Gorillas in the Congo

Arrive in Brazzaville and be privately transferred to your hotel.  Once freshened up, head out into the city, also known as little Paris with a private guide.  It’s an extremely fun and vibrant city with lots of markets, shops and restaurants.

This morning, transfer to the airport where you board a small, private charter plane that takes you 2hrs north to Odzala Kokoua National Park.  Once arrived, you will be transferred 3hrs to Ndzehi Forest where you will spend the next three nights at Ngaga Camp.  A beautiful camp, Ngaga has six suites and overlooks primary forest.  Ozdala and the surrounding area is home to around 20 Western Lowland Gorillas and pioneering researchers including the eminent Magdalena Bermejo have spent the last seven years studying and habituating two of the families.  The mornings are usually when the gorilla excursions take place and there will no more than four guests, a tracker and a guide.  The forest ground is flat, so the trek is an easy walk and generally only lasts for a couple of hours.   Once you find the gorillas, you will find them out feeding so expect a lot of activity.  From seven to ten metres, observe in silence these magical creatures, quite different to their Mountain Gorilla cousins you’ll find in Uganda.

Spend the afternoons on fascinating walks through the forest where there are large varieties of monkeys, squirrels, termite hills and butterflies.  In the evenings, night walks are possible as forest elephant and buffalo do not tend to be in the area.  Two bizarre and unique creatures can possibly be spotted, the Potto and the Angwantibo.  These slow-moving prosimians are tricky to find, but once located often offer really good viewing as they cling motionlessly to a branch.  Shy Forest Duikers, Palm Civets and Tree Pangolins are also occasionally encountered.

Return near to the airstrip of Odzala where Mboko camp is situated on the banks of the Lekoli River.  You will pass through local villages and learn about leading conservation initiatives to maintain wildlife and the rainforest.  At camp, the land opens up to a network of freshwater swaps, rivers and marshes which attracts forest elephant, forest buffalo, bongo, sitatunga, various monkey species and rare birds.  This area can be explored on foot or in aluminium boats or kayaks.  Enjoy sundowners on a river cruise that is fantastic for spotting birds, or sit by river deck and enjoy a cooling swim.

Today, transfer to your next camp in adventurous style!  Start by kayaking an hour and a half before walking through swamps, streams and rivers, spotting wildlife along the way.  Arrive at Longo Camp, again, a completely different landscape to the last two camps.  Here, the camp sits on the banks of a Bai (waterhole).  From here, go on excursions into the forest exploring the different biomes.  Here you will see Africa Grey Parrots, Green Pigeons as well as 14 different species of monkeys.  There is also a road that you can jump into a 4×4 and drive into the forest with your guide.

Return to Mboko camp via a game-drive then a walk on raised wooden walkways over the swamp.  Spend the afternoon on a proper river swim/wade through the freshwater streams.

Take the charter flight back to Brazzaville, where you can connect onto a flight. Perhaps head to the Mara for a safari or Mozambique for some beach time.