Ivindo National Park & Kongou Falls

Map of Gabon with the various parks. Lope and Ivindo are more central
(countesy of http://www.africas-eden.com/)

After Lope, the next park to visit was Ivindo which was one of the more remote and inaccessible parks in Gabon. There were two must sees in this park, one was the Langue Bai and the other was the Kongou Falls. Bai is a pygmy word for forest clearings created by elephants deep in the jungles to dig up minerals and its the best place to see jungle animals as they come out of their dense forest cover to savor the minerals. Unfortunately for me, the Langue Bai was closed to the public last year as it was located deep in the heart of the park and hence was extremely difficult to maintain the eco-friendly camps even with upwards of $400/night price tab. I guess I will have to visit a bai in some other Central Africa country.

My bed for the night...fairly comfortable actually

Road from Booue to Makokou

The other attraction was the Kongou fall which is the biggest and most spectacular waterfalls in Central Africa.

First I had to get to the town of Booue’ from Lope by train, then take a bush taxi to the town of Makokou from where I had to hire a pirogue to take me into the park and to the falls. The train ride from Lope to Booue’ was just an hour’s journey but more notably the arrival time was 3am in the morning so as soon as I arrived I searched around if there were any taxis to Makokou. I met another woman who was going the same way and together we managed to find a guy who was willing to take us there. The problem was that he would do so only in the morning so I had to spend the night at the station.



Market in Makokou



Aerial view of the Kongou falls


Normally while traveling, I try to be as active as possible during the daylight hours as in most places in Africa there is not a lot to do once the sun sets. With that in mind, I slapped some mosquito repellent on my exposed skin and slipped into the sleeping bag on the bench at the rain station to get a few hours of sleep until daybreak.

Our Pirogue

Rapids

Rafinho, the taxi driver arrived promptly on time and we were soon off to Makokou in his small sedan. I was lucky that I got to sit in the front seat beside the driver. It was not so lucky for the guys at the back…they had to share their space with three other travelers plus some baggage. Makokou was the administrative capital of the region called as Ogooue-Ivindo which derives its name from the two prominent rivers that flow in opposite directions and join together here before flowing down to the Gulf of Guinea. The ride from Booue’ to Makokou was five hours of pure delight for anyone who loves dense un-spoilt rainforests. I had read that 90% of Gabon was rainforest and I am able to attest to it after seeing some of it with my own eyes. For the whole journey we rarely encountered villages and there was very little forest land that was degraded by human activity.

Fleur d'eau (water lily i suppose)

The insect secreted a noxious chemical when handled

A couple more thoughts on the ride were that Rafinho, though a very friendly and personable chap was a crazy driver. Perhaps the most nervous I have been through my travel through Gabon was this ride with him. Going slow is not in his training manual and using the brake and slowing down at dangerous curves are nothing but an afterthought. It was however interesting to chat with him along the way where my limited knowledge of Spanish was matched equally by his.

There's an elephant in there...the truck is clearly visible

There were several checkpoints along the way and at every stop the gendarmerie (military police) used stop us and ask for papier (paper). I personally wasn’t harassed but I was told by the co-passengers that tourists get a free pass. It’s evidently not as easy for locals and other guest workers from Africa.

The cascade by the camp

The froth is a combination of oxygen and dirt

One of several falls of Kongou

Elephant tick...super painful and i had to pick
several from various parts of my body

Preying Mantis

Upon getting in Makokou, I got in touch with the conservator of the park and he assigned me two boatmen, a pirogue and a guide and soon we were off into the jungle. If the 5-hours of car-ride from Booue’ to Makokou was a delight then the 4-hour boat journey through the pristine Ivindo park was pure bliss. All that I saw for the entire journey was seemingly endless stretches of virgin, untouched tropical forests, the ones that we normally see on TV and get a feeling of it being too good to be true. But the fact is that here in Ivindo, the forests are just that. They complimented stunningly with the dark waters of the river and the occasional rapids.



Elephants & Buffalo tracks



Leopard tracks



Along the way we spotted an elephant by the riverside but it just took 4-5 steps for it to completely disappear into the thicket. I realized at that point how difficult it is to spot animals in these jungles because an animal the size of elephant can easily disappear over a distance of couple meters. Later, as the light was fading we saw three forest buffaloes crossing the river. Too bad that our boat decided to get stuck at the most inopportune time in the shallow waters giving only distant glimpses of the buffaloes as they scampered across the river as though their life depended on it.

Ant army on the move

Top of Bouilla falls

We approached the camp as the daylight had deteriorated rapidly and as I walked up the camp I could hear the thunder resonating from the waterfall and that left me pretty excited about the next day.

The next morning I was able to truly appreciate the wonder of the waterfall. The Kongou are not one but a combination of falls and cascades spread over 2-3 miles with varying volumes, heights and views and therein lies its beauty unlike many other renowned waterfalls

N'gonde falls

Gazing at the waterfall, seeing the numerous birds and butterflies against the backdrop of the virgin jungles made me wonder if this was how all the water falls in the world would have been before human development.

The first day in the morning we headed to the western section of the falls to see a cascade and in the afternoon we took a walk in the jungles. I was pretty aware that spotting animals would be very difficult walking in the jungles but it was harder than what I had thought. More that three hours of walking and we had seen signs of existence of several animals but spotted none. In fact the best thing we had come across was a chimpanzee nest atop a tree. Surely I was not going to see one, was I?

Obstacle course from the top of the falls to the bottom

Shortly thereafter, as we pushed on in the jungle we heard a slight disturbance atop a tree slightly behind us and as we all turned around, the guide shouted Chimpanzeeeeee! The Chimpanzee for some reason broke its cover and started to climb down the tree but as it was midway down, it stopped and looked straight at us. It might have been a fraction of a second or less, but I will forever remember that moment when two primates made eye contact. Sure I have seen chimps in zoos and also at the monkey island in Liberia but the feeling of making eye contact a wild, unhabituated, unrestrained chimpanzee deep in the jungles of Central Africa is something that will be forever etched in my memory.

Getting soaked by the mist

Drenched...but completely fulfilling feeling

Fresh caught fish as dinner

There was an unfinished ungraded road that was build by Chinese developers when there was an exploratory study done to build a hydro dam over this river but thankfully, the government decided to put a hold on it and now the forest is retaking the road. This road made for a very nice walk back to the camp. I left my ephemeral footprints alongside those of elephants, buffalos, duikers, civets and leopards.

Going upsteam in the shallow was a problem

Upon returning back to camp we grilled some chicken and discussed the plan for next day. Conversation was difficult due to the English-French barrier. I wanted to get the idea across that I want to walk as much as possible the next day to get a better chance to see animals. After struggling for a while, I finally managed to get the idea across when I mumbled something like”Marche o no Marche Moi depende…animal voir Jesus depende” (Walk or no Walk depends on me…animal sighting depends on Jesus). I could not find a exact replacement for word luck or God so I had to use Jesus to get the message across.

Next morning after breakfast by the cascade, it was time to visit the Bouilla N’a Ngonde ((The Sun and the Moon) falls on the eastern section of the Kongou. To get there we had to hike for about an hour through the forest and then take a pirogue across the river and hike up a hill for another hour to get to a couple waterfalls called the sun and moon based on the varying volume of water discharge from them. At the expense of sounding like a broken record, I am saying that the falls were as natural as they get; no railing, no development, nada…and the trails that I had to take were littered by elephants and buffalo droppings.

After getting back from the falls, we had a quick lunch and headed back to the forest. We did not see any great apes or large mammals but did see couple different species of monkeys. Tracking the Colobus monkeys through the forest though was a nice experience.

After a good nights rest, the next morning I soaked in the spectacular view of the cascade one last time before getting on the pirogue for the boat ride back to Makokou. Below is a collect of videos from the trip to the Kongou.

The Kongou is so isolated and difficult to get to that very few people have been lucky to see it and tourist facilities are virtually non-existent bar the camp where I stayed. Through the whole time there neither did I see tourists nor any locals in the vicinity of the falls. In fact, Lonely Planet recommends to get to the falls before development does. Perhaps it’s inevitable that this unique place will get more popular and accessible and eventually will see development but I feel fortunate to have seen it in all its natural glory.