Adventure in the Dzanga Sangha : Cameroon and Central Africa Republic

Flight to Yaounde. on arrival, meeting with our guide staff who will arrange transfer to hotel Merina or similar. Overnight stay in a double room with services

Departure in the morning after breakfast to Bertoua. We will pass through the towns of Ayos, Abong Mbang,make stops in Bantou villages and Doumé to admire buildings of German colonial architecture, visit colorful traditional markets where bush meats (antelopes, porcupines, pangolins…) and vegetable products of the region (pineappleplantain, avocado, cassava. Arrive in Bertoua. Dinner and night at Hotel Martino.

After breakfast departure to Yokadouma, in our way, we can admire fishermen on the Kadei river, pass trucks transporting large logs (main economy of the region) and take a walk through a cocoa plantation. Lunch in local restaurants along the way, dinner and lodging in Catholic mission in Yokadouma.

After breakfast, departure for Libongo, via tracks through dense rainforest, with the possibility of wildlife sightings (with a little luck) such as chimpanzees, gorillas, buffaloes, and bongo antelopes. Crossing the border with The Central African Republic, time for formalities and visa requirements. Continuation by boat on the sangha river (2 – 3 hour boat trip), where we glide over the placid waters surrounded

by lush nature and easily spot monkeys, crocodiles and hippos. We are in the heart of Dzanga sangha park, created in 1990 with the support of WWF, and part of the Tri - national sangha (together with the Lobeke Park in Cameroon and Nouabalé – Ndoki Park in the republic of Congo), an area of 4.5 million hectares of tropical forest, a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2012. Arrival and disembarkation in Bayanga. Accommodation at Doli Lodge or similar, dinner and overnight in double room with services.

After breakfast at the lodge, transfer to Bai Hokou or Mongambe, guided by the eco-guards and pygmy trackers, for a trekking in the forest to meet a family of West Gorilla (Gorilla Gorilla) in their natural habitat, but accustomed to human presence, thanks to the patience ( it takes 4/5 years of work to accustom a family) and the skillful research work of a team of experts who have studied their behavior. In addition to offering protection to these primates at the risk of extinction due to the reduction of both the reduction of their environment and poaching the park also

contributes to the sustenance of the pygmy populations living in the surrounding area by developing activities for the rational and sustainable

exploitation of the forest’s resources. Lunch box. If time permits (and trekking has taken place in Bai Hokou) there is the possibility of an encounter

with mangabeys, small monkeys with fine, long limbs and extremely agile. Dinner and overnight at the lodge.

NB : The duration and difficulty of the trek depends on the location of the gorillas, and generally the time allowed for viewing is 1 hour

After breakfast at the lodge, transfer to Sangha Bai, where a walking trail (approximatively time : 1 hour) will take us across the banks of the sangha and to a platform from which there is a magnificent view of the salt marshes in the middle of the forest, an ideal place for observing Elephants, a unique spectacle that can encompass up to fifty or sixty pachyderms in a single view, who spend several hours in the area, as well as bongo antelopes and sitatunga. Lunch box. Return to the lodge, if time permits a walk in the surrounding area to spot chimpanzees, rhinocerosphotamophers and colorful butterflies, or to discover the busting town of Bayanga, with its markets (sometimes also frequented by nomadic peuls Bororo women)

dinner and night at the lodge.

After breakfast at the lodge, we will head for the pygmy’s camps, for a day dedicated to discovering the daily practices of this people, who have managed to adapt extraordinarily well to the hard conditions of forest life by maintaining a deep, almost symbolic, bod with nature. Semi-nomadic hunters and gathered, famous for their small size, but also for their rich oral traditions, dances and polyphonic songs, their origins remain mysterious. Most of them continue to practice the itinerant life within the virgin forest, in symbiosis with nature and finding in the necessary subsistence. True millenary repositories of the secrets linked to the properties of plants and perfect control of an environment apparently hostile to most, pygmy healers are not infrequently called upon by the other local populations who do not have easy access to the cures of modern medicine. Moving on foot through the dense vegetation, we will follow the tracks and footprints of the animals and learn the techniques of hunting (tortoises, pangolins, fallows deer…) and fishing assist in the collection of palm caterpillars and honey, acquire some rudiments of traditional pharmacopoeia, and observe the architecture of the mungulu, the typical igoo like huts made of leaves where families find shelter at night. Lunch and return to the lodge for dinner and night.

After breakfast, we depart by boat to the border with Cameroon. Clearing of formalities and continuation, dinner and night at Catholic Mission in Yokadouma.

Departure in the morning after breakfast to Bertoua. Along the way, we will make numerous stops and visit traditional gold mines, where using

rudiments methods, large holes are dug in the ground and the miners lower themselves with the sole aid of a rope and torch in search of the precious metal. Meetings with Bantou and visits to likely weekly markets are not missing. Lunch in local restaurant along the way. Dinner and night at hotel

Martino.

After breakfast, we continue to the capital. Lunch in a restaurant. arrival, depending on time available, city tour and handicraft center, where you will find valuable masks, bronzes and leather goods. Transfer and airport and end of stay