If you have a bit of adventure in you and dream of visiting a remote paradise, this is the place. It’s teaming with game, birds and fish, and in fact, one of my most safari travelled clients with 45 African safaris throughout the Continent rated this one as the best ever undertaken.

Visiting the Congo Basin, with the Congo Conservation Company (now renamed Kamba Rainforest Experiences), an area of 3.7 million square kilometres, is a journey into one of the most isolated areas on the planet. 

The world’s second largest rainforest (after the Amazon) is home to a mix of species; nearly two hundred mammal species, over one thousand bird species, seventy-five amphibian and three hundred and forty reptile species, as well as seven hundred and seventy fish and over six thousand plant species including six hundred different trees.

The Rainforest

Encounter gorillas, forest elephants, African gray parrots, and other rarely sighted wildlife. Sit quietly beside one of the many bais, jungle clearings and watch forest elephants, bongos, sitatungas and forest buffalo come to eat and drink. 

Some of these species play a significant role in forming the forest environment. Researchers have found that Central African forests generally have taller trees but lower density of small trees than forests in the Amazon or Borneo because large herbivores such as elephants, gorillas, and large herbivores keep the density of small trees very low through predation, reducing competition for large trees. 

Congo Conservation Company (Kamba Rainforest Experiences)

The Congo Conservation Company was born in 2007 when Sabine Plattner arrived at the gates of Odzala-Kokoua National Park to set up an environmental education program for villagers. 

Realising that conservation doesn’t work without commerce she set out to build a lodge, with the support of the Congolese government, at the gorilla research centre at Ngaga, where Dr Magdalena Bermejo and her team had been studying the critically endangered Western Lowland Gorillas since 2012. Lango and Mboko lodges followed and another two, Mombongo and Mokele, are opening in 2025.

The Congo Basin is a vital “carbon sink” mitigating global warming and scientists estimate that every hectare of Congo’s tropical rainforest sequesters 300 tons of CO2 per hectare. 

Kamba believes that sustainable eco-tourism is the best way to protect it and guests play a large part. 

The challenge of sourcing locally in a remote area has been turned into an opportunity and Kamba focusses on procuring locally produced building materials, furniture, and fittings, and sourcing quality fresh produce from growers and suppliers in the area. 

The chefs love incorporating local fruits and vegetables into their menus: safou, a fruit rich in fatty acids that tastes a bit like avocado with a hint of lime, as well as coconut, cassava, palm fruits, nuts, okra, and wild ginger, which is delicious in cocktails.

Camps

📷Kamba Rainforest Experiences

Ngaga Camp

Ngaga was the first camp established alongside the research centre. Consisting of six stylish thatched bungalows, it sits just outside Odzala-Kokoua in a glade in the primary forest above the Ngaga Stream. Enjoy exceptional cuisine and warm hospitality as well as a visit to the many lowland gorilla families in the area. 

Lango Camp

Sited on the edge of a dense gallery forest, overlooking Lango Baï it offers access to the Lekoli River and the surrounding forests. Elevated bungalows and wraparound walkways offer incredible views over the baï, a wide, marshy clearing that attracts huge flocks of Green Pigeons and African Grey Parrots as well as herds of Forest Buffalo and Forest Elephants.

Mboko Camp

Mboko Camp, the largest, is found in the southern half of Odzala-Kokoua National Park, midway between Kamba’s private airstrip and the Lekoli River boat launch — departure point for explorations by kayak or motor cruiser.

The camp has twelve canvas sided bungalows situated where savanna, forest, and the Likeni River intersect providing a front-row seat to the staggering diversity of the Congolese ecosystem. 

Hyena prowl across open grasslands, monkeys in the trees and the waterways beckoning with the promise of amazing sightings. 

Wildlife

The wildlife viewing in the Congo Basin is some of the most varied and numerous in the world.

The main prize for many visitors is visiting the gorillas. With group numbers limited, it is a great privilege to go on a guided walk to visit these wonderful creatures.

In the forests other creatures specific to the Congo can be seen. Forest elephants, which are the smallest of the three living elephant species standing only 2.4m high, can be seen in the clearings. 

Also keep your eyes open for sitatunga, or marsh buck, a medium sized buck found in the forest.  Other animals to be seen include bongos, a large, mostly nocturnal, forest-dwelling antelope, forest buffalo, bonobos, historically called the pygmy chimpanzee and hundreds of bird species.

What makes this area so special is that many of the animals have evolved to the forest environment: elephants with straightened tusks that don’t get tangled in the dense underbrush, gorillas agile enough to forage for fruit in the high treetops, and vultures that eat plants because the jungle canopy makes it difficult to spot carrion from the sky.

The Congo basin and the Odzala-Kokoua National Park are amongst the last true unspoilt destinations. A John Pearse Safaris client having done 45 African Safaris and ten trips to South America declared Odzala to be the finest destination they have visited. High praise indeed!

Talk to John Pearse Safaris about a range of options to visit this magical place.