We have been hiking at a steady pace through montane forest for nearly an hour. Even with my jacket off it is cool at this altitude. Whenever we pause, the rasping calls of black-billed turacos echo from deep in the trees. I raise my binoculars and search for one of these stunning green and blue birds, but can’t locate it – then a flash of scarlet wings catches my eye and I manage to follow the bird’s escape through the canopy.
Shortly afterwards I sense we are getting close. We have left the trail and the trackers are hacking through tangled vines and undergrowth. The going eases when we come across a swathe of trampled vegetation, scattered shoots and discarded plant material – a sure sign that a gorilla family passed through here minutes ago.
a Mountain gorilla´s hand
The trackers stop. I squint into the forest but see nothing, so I watch their eyes instead. Following their gaze, I notice – framed in a shaded window of leaves – that I am being watched. Its eyes are dark. It has a flat, smooth-skinned face. Its pitch-black fingers and shiny nails are wrapped around a vine.
That first encounter with a wild gorilla is not one I will ever forget, and every track since has been special in its own way.
My first was in the Virunga Mountains of Rwanda in 1990, when accommodation was basic and the country was on the brink of political turmoil. Rwanda today is unrecognisable. Volcanoes National Park is well-run and well-funded, and the choice of accommodation has transformed – most strikingly at the luxury end, where three outstanding lodges make it possible to track gorillas in the morning and relax in a spa before afternoon tea.
We also design and guide gorilla tracking safaris in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Rwanda’s northern neighbour. Tracks there are equally rewarding. The boutique lodges may not reach the sybaritic heights of Rwanda’s flagship properties, but they offer comfortable rooms, excellent food and attentive service that more than satisfy most travellers.
Mountain gorilla male
Both regions are densely populated, making it easy to visit local villages and engage with the culture. Treks often begin near a village, passing through potato fields before reaching a low stone wall that marks the national park boundary – the threshold where farmland gives way to forest. Both parks are home to the Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), the species studied by American primatologist Dian Fossey.
Last December Dave led a safari to a new destination for us – Odzala-Kokoua National Park, situated in a remote corner of a country on the west side of Africa – the Republic of Congo (often abbreviated to ROC).
There are two Congos. The ROC has a longstanding stable government, in contrast to its more well-known giant neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) – a name bearing little relation to the frequency of elections there. Though Rwanda and the ROC sit on opposite sides of Africa, the DRC is so vast it shares a border with both.
Few words conjure darkest, most mysterious Africa quite like “the Congo.” The main goal of visiting the ROC, however, was not the passport stamp but the opportunity to track Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in one of the continent’s most remote and sparsely populated regions.
Odzala is vast and hard to reach, and for Dave it was a privilege to be in this remote virgin rainforest – a low-altitude jungle, utterly unlike the montane forests of Rwanda and Uganda. The Congo rainforest, second only to the Amazon, is characterized by light-stealing giants dominating the canopy, with layers of vegetation beneath all competing for the little light that filters through. Ground-level plants are sparse except where a fallen tree, riverbank or open glade – called a bai – allows light to penetrate. These conditions favour arboreal species: apes, monkeys and birds. Forest elephants thrive here thanks to their size and reach. Forest buffalos depend on the bais, whose grasses and floodwaters they graze and trample, keeping the forest from reclaiming them. Bushbuck were spotted around camp and one afternoon, as Dave and his guests approached a bai, they glimpsed the swamp adapted sitatunga antelope as it slipped into the forest.
Dave’s highlights included two families of Western lowland gorillas, slender-snouted crocodiles basking on fallen trunks (the only sun-warmed surfaces available), chimpanzee tracks, several monkey species – De Brazza’s, agile and grey-cheeked mangabeys, black-and-white colobus and crowned monkeys – and extraordinary birdlife, including one morning when thousands of African grey parrots streamed overhead. To cover this enormous reserve they moved between three camps by 4WD, on foot (often knee-deep in water), by kayak and by boat. The camps were comfortable and the food delicious – though if luxury and ease of travel are priorities, Rwanda or Uganda may be your preferred choice. If you enjoy being in truly wild, remote wilderness with no other visitors for miles, you will find the ROC magical.
Justin
(Photos courtesy of Dave Christensen)
