Odzala & Dzangha Sangha deep Congo Basin rainforest journey 2022

December 12, 2023

Mboko lodge is really cool. the Deck is marvelous in the middle of the grassland with impressive termite mounds.

You have to go back to your room with a guide due to the presence of buffaloes, and sometimes elephants and hippos. Hyenas are there but not an issue. Rooms are a really nice, but not as luxurious as Ngaga and Lango lodge rooms.

We heared one day some mangabeys in the neighboring gallery forest where there is a small stream. A boardwalk crosses the forest to reach the 4x4 as a shortcut for Lango bai. This is definitely a great place for birding and looking for small things.

A small sundowner room is a great place for naps and of course, taking a drink just at the way back of daily activities!

December 12, 2023

And here is the end of Odzala... We are now heading to the small airstrip. Congo Conservation Company eventually managed to detect the issue and repair their own aircraft. We had even though to drive North to Northern Congo as a plan B throughout the forest, but this will not be necessary.

We failed again to find serval on the roads around Mboko camp, next guests will certainly more lucky

There is a small group of dwarf buffaloes grazing on the airstrip, but not sure they will be allowed to take the flight with us...

And we are now ready to board on the flight. We are the only passengers to reach Kabo, a small locality on the Sangha river which only economic activity is forestry. This is complete luxury! 200 km of flight over the congo forest...

Our guide Dean had to drive to meet the buffaloes and make them leave the airstrip... and yeah we go!

We first fly over the mosaic of savanna and forest. We try to recognize different places: Mboko, and the Lango stream confluence, the Lekoli river,...

We then crossed the Lekoli and spot a large group of buffalo bathing in a large pool. African Parks air census estimates a number of 1500 to 2000 buffaloes leaving throughout the landscape.

Little by little, the forest replace the savanna. Small bais can be detected. and we only cross two tracks in 200 km, this is really wild! This is and endless forest with huge trees and a magnificent canopy. What a journey!!!

We are now approaching Kabo, cross the mighty Sangha river, which technically divide the Gabonese forest and the Congo forest, and acts as a biodiversity barrier (Odzala, Nouabale Ndoki and Dzanga Sangha are indeed located in the Sangha interval).

A huge storm is now coming from the North...

December 15, 2023

An amazing place and an amazing adventure

December 17, 2023

At our arrival at Kabo, we were clearly the attraction of the day, with many children staring at us, most of them from the Baaka tribe.

The way in to Dzanga Sangha from Northern Congo is perhaps the safest way, but it is full of paper works.

We have never really understood how things go through, but no CAR tourism visa is necessary to visit Dzanga Sangha from Northern Congo.

First stop was at the police station of Kabo but was really smooth with 5 minutes, before driving further North to Bomassa in the middle of two huge jungle walls. The forest between Kabo and Bomassa is really something! Especially when driving in the middle of a huge rain! We reached the Bomassa WCS base camp of Nouabale Ndoki national park from where we would take our cruise on the Sangha river to Banyanga. The place was really nice, with great infrastructure. We decided to stop there for a couple of hours until the rain lower because it was still showering very strong. We met the head or research and monitoring who was receiving a couple of German friends, and had great talks! It seems that Nouabale Ndoki is one of the very good WCS managed protected areas. They were very kind to give us some waterproof jackets so that we could start our journey North to CAR and Bayanga without too much rain... And after a coffee with views over the Sangha river, our next atraction, it was time to start our epic journey on the Sangha river!

Navigating of the legendary Sangha river was something for me. Imagine that you are literally in one of the most remote places on the African continent in the middle of the Congo Basin. The Sangha river comes from North-West CAR and goes South to reach the Congo river. It is one of the largest right-side tributary of the Congo along with the Oubangui river. This means that the Sangha river takes its origin at the limit between the Lake Chad basin and the Congo basin, in the savannas from the Soudano-sahelian biome, before entering through the second green lung of the planet.

The Sangha is also a prominent geographical barrier from the Congo Basin, where the Gabonese Forest and the Congo Forest meets. It is considered that during the fryer Holocen period, those savannas got down and penetrated through the huge forest all along the Sangha interval, when the Gabonese and the Congo forest where not making one single forest block. It was then a real natural barrier as well as a human migration corridor for bantu populations originating from Cameroon, to the Congo basin.

Having said these remarkable features, the most extraordinary feeling I had was that I had a great privilege to be going up a river where very few foreigners had ever been, just in the middle of the border between Congo Brazzaville to the South, CAR to the Northeast, and Cameroon to the Northwest. This is the tripartite border and also the Sangha ecosystem and complex of protected areas, protected under the Sangha Trinational Foundation to protect Lobeke National Park (Cameroon), Nouabale Ndoki (Congo) and Dzanga Sangha (CAR) this unique UNESCO World Heritage Site in a coordinated manner.

Going North we can see several villages along the river, and huge blocks of wild forest. And paper works then start. I think we stopped in 3 or 4 different points and got 5-6 stamps in our passports...

The more we got close to Banyanga, the more we were seeing locals fishing on the river on small canoes. At the end of the day we saw flocks of grey parrots crossing the Sangha river, some hippos bubbles and a lot of hornbills. Some few monkeys too on the banks of the river.

And we got there!

December 19, 2023

Our programa at Sangha Lodge was quite intense.

On first day, we decided to trek the gorilas in the morning at Bai Hokou, lunch at Bai Hokou facilities, and then continue with a mangabey monkey tracking. At the way back we met for the first time the extraordinary Baaka people bathing, and then watching elephants feeding just outside their village. Sundowner and night at Sangha Lodge.

On Second day, we decided to follow Tessa and her team of trackers to spot our first ever pangolin just after breakfast as a starter. This was a great activity! But very challenging for photography. Then, we heard for Dzangha Bai for a full afternoon at the bai, where we had decided to stay overnight in a tent on the platform. This was the customized activity and the highlight of our Dzangha Sangha journey!

On third day, we stayed all the morning at Dzanga Bai, and mid-day, we head back to Sangha Lodge for a late lunch, and rest in the end of the afternoon. We met our tracker's family at the way back and gave them a lift! Which was a superb opportunity to listen them singing and laughing. Baaka are definitely very cool people. Sundowner, last dinner, and last night at Sangha Lodge.

And on fourth day, we heard back down on the Sangha river to Bomassa, drive to Kabo, and we flew back to Brazzaville. What a journey isn't it?

The highlights?

1- Probably the Dzanga bai overnight hearing elephants trumpeting all the night, and watching them with the thermal lens from Rod Cassidy. A dream was fulfilled.

2- The gorilla Bai Hokou experience, which was by far our best lowland gorilla experience between Odzala, Loango and Dzanga Sangha. With more days, I would have repeated the experience!

3- I was also delighted to see the bongos. They arrived very late just before midday, when we have no more expectations to sot them! They are one of the most beautiful antelope species!

The regrets?

It is very hard to take decisions. In a three full days tour at Sangha lodge, you will miss relevant adventures.

1- Number one regret is having spent too little time with the Baaka. It is by far the most interesting reason to visit Dzanga Sangha. Their unique way of life is really worth spending some time with them, to understand their culture and challenges.

2- I would probably decide to to the Bai Hokou walks instead of the mangabey tracking.

December 24, 2023

First day, we went for the gorillas at Bai Hokou. This was by far our best gorilla experience in the Congo Basin. Dzanga forest is a primary forest, which means that the forest understory is not very dense in comparison with the marantacea secondary forest of Odzala, or the marsh forest from Loango National Park. As a consequence, it is easier to spot the gorillas for photographic opportunities. This is also the reason why the gorilla density is lower at Dzanga Sangha than at Odzala or others marantaceas forests. Bai Hokou also had a young gorilla very tame, curious and playful. This was definitely a highlight of our Congo Basin journey. He offered us a spectacle, eating fruits, climbing and balancing on a small branch in a perfect frame.

To reach Bai Hokou, one needs to cross all through the Dzanga forest on a small scenic road with looks like a trench surrounded by huge green walls on both sides. On the way, we definitely can see animals. In our case, we spotted a mother elephant with calf in the distance. I remember we also saw a duiker from the distance, as well as some putty nosed monkeys. Before going through the bai, we had to go to the park headquarters were we also saw some moustached guenon, just over the house of Park Manager Luiz Arranz.

We then parked in a small opening the forest where trackers find home. There are some small facilities were tourists can take a rest after their gorilla tracking experience. We were assigned Makumba gorilla group, which is also the oldest habituated group in Bai Hokou area. Two other groups have also been habituated, but they split during 2022 and 2023 and Dzanga Sangha tracking teams are now habituating new gorilla groups.

Fortunately, Makumba group was quite close from Bai Hokou main facilities area, which means we will not have to walk for hours to find them. Unfortunately, they were not located in the nearby bais, which is a very interesting opportunity for gorilla experience at Bai Hokou. Some gorilla bai are great to spot wild gorillas in forest clearings such as Langoue Bai at Ivindo National Park in Gabon, Mbeli bai at Nouabale Ndoki in Congo, or Dzebe Bai at Odzala National Park in Congo too. But Bai Hokou forest clearings can offer great opportunities for habituated gorilla sightseeings feeding in the bai at close distance, which is a very distinct experience, and a spectacular photographic opportunity with low angle, eye contact, blurry background shots.

The trackers are usually Baaka people, who litterally know the forest like their pocket. These people are the real forest masters, they know well each forest corners, find their food in the forest, and have a special way to walk through the forest paths were us westerners, have huge issues to get through. Dzangha Protected Areas are special in the way that part of the complex is strictly protected, which is the case of the Ndoki and Dzanga blocks (where Bai Hokou and Dzangha bai are located), while areas in the middle, North and West allow Baaka traditional forest uses such as hunting with nets, honey collection, roots and leaves collection. The gorilla tourism activity offer great job opportunities for them with the 3 gorilla groups habituated.

In the case of Bai Hokou, the main difference with Ngaga gorilla experience is that trackers are already with the gorillas. So it is not a tracking experience such as at Ngaga, but it ore likely to Rwanda or Uganda experiences were guides join trackers by radio.

The walk through the forest was a real pleasure, the forest is very old, trees are large, full of mushrooms. After 15 minutes walk we reached the gorillas. At the beginning Makumba the silver back was resting on the floor in a dense understory. Close by a youngster was playing an annoying is father. Very cool to spot.

After few minutes, Makumba started to walk, probably looking for fruits. This part of the walk was not an easy one as we hald to walk out of track in the forest, but this was nothing to compare with Ngaga challenging funnel crossing through the marantaceas. At a moment he stopped with the group. Suddenly all the trackers got very anxious and stressed. I did not realize in the moment, but they pulled us out very quickly and brought us far away. They told me that there was a couple of elephants mother with calfs a dozen meters behind in the dense understory. Karina saw them but I didn't. This proves how complex it is to walk through the jungle. You can walk very close to large animals without noticing them. The bad thing is that when you see them, it is usually too late and you can be charged by elephants.

All this issue led the gorilla moved away too. We eventually find them back in a very small opening in the forest with a nice fruit tree. Best place ever to spot the gorilla, watch their behavior, and take great shots. All females and juveniles were on the floor ground. Makumba was ignoring us superbly, so portrait of the silverback were not posible. This proves how Makumba is perfectly habituated and contrary to other habituated gorilla groups will not charge tourists or trackers (this is sometime the case in some habituated groups such as at Moukalaba Doudou in Gabon). A youngster was really playful, he was playing and annoying his mother, ants and cousins, and then climbed on a small branch which gave me one my best gorilla picture I have ever taken in the wild. Describing the situation, emotions and photographic pleasure is tough. We had a great time with the gorillas.

After an hour, we had to walk back to Bai Hokou facilities. We strictly have to respect timings to minimize annoying the gorillas. I have hundreds of pictures waiting for photoshop post-processing, but this short selection I guess gives a great reason to visit Bai Hokou

December 24, 2023

December 24, 2023

Awesome stuff @jeremie, really fascinating updates and great photos. Thanks for sharing!

December 25, 2023

Those aerial shots reinforce your comment on how wild this place is. What memorable highlights from this intense 4-day program, not to mention the photos.

December 25, 2023

After eating our packed lunch at the Bai Hokou tourism facilities, and a quick shower for me under a small waterfall down the primate research station, we head for our next activity: the agile mangabey tracking. In addition to gorilla tracking, Bai Hokou offers the possibility to follow a large group of agile mangabeys of three hundred individuals and to do a walk through a serie of saline clearings: Bai Hokou, Ngubunga bai, Bakulangu bai, Mosokpo bais, Mongole bai and so on, which extend more than 5 kilometers in length. While the saline rainforest walks is a great activity to discover this extraordinary network of islands in the forest, and give great opportunities to spot mammals such as forest elephants, sitatunga or giant forest hogs, we picked the mangabey tracking experience to discover this new primate species for us.

This group is unique in that it is a community up to three hundreds monkeys, much larger than usual agile monkeys groups of 10-20 individuals in general. The walk starts from the research station through a beautiful primary forest and is guided by a Baaka tracker who follows all the signs of previous trackers let through the rainforest to meet the agile mangabey group. Not an easy thing if you are not a skilled Baaka.

The light was very poor so I have not edited any picture yet. But we certainly had a great time with these primates known to ocasionally hunt animals such as blue or Peters duikers, a unique behavior only known to chimpanzees or baboons.

At the way back, we met some Baaka people along the trail coming back home from their daily forest activities.

December 25, 2023

I forgot to post this picture from our preferred superstar from the Makumba group!

December 25, 2023

I woke up as usual very early on next morning and tried to walk around the Sangha Lodge facilities to find a resident male De Brazza monkey, who is known to venture in the middle of the lodge. I was very happy to find him!

After breakfast, the plan was to track the white-tailed pangolin with Tessa's team. We got very happy to see this marvelous creature, sadly critically endangered. At least we expect that the Sangha Pangolin Project will help to conserve all three pangolin species from Dzanga Ndoki complex and protected areas: the small white-tailed pangolin, the black-bellied pangolin, all arboreal species (but with different behaviors, the former is diurnal while the latter is nocturnal), and the large but rare giant pangolin.

Baaka people hunt and consume pangolin as part of their traditions. Local consumption is sustainable according to Thelma and shall continue to be allowed. But the main threats are a shift in hunting techniques (pangolins are now starting to be hunted with torch by night and shoot them, which is really efficient to localize the pangolins and much easier than going through the forest by day, and the Asian market demand for scales which seems to be hopefully very limited in the area. Until when?

A very interesting feature of this pangolin species is that it sleeps every night in a small hollow cavity in a tree, to wake-up at sunrise on next day. This behavior enable Baaka trackers to follow pangolins from sunrise to sunset every day, like they do with gorillas. Incident sometimes occur and pangolins can be lost for days, or weeks.

https://www.bornfree.org.uk/rescue/sangha-pangolin-project/

It seems that the day to day work with communities is working and that people are now conserving pangolins. Let's hope this will continue for a while and that big changes will happen in asian cultures for consumption of native species.

December 26, 2023

marvellous photos and very useful information. So pleased you are continuing with the TR @jeremie.

the demand in asia for pangolin scales is concentrated in China and Vietnam, where they use the scales for spurious reasons such as traditional Chinese medicines. Demand in the other Asian countries (Asia like Africa is made up of numerous countries) is significantly lower or non-existent.

Edited December 26, 2023 by Kitsafari