Trip of the week: tracking lowland gorillas in the Congo

Sprawling across six African countries, the Congo Basin is the “green, river-laced heart of the continent” – a “lush” world teeming with spectacular wildlife.

There are elephants to see, as well as chimpanzees, leopards, lions and lowland gorillas, yet the region receives “only a trickle of lucky visitors”, says Stanley Stewart in Condé Nast Traveller.

The very luckiest of those stay at the four “upmarket” lodges of the Congo Conservation Company, which are spread across the Republic of Congo (not to be confused with its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo) and the Central African Republic. They are wonderfully comfortable, and they also fund local education and healthcare provision, and host a long-term gorilla research project.

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From Brazzaville, guests fly in a bush plane over vast tracts of forest to reach the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, where Lango Camp lies amid a “waterworld” of meandering channels and swampy clearings known as baïs. Here giant kingfishers dart ahead of you from tree to tree, colobus monkeys gather in blossom trees, and herds of buffalo and elephant come to drink.

At Ngaga Camp, deep in the jungle, the insect life includes head-banging termites that make a noise “like a rattlesnake”, and ants that sew leaves together to make pretty nests. And on the five-hour boat trip up the Sangha River to Sangha Camp, the forest provides an “eerie” soundtrack “of calls and shrieks, of croaks and hoots, of whistles and songs”.

At both Sangha Camp and Ngaga Camp, trackers will lead you into the forest to sit and watch families of lowland gorillas. Peacefully dining on leaves at dawn, they look like “sumo wrestlers bent over floral needlework”. With their “delicate” fingernails, expressive faces and thoughtful eyes, these are the most astonishing of all the “wonders and miracles” in this amazing part of Africa.

Visit exploreinc.com and congoconservation.travel for more information.