Dzanga Bai…the magical hamlet of Elephants!

Let me get this out of the way…I’ve had several elephant sighting on my travels through Africa and once as a kid in India. If I really narrow it down to forest elephants then its down to Gabon and if I’m stretching it then perhaps Cameroon. Being from India, you may say what’s the big deal with forest elephants…there are several forest elephants in India, both  inside and outside of its national parks. My riposte is that those are different species – the Asian elephants are distinct from both the African Savanna and their African Forest cousins.

Wading through a stream

As for my experiences with forest elephants in Gabon, I’ve only seen them after hours (sometimes days) of tracking in the jungle just to get a glimpse and that too mostly through a thicket of bush. Don’t get me wrong, I love the thrill (and pain) of tracking wild animals but just the thought of going to a place where these normally elusive giants come out in a clearing deep in the steamy jungles of Central Africa was alluring enough that this was my number one objective in CAR.

Elephant tracks

The word “Bai” comes from the pygmy language and refers for a forest clearing with a stream running through it. There are several of these bai’s spread across the Congo Basin from Nigeria to the two Congos but not all of them have visitation by elephants and other mammals on a large scale.

Only bai’s that have the unique combination of a water stream, mineral salts and non-degraded habitat can attract big herds of elephants and other mammals.

This wasn’t my first brush with bai’s…my first introduction infact was when I was researching Gabon and I was immediately transfixed by them. Back in 2011, I spend over 20 days backpacking through the country and made my way all the way to the remote Ivindo National Park just so I could visit the Langoué Bai. Unfortunately, upon getting there I learnt that shortly before I got there, it was closed for eco-tourism and earmarked exclusively for research. That was a bummer but, I somewhat made-up for it by going to the magnificent and remote Kongou Falls.

Back at Doli Lodge, before I even ventured into the jungle I had to make arrangements with the park authority. Most important was to secure a 4X4 that would transfer me into the park as far as they could take me and then a guide to navigate through the jungle.

Elephants in the background &forest hogs in the foreground

Christian from the parks authority got me sorted out with the logistics and when I returned to the lodge for dinner I met Fredrik, a Swedish adventurer and photographer – the only other guest at the lodge and the only other traveler I met since I’d arrived in CAR. He had made his way across from Cameroon the exact same way I had originally envisioned in 2013.

Over dinner we agreed to combine our trip into the park for various activities over the next three days so we could share some of the transport and guide costs. He even had a quite brilliant idea of spending a night at the watchtower at the bai which I immediately jumped on.

Since Fredrik had already packed his supplies for a couple days, I had to make a quick run to the village of Bayanga to buy water, bread, a couple tins of mackerel and some sweet chocolate spread.

The next morning, we were picked up in a 4X4 which was heavily depreciated if I can say that. Not surprisingly it failed to start and had to be push-started a few times before it got firing.

An hour or so later we were dropped at the point beyond which the vehicle couldn’t go. The terrain was too swampy for it. It was so wet I took my shoes off and decided to walk barefoot from there on out.

An hour of walking through mud, a knee-high stream, and elephant tracks and we finally arrived at the watchtower. The Dzanga Bai is not special…it MAGICAL! A place of astounding natural beauty. Without a doubt it ranks up there with my best wildlife experiences.

Forest Buffaloes

There were over forty elephants when we got there but their numbers steadily grew to over a hundred closer to dusk. At one point I counted 116! Among the elephants were a few lazy wallowing red forest buffalos. One forest hog family also made its way around the bai for a short while that afternoon. However, we didn’t see any Bongos…the other star attraction of the Dzanga bai.

To see these elephants that are normally so elusive and solitary going about digging for mineral salts and seeing their social interactions was amazing. I’ve been on safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Namibia and can claim to have seen a bit of wildlife including a lot of elephants but without diminishing them I would have to say the Dzanga Bai beats all those experiences hands down. The thrill of being in a remote jungle with practically zero tourists and not having to watch from a vehicle is pure unadulterated wildlife experience. It makes the heart warm knowing that there still exist these remote, pristine places on our planet.

Watchtower where we spent the night

The best thing was that the guides left us on the watchtower and returned to Bayanga as Fredrik and I were going to spend the night on the tower. They would return the following morning to pick us up. I had lugged a big bottle of beer with me to sip on through dusk and even though it was warm it was still quite a sundowner experience.

I went to bed that night listening to the typical forest noises but also the occasional grunts and trumpets of the elephants jostling for the best digging spots. Since I had brought my sleeping bag with me I had a fairly good night’s rest but I think Fredrik was worse off since he had to make do by sleeping on the bamboo benches. Below is a 5 minute video of the bai along with noises of the forest.

With so many elephants in and around us, it made for an interesting experience going for a pee at night (the beer didn’t help ofcourse). Put in the headlamp on the red light so as not to startle the elephants, check and double check to make sure there were no elephants in the vicinity before climbing down the tower, doing the business, and then rushing back to the safety of the tower. Forest elephants are know to be extremely aggressive!