Above: Roundabout in Gisenyi. Copyrght Rupi Mangat
Published: 21 September 2019
Gisenyi in western Rwanda is the other half of an urban landscape that includes Goma in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. So like Goma, Gisenyi is perched on the edge of the gas-filled Lake Kivu that is one of the African great lakes.
Above: CBD Goma. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: 20 July 2019
Congo’s been my dream destination even before Nyiragongo erupted in 2002 and nearly wiped out the little town of Goma in eastern DRC that’s on the shores of Lake Kivu and neighbouring Rwanda. The country is gigantic and the second largest in Africa, the Congo River sways 3,000 kilometres across its girth flowing through the mighty Congo forest which like the Amazon forest is a major lung of our planet. The river empties with such force into the Atlantic that for 200 kilometres into the ocean the water is said to be fresh.
Continue reading “Gone to Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo”
Above: Life-size statue of Grauer’s gorilla at Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DRC. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: 13 July 2019
Part 2 of 2
While waiting for the great gorilla safari planned for the following day from Bukavu on the shores of Lake Kivu in the Albertine Rift, the taxi driver arrives for the chimpanzee sanctuary in Lwiro that is 50 kilometers away.
Continue reading “At Kahuzi Biega in Search of the Endemic Grauer’s Gorilla in DR Congo”
Above: Approaching Bukavu from Lake Kivu – Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published: 6 July 2019
Spending lazy days in Goma with family and discovering Congolese cuisine like the famous fish sambaza and the plaintain lintula, sipping coffee in smart restaurants like Nyumbani for eastern Congo people speak Swahili unlike Kinshasa where Lingala is the lingua franca and French spoken widely, the gorilla painted on a gate caught my attention. It was a Grauer’s gorilla and endemic to DRC.
I’d never heard about this sub-species of mountain gorilla unlike its more famous cousin in the Virunga mountains. A visit to the office inside revealed that Grauer’s gorilla is found only in Kahuzi-Biega National Park not far from a town called Bukavu that’s 195 kilometers on the southern end of the lake. The researcher at the office was heading that way. He was happy to take us with him. My excitement shot through the clouds. Continue reading “In Search of the Endemic Grauer’s Gorilla in the Democratic Republic of Congo”
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