Northern Republic of Congo

Further afield, another day to the north takes you to Ouesso, where accommodation can be negotiated for 50,000 CFA ($100) and you can stage a visit into the grand jewel of Central Africa, Ndoki national park. Entrance is 50,000 CFA ($100) and you can see just about any animal here including leopards, giraffes, wild gorillas, hippos, elephants, crocodiles, and countless more. 2-3 days here is enough, but there is no flight back to Brazzaville. You either have to take the road back or else go on into C.A.R. (where travel is very difficult) or Cameroon (where travel is good,) and eventually into South Sudan, Chad, or Nigeria (where travel is not entirely safe and infrastructure is poor.) The “Alimentation” (Grocery store) supermarket in Ouesso run by Cameroonians and Angolans in town, near the ATM, is best. Congolese grocer establishments are dismal, unclean, and barren of selection here.

Ouesso airport has a 1400 CFA per ticket check-in fee, 5000 CFA per ticket police fee. Here upon checkin you wait forever for your passports and it can be intimidating and unsettling and annoying. For the Ouesso To Brazza flight you check-in at around 7:00 and leave 9-ish , though usually after the cross-checks on the plane are done so may be a bit later.

Getting to C.A.R. can be done with the help of SGV or a few days negotiating with the locals and the police, but is hugely expensive to attempt overland or overriver on your own, if not impossible. It is also illegal. If you’re headed to Dzanga Bai, another animal-packed treat, Bangui to Libongo or Bayanga by plane for Sangha Lodge launch is best, as the road from Bangui is no longer safe. However, a baot from Ouesso via Bomassa is possible if arranged far in advance. CAR’s frontier is done by Ecoguards and it runs 50 euros for the visa plus 2,000 or 4,000 CFA at the border w/ ROC. Fly from Bangui rather than road if coming southbound to Dzanga Sangha, because it is safer, and don’t ever try a visa on arrival in Bangui or you get thrown in jail for months with extortion unless you’re western…

Mbeli Bai, the research and tourism centerpience of Ndoki, used to be a hunting graveyard- poachers would wait and just pick them off. All animals in Congo’s great northern rainforest knew it was a place of death, and somehow all species communicated this danger to each other amongst themselves. They stayed out. 21 years ago WCS came In and stopped the poaching, and while at that time 150 distinct elephant visits and less gorillas were recorded the first year, now 5,000 this year were recorded. Their numbers have come back. Lots of groups of warring and wandering gorillas now traverse the Bai, under the wondering and watchful gaze of the rangers, the team, WCS, and SGV’s visitor staff and tourists.

Restaurants outside of Brazzaville and through towns in the north can cook you dishes for between 5,000 CFA and 10,000 CFA, but you can get away with 20,000 for nice restaurant food per day. Beers come in at about 500 CFA at a supermarket, 1,000 CFA at a local restaurant, and 2,000 CFA at a bar or nightclub in the capital. Back in Brazzaville, Mami Wata is by far THE place to have a bite or a drink, get wifi, and admire the river traffic and Brazzaville and Kinshasa. It is also a place to arrange river transport, but without keen bargaining skills or a large group you are likely to be charged 3 or 4 times the going price and you’d be better off and safer taking a tour. The same goes for road transport, in which a 4×4 car with fuel for 6 people in RC and DRC can be commandeered for about 50,000 CFA ($100) a day by those with relationships and connections, but will be hard to budge below 150,000 CFA ($300) by an independent traveler or someone who looks new.

If you’re spending some time in Brazza, definitely do not miss the finer and funner restaurants, bars, clubs, and music scenes, such as Lampadere for outdoor barbecue in BaCongo, Espace Kubia (“Gladis”) nearby for the best music and cheap beer in town (dance the night away,) and if you have a late night yearning and money, head to Ram Dam for an upscale and dressed-up nightclub the likes of which you’ll find nowhere else in Brazzaville. For Vietnamese and Asian food, it’s Hippocampe. Noura is the spot for Middle Eastern fare. For value-priced food, you’re plain out of luck in Brazzaville but the places mentioned above are the best in town, including best value.

In Pointe Noire, the “second” city, (though some expats prefer it to Brazza) often visited for business, there are plenty of eating options, yet sleeping is absurdly expensive and approaching the prices of Angola, the most expensive place in the world. The best hotel by far is Villa Madiba, on the beach, which soars up to at least $380 for a room, followed by Hotel Twiga nextdoor (a little less but still expensive.) The best value beachside may be Hotel Logis Manthey at $130 and up, and out in Chimbamba, 15 minutes away, you will find the budget stuff (but it is not a nice nor even remarkable area – looking like anywhere in coastal west or central Africa and rather ugly.) Some Indian-built hotels such as Mumbai Residence, India Palace, G Marius, and others, can give you great value accommodation for around $80 and up. The worst ones, by the road, are $50, but it does NOT go cheaper than that.

Malonda Lodge is the de facto “Africa Beach Lodge” for the ROC, a retreat away from the city with opportunities to swim, relax…but 1.5 hours away in the Mayombe Forest there is a wonderful no-name lodge run by Badji the tour guide veteran nearby a river and waterfalls where you can tube, swim, bbq, and do casual hikes.

The train to Pointe Noire, leaving at often-changing schedules it seems since we started booking it in 2013, AKA the “Jungle Train” (Gazelle Train, or Congo-Ocean Railway,) is a total and utter pleasure – With a cafe car that serves food and drinks, comfortable first class seats and air conditioning, and stupendous views of the forests, villages, mountains, and scenery cruising by. It arrives after 14 hours. Tickets cannot be booked more than 14 days prior to your trip.

The jungle train (Gazelle train) takes 14 hours, but give or take some delay cushion , early morn departure, cafe car with great views but controlled so that you need to buy the food from the train people at a mandatory 3,000 XAF per meal

As a point of disclosure, this website is created by a tour operator which runs tours in the Congo, however it is created as an honest and reliable and up to date resource for people who want to travel themselves as well. It is not very easy at all, and certainly not at all cheaper or safer, to travel yourself in the Congo. You should at the very least take a buddy and a LOT of cash if you want to travel in the Congo freestyle, and a good insurance policy. (We’re talkin’ ALL delay and cancellation. Almost no insurers cover political strife)

A ferry platform barge takes you to Kinshasa for about $15 (6,000 CFA) – an overcrowded, sweaty, dirty barge loaded with a thrashing mess/mass of humanity and portage and cargo…It isn’t safe, and not in the least bit comfortable, but most people cross and come out fine. The next level further is a fast canoe with runs at $35 (17,000 CFA) and crosses in 5 minutes once full, but you have to wait all morning and are invariably hassled by police and solicitors. The safest and surest way to go is a VIP service, where a private boat is arranged and the police and immigration give assistance instead of nuisance to get you over. That includes access to the business class lounge at Brazzaville beach, where nice attire is required (pants and shoes.) For this escorted secure crossing service, see our TRAVEL SERVICES section at the main menu bar.

Congolese among the mid-aged generation became in enclaves deathly afraid of taking river rides on the very powerful centerpiece of their country, the Congo River. Among some communities, they speculate the spirits of the dead there float forever on. Mobuto in the time of birth of these superstitions was King of Congo and established security – Kabila could not, and it disintegrated into violence, rape, banditry. One of Mobuto’s louder legacies is the beautiful Avenue du Tourisme in Kinshasa. It is the best drive on the river , like the “PCH of the jungle,” beautiful and worth a whole day just stopping and taking in the views of the twin river capitals. Outdoor beer festivals and concerts are held on the lawn today!

There is a flight across the river on the safe, reputable Cam Air Co (Cameroon Air Company) which is allowed into the EU and is managed by German mechanics as for maitenance and security. The flight is only 30 minutes but costs $200. The advantage is that entering Kinshasa is much more hassle-free and smooth from the airport, without the gaze of opportunistic vultures and thieves in plain clothes and uniforms who may see the opportunity for extortion. Going into Brazzaville via ferry is not typically a problem however. The CamAirCo flight’s credentials are impressive for the price though. They cultivate to ensure safety strategic partnerships with reputable companies globally recognized for their expertise and proven competence:

– Lufthansa Technics aircraft maintenance.
– Servair and Doual’air for services on board.
– Euro-cargo for routing and tracking of your parcels and freight.
– Amadeus to manage flight reservations

Boats down the river are hired for the right price of $180-220 (90,000-110,000 CFA) per day with gas, and 4×4 or any sort of car for as many people as you can fit are yours to go where you like for $300/day with driver (that is the standard all over the 2 Congos, although lesser or desperate drivers and vehicles strapped for cash have been know to go down to $200 or even $100, but turn up with an ancient peugeot with no 4-wheel drive and absolutely no hope of getting to where you want before the next ice age.) It is best advised to have someone organize your travel for you and certainly to organize your tours and sightseeing, as they will be experienced with the worst roads and how to deal with officials and show you the best experience without losing time or money running around. According to the Russian embassy and cultural center in Brazzaville and Kinshasa, independent tourists/travelers in the Congo who leave the main cities have to change or buy new return flights an average of 3 times, and according to the French Cultural Center (CCF,) spend about 4 times as much money as they planned. Often independent travelers just get stuck in the Congo, and wait for weeks to get to their planned destination or national park if they haven’t arranged it beforehand.

Often visitors are shocked with just how virgin the country is and how relatively unexplored by outsiders in vast reaches still…how much is still remote and unseen and inaccessible in this country in vast tracts. Hard to believe as it is in our modern world, there are still some remaining corners of the planet that may as well be another planet for all we really see below the trees….For some seriously intense and amazing Bonobo tracking for instance, plane charters run about $10,000 for getting to Basankusu- where hundreds of thousands of bonobos, in the real heart of Congo (from a bushplane from Kinshasa or Entebbe) can be seen here. While huge populations of wildlife unfettered by humans hideaway in the vast wilderness, huge abuses of the “vacuum of state” therein also hide in the jungle, for instance the illegal uranium export going from Katanga into Zambia overland, out of sight to all but discrete intelligence professionals.

Flights into the Congo are available with domestic air companies, some not so sound. and run variably $50-100 one way to places further in the interior. With the exception of Lubumbashi, Kisangani, and Pointe Noire, the only places where reputable flyers enter the Congo are the capital cities.