Dzanga-Sangha

Dzanga-Sangha is a corner of rainforest in the far south-west of the Central African Republic, on the Sangha river where Cameroon and Congo meet, and it holds one of the sights of the continent: Dzanga Bai, a clearing of mineral mud in the forest where, on any given afternoon, fifty to a hundred forest elephants come out of the trees to drink the salts, with bongos and red river hogs and sitatungas among them, watched from a wooden platform by whoever has made the journey. Nearby, at Bai Hokou, a group of western lowland gorillas has been habituated over years by trackers of the BaAka — the forest people whose net hunts, honey gathering and polyphonic singing are the other reason to come — and can be followed for an hour through the undergrowth. Bayanga is the village on the river with the lodge and the airstrip; the reserve is one third of the Sangha Trinational that UNESCO listed in 2012 with Nouabalé-Ndoki across the river in Congo and Lobéké in Cameroon.

The traveller comes by the reserve's charter from Bangui, two hours over unbroken forest, or by the long road through Cameroon, and stays at the lodge on the Sangha; walks the last kilometre to Dzanga Bai in silence with a guard and climbs the platform to sit for the afternoon while the elephants come and go; goes out at dawn with the BaAka trackers to find the gorillas and stands, when the group is found, for the hour that is allowed; spends a morning with a BaAka family in the forest on a net hunt or gathering honey, and an evening at their singing; takes a pirogue on the river; and, with the days it takes, understands why the people who work here rarely leave.

The Guide's honesty, gently: the republic's peace remains uneven — the reserve itself has been kept, through everything, one of the safer places in the country, but the country changes by the month, and the prudent traveller checks with their chancellery, books through the lodge or an operator who knows the ground, and flies rather than drives from Bangui, if they travel at all —; the visit is expensive, because the charter and the remoteness are real; the forest is hot, wet and full of things that bite — long sleeves, the net, the pills; the gorilla hour has rules that protect the animals from human illness — a cold means you stay behind; the BaAka are hosts and guides, not an attraction — pay through the community fund and ask before photographing; and the elephants at the bai at four in the afternoon are, for the traveller who gets there, one of the great quiet hours of Africa.