In the far north of the Republic of Congo, the forest is so big and so unbroken that it can feel like another planet. Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park covers more than four thousand square kilometers of lowland rainforest, swamp and river, and it is part of a conservation landscape that continues into Cameroon and the Central African Republic. Together with Lobéké and Dzanga-Sangha, it forms the Sangha Trinational, which UNESCO listed in 2012. This is one of the last large tracts of intact forest in the Congo Basin, and its remoteness has kept it largely free of the pressures found elsewhere.
The wildlife is outstanding. Forest elephants walk the paths, western lowland gorillas live in groups in the swampy clearings called bais, and chimpanzees here have been studied for their use of tools, such as sticks to fish for termites. One of the best-known sites in the park is Mbeli Bai, a clearing where researchers have watched gorillas for decades from a raised platform. Birds such as hornbills and grey parrots fill the canopy with noise, and the air is dense, warm and loud with insects.
There is no ordinary riding here. Access is from the town of Ouesso and the logging settlement of Pokola on the Sangha River, along dirt tracks cut by timber companies, and the park itself has no roads for tourists. These tracks can be impassable in the rainy seasons, and the dry months from December to February are the most practical. Travel is usually by four-wheel-drive vehicle, boat and on foot, with support from the conservation organizations that run the park and the camps nearby. A motorcycle can be used by experienced adventurers on the logging roads, but this is serious expedition territory.
Planning is crucial. Fuel and supplies must be arranged in advance, since the nearest reliable stations are in Ouesso and towns far to the south, and the camps near the park are basic. Permits, guides and health preparations, including malaria prevention and yellow fever vaccination, are essential. Mobile coverage is absent.
The reward for those who make the effort is a feeling of scale. At dawn, with mist rising from the swamp and the distant call of a gorilla, the forest seems endless.