We return to Bomassa by pirogue and vehicle and overnight at the WCS Guesthouse.

Day Thirteen: It’s a 5:30 am departure for Ouesso by pirogue in order to catch Mistral Air’s 10:30 am departure for Brazzaville.

Brazzaville airport’s arrival lounge is alarming, even for experienced travelers like me. It consists of one small room with a worn baggage retrieval belt, inconveniently placed. A weary and sweating crowd jostles around it so they can grab their bags, all tamper proofed in heavy shrink wrapping and of mysterious shapes and sizes under the layers of plastic. (On this flight, a Congolese passenger carried on board a four-foot high doll with incongruous peroxide-blond hair.) To compound the chaos in arrivals, the crowd includes more porters, handlers, taxi drivers, and waiting family and friends than it does arriving passengers. I have a dear fellow called Richard who helps retrieve my bags. He works for a company which facilitates entry to the ROC. This time I had trouble recognizing him in his baseball cap among all the other men in similar caps, but I finally located him and gave him a wave. I felt pretty smug when I was the first into the arrivals after passing immigration. The official looked at my down parka, carried at this point over my arm in the 34 degree heat, and asked if I was coming from the North Pole. No, but you are close, I thought of telling him: I had spent a few days in a snowy Eastern Canada prior to my Brazzaville flight. I found a corner to wait while Richard pushed and shoved his way into the scrum around the baggage claim. Ten minutes passed and then thirty. My satisfaction died away to be replaced with the meditative state I call the zone. All good travelers cultivate and call upon this state. Trust, patience, and acceptance are its primary components; trust, patience and acceptance that there is a system at work—even if you are hard pressed to recognize any—out of which will come resolution. At least John was allowed to join me in my long wait for my bags—two and ½ hours in total. Finally we were ready to go home. Outside, I breathed in the warm night air of the tropics. I look forward to this when I have been away from Africa . It is the rainy season now. Brazzaville smelled of hot, wet, decaying mother earth. We don’t live far from the airport. Depending upon wind direction the airplanes come right over the house allowing you to recognize the airline company. All along the road leading to the airport children sit on short stools at night and do their homework by candlelight or in the pools of light thrown by dim and skewed street lights. I looked for the children on the way home. It’s an image that I carry of the Congo . No where else in Africa have I encountered such desire and determination to learn.

Adult Lowland Gorilla Male

This gorilla baby is in the Lefini Gorilla Sanctuary of Brazzaville.

Republic of Congo Forest

06-01-2008