11 Days - Great Ape Experience (Virunga & Odzala)

This Great Ape Experience, is a wonderful way to discover the inner workings of the remote and untouched African jungles, affording you the opportunity to encounter two Gorilla species found in the Congo. The Mountain Gorillas indigenous to the Virunga Mountain range around the DRC, Rwanda & Uganda, and the Western Lowland Gorillas found in the Congo Basin of the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and Central African Republic. And while you are at it - you will have the amazing opportunity to witness Africa's Beating Heart - the mind blowing Nyiragongo, where you will summit this volcano and sit on the rim of the worlds' largest lava lake. A truly breath taking experience.

ABOUT THE PARKS:

Virunga National Park is a UNESCO world heritage site, and the oldest National Park in Africa. Located in the east of the DRC, bordering with Uganda and Rwanda, it is the continents' most biologically diverse and protected area, under the 'Virunga Alliance' programme. It is protected by a dedicated team of 600 park rangers, whom are recruited locally and undergo intensive training to safeguard the parks' exceptional wildlife, including the last of the world's critically endangered Mountain Gorillas. A visit to Virunga will leave travellers feeling touched by it's heartwarming and valiant story, and changed by the humility of the people and the opportunity to witness some unique highlights only found in Virunga National Park.

Odzala National Park is so remote and extremely exclusive, there are only 12 guests found in the park at any given time. You will have the honour of interacting with the research team that pioneered the Western Lowland Gorilla habituation project in this area (7- 8 years ago), and whom one of the members is a permanent resident at Ngaga Camp. She is often known to be out in the jungle sleeping there while researching these incredible primates. If she is in camp during your stay, you will have the opportunity to talk with her and learn about the intimate details of her research all while encountering them in their natural habitat yourself!

Covering an incredible 13 600km2 (1.36 million hectares / 3.36 million acres), Odzala represents an essential part of both the greater Congo Basin system and the groundbreaking TRIDOM Transfrontier Park which combines adjacent national parks in Gabon and Cameroon, as well as Congo. Famed for its biodiversity, Odzala is renowned as one of the last refuges of the African forest elephant (listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN). Forest elephants are threatened by poaching for ivory, and by habitat loss due to deforestation. Odzala is also famed for its primate populations; in particular, the critically endangered western lowland gorilla: a very significant population of these great apes survives in unspoiled natural habitat, alongside ten other diurnal primate species. Odzala also boasts iconic West Central African fauna such as forest buffalo and bongo as well as dozens of little-known mammal species, from water chevrotain to palm civets. 

PLEASE NOTE:

This itinerary has set departure days in and out of Brazzaville to Odzala, and therefore can only be arranged with departure dates to Mboko Airstrip on Thursdays, returning the following Monday.

Please keep this in mind while planning your travel dates; ideally we recommend that you arrive in Brazzaville the night before and stay the night at Radisson Blu (This would be on a Wednesday).

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