Ramble in the Jungle part 1

Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in northern Congo (in the area near Ouesso in map at right) is one of the most remote primary forest areas in the world, and we were recently fortunate enough to travel there. Here I am pictured with one of our guides and Pygmy porters. An arduous 5-day journey, we five travelers were happy to experience life in the dense forest to visit the Wildlife Conservation Society's http://www.wcs.org/ research stations there and to view lowland gorillas in their habitat. Bill, Oi, Pamela, Al and I flew north to Ouesso on Air Congo, where we were met by Paul Telfer, director of WCS Congo on his way back to Brazzaville. We were turned over to Dr. Tomo Nishihara, Logistics Coordinator for WCS's northern Congo operations and expert on these gorillas. He led us to our first leg of the journey, a ride in a wooden pirogue up the Sangha River to be offloaded across the river from the Central African Republic and Cameroon borders. There we boarded WCS's vehicle for a bumpy ride on a logging road to Bomassa Camp, passing through logging operations of Congolaise Industrielle de Bois, (CIB) where we saw huge logs being cut, processed and hauled out of the forest. WCS works with the company, influencing them in the direction of preservation of forest and animals.

Baggage Claim at Ouesso Airport





Oi Shows the Way
Al and Outoing Logs - the trucks cross the Sangha River by ferry to Cameroon for export..