Afrinkong
Nature & LandscapesThe Congo Basin Forest
The northern edge of the second largest rainforest on earth, and it starts here.
Photo Ness'arts Prod / Pexels
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC · Tourism
Dzanga Bai
Dzanga Bai is a forest clearing where a hundred elephants come to drink mineral water in a single afternoon, and Dzanga-Sangha holds western lowland gorillas habituated for tracking — one of the great wildlife experiences on earth, in one of the hardest countries to reach.
Central & West AfricaRegion
27Tourism experiences
Dzanga Bai, and the forest elephantsKnown for
01
Featured destinations
Where the country actually takes you.
Nature & Landscapes
MountainsThe Fertit Hills and Mont Ngaoui
1,420 metres on the Cameroon border, in country almost nobody visits.
Photo Stepan Vrany / Pexels
Boali
Fifty metres of water on the M'Bali river, two hours from Bangui.
Lakes & RiversThe Sangha and the Ubangi
The Sangha runs down to the Congo; the Ubangi is the whole southern border.
Photo Lucie Burlet / Pexels
Beaches & CoastRiver Sand
Landlocked. The sandbanks on the Sangha come out in the dry season and people use them.
Photo Fatin Rifat / Pexels
Forests & RainforestDzanga-Sangha
Old-growth Congo Basin forest, shared with Cameroon and Congo as a trinational park.
Photo K / Pexels
02
Wildlife & safari
What lives here, and how you see it without disturbing it.
Wildlife
Western Lowland Gorillas
Habituated groups tracked on foot, with far fewer visitors than in the east.
Forest, Not Savanna
This is bai-watching and forest tracking. Bongo, forest buffalo and sitatunga, all on foot.
Photo Calvin Seng / Pexels
Eco TourismDzanga-Sangha's Model
The reserve employs BaAka trackers and shares gate revenue with the villages around it.
03
Culture & heritage
The part of a country you cannot photograph from a vehicle.
Culture
The BaAka
Forest hunter-gatherers whose polyphonic singing is on the UNESCO intangible list.
Photo Najim Kurfi / Pexels
Traditional PeopleBaAka and Sangha-Sangha
The BaAka in the forest, and the Sangha-Sangha along the river.
Cassava, Bushmeat and Palm Wine
Cassava as the staple, smoked fish from the river, and palm wine tapped in the forest.
Photo Freek Wolsink / Pexels
BaAka Polyphony
Sung in overlapping parts, with no leader and no fixed melody, and it has been studied by composers for fifty years.
Photo alameen .ng / Pexels
Nets, Baskets and Bark Cloth
Hunting nets woven from forest liana, and bark cloth beaten from tree fibre.
Photo Seun Adeniyi / Pexels
Bangui's Colonial Quarter
A river capital laid out by the French, and much of it still standing.
Photo Sinan KRIYA / Pexels
HeritageTwo Sites
Dzanga-Sangha for its forest, and Manovo-Gounda St Floris in the north, on the danger list.
Photo mk_photoz / Pexels
04
Cities & everyday life
Where people actually live between the landmarks.
CitiesBangui
On the Ubangi, opposite the Congo, with the Marche Central at the middle of it.
Photo K / Pexels
ArchitectureColonial and Forest Camp
French colonial in Bangui, and leaf-and-sapling mongulu shelters in the forest.
Photo Manass Rex / Pexels
The Marche Central
Everything from cassava to river fish, and the noise of a city that never stops trading.
Photo Ana Kenk / Pexels
Not Yet
This is expedition travel in a country with a hard recent history, and it is not for families.
Photo Prince Beguin / Pexels
05
Adventure & outdoors
For travellers who would rather walk it than watch it.
Adventure
Tracking on Foot
Gorillas in the morning, the bai in the afternoon, and net-hunting with the BaAka between.
Photo Seun Adeniyi / Pexels
Forest Walking
Everything here is done on foot, quietly, behind a tracker.
Photo Daniel Ndzaba / Pexels
One Lodge
Sangha Lodge at Dzanga-Sangha, and nothing comparable anywhere else in the country.
06
Travel inspiration
The frames people come home with.
Elephants in a Clearing
Dzanga Bai from the platform at four in the afternoon, when the light comes in sideways.
Photo Kyle Miller / Pexels
Hidden GemsChimpanzees at Bai Hokou
A second habituated group, and the walk in is as good as the sighting.
Why Visit This Country
Why the Central African Republic
A hundred forest elephants in one clearing, watched from a platform, by almost no one.
Why the Central African Republic
A hundred forest elephants in one clearing, watched from a platform, by almost no one.
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