Dzanga Bai: A sacred clearing in a wounded world
In the heart of Africa's most remote rainforest lies Dzanga Bai, a forest clearing where shy, elusive elephants gather in astonishing numbers. It is a place so wild and untouched, it's been called the last place on Earth
National Geographic once dubbed this to be "The last place on Earth." Rather, it is a place in the centre of the world map. An open clearing in the midst of the Congo Basin that plays host to nearly a hundred elephants at any one time. Such a sight is not to be seen anywhere else on earth. But it is the challenge of getting there that earned it the nickname.
Straddling the border region of the Central African Republic, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo is the very clearing that The Financial Times dubbed "The village of elephants." The locals call it Dzanga Bai. In the local BaAka language, a Bai is a natural clearing in an otherwise dense forest. Such Bais exist all throughout the forests of the Congo Basin but it is only Dzanga Bai that attracts such huge numbers of elephants.
Unlike the Asian elephants, which can be tamed, or the African Savannah elephants that can be seen easily in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, South Africa and other countries, the African forest elephant is quite shy and reclusive. One theory is that heavy poaching has made them wary of humans, thus making them avoidant. They are hardly ever seen for a long enough time in the dense canopy to learn much about them, making them particularly difficult to research.
That is precisely why the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and others have been researching elephants at Dzanga Bai for the past 35 years. They observe and listen to the elephants every single day. I had the pleasure of speaking to three researchers from Cornell University and the Elephant Listening Project. And why wouldn't they be here? Hundreds of these gentle giants visit all throughout the day, making it a breathtaking experience. The researchers have names for many of them and point them out as if they are talking about family members. But why do shy, danger-averse elephants spend hours out in the open at this clearing?
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Forest elephants require salt and other minerals. In other parts of the Congo Basin, such as Gabon, the elephants often go to the sea to get their salt intake. However, deep in the forest, they are too far from the sea. Thus, the elephants come to this clearing and dig under the water bodies to extract salt from the ground underneath. It is mixed with the water, making a mineral soup that the elephant drinks. It is unclear why other Bais do not see such large numbers.
But I am not complaining! Hours of elephant watching was exactly why I went there. It felt like finding a new world where I was learning about a different intelligent being through observation. A newborn learning to walk, the big bulls looking for a mate and harassing every lady on the ground, the teenage bulls play-fighting, a child breastfeeding, some elephants applying mud coats on their body etc.
Different-colored muds give the elephants a wide range of colors, providing fantastic contrast! Clearly, elephants have a special skin care routine! There is also competition for the ideal waterhole as elephants jostle to get the best spot and drive away others.
In the morning, an enormous bull elephant waltzed in right next to the platform I had slept on. It is astonishing how quiet these lumbering giants are. They make zero noise as they come and go from the vast clearing. It then proceeded to chase away eight other elephants from its favourite watering hole. Once the chase was over, he relaxed, had a drink, made some salt soup and applied some mud on himself and seemed to be having a good time.
Family units were usually a mother and either one or two calves. However, some units would number up to seven. Males usually stayed alone.
As the elephants quietly come into the Bai they briefly raise their trunks, I also noticed
them raising their trunks as they passed each other by — were they greeting each other, or were they just smelling each other? The interactions were at times very human-like! Multiple times, I had seen a mother scold their child!
The Dzanga-Sangha National Park in the CAR, the Noubale-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo and the Lombeke National Park together make up the Sangha Tri-National Area which is an area of rich biodiversity. It is considered the last primeval rainforest on Earth and our most important carbon sink.
Nearly two thousand elephants live in this area, but nowhere else do they gather in numbers like the Dzanga Bai. A documentary on Disney+ called Dzanga Bai "the downtown of the Congo Basin." As a Bangladeshi, I would call it the Gulistan of the forest! Hours of walking in the forest and we had only seen three elephants. Just walking into the bai we saw over 90!
The road to the Bai is a long, arduous one. Firstly, from the accommodation in the small village of Bayanga, it is an hour-long ride on a dirt track right through the forest. In fact, the whole country only has a few paved roads. Even the capital city was mostly dirt tracks. After disembarking from the bumpy ride, it was another hour-long hike through the dense jungle.
There are hardly any trails that last as the vegetation regrows quickly and elephants often create new trails, put down trees and change the whole landscape. They really are the designers of the forest. Their dung fertilises trees, disseminates seeds and their tracks make highways deep in the forest.
This is where the local BaAka people come in. BaAka means "of the forest". They are of shorter stature and numerous such tribes exist in the Central African region (Batwa, Bimondo etc). The Europeans collectively called them pygmies, a term that the Republic of Congo has outlawed due to historical racism towards them. The tribes remain amongst the most disadvantaged people on the planet.
However, no one knows the forests like the BaAka. Early colonisers called them the maps of the forest due to their intimate knowledge that they passed down for generations. When the CAR was engulfed in civil war, the BaAka suffered the least as they just retreated back to their origins in the forest — a place where no rebel group could find them.
They know which plant is medicinal, which branch can be broken to get water to drink, which route to take to go where and which way to make a new route through the forest. And so, off we went with a BaAka tracker, axe in hand to whack away at any branches to clear the path. He walked through the forest like he was walking to his family home — he just knew!
The Central African Republic is very much a forgotten place. Despite having one of the world's richest mineral deposits and some of the most pristine rainforests, the country remains severely underdeveloped, conflict-ridden and supremely corrupt. And so getting here is not an easy task. There really is only one paved highway in the entire country. Everything else is dirt tracks. Being so remote has helped Dzanga Sangha stay away from the lawlessness in the north of the country.
Aside from a brief moment in 2014, the civil war did not spread this far South. However, it did still extract a big price. Over 80 elephants were killed for their ivory, including 26 at Dzanga Bai itself in one day. War brings death and destruction to most, but it brought immense profit for the ivory poachers.
The first challenge is to decide where to travel from. Dzanga Sangha is a stunning place but it can never be easy getting to the last place on Earth now, can it? As it straddles the tri-border region, it can be reached from any of the three countries — the Republic of Congo, Cameroon or the Central African Republic itself.
From Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, it is a 14-hour bus journey to the Northern town of Ouesso on fantastic roads. A further 8-hour boat ride on the Sangha River finally brings you to one of two lodges built on the river in Dzanga Sangha. The road trip is very easy, but 8 hours on a boat, on days when it can be very hot, does take its toll.
It is no easier from Cameroon. From the capital Yaounde, it is a 2-3 day overland journey to the riverside border village of Libongo. Parts of the trip go right through the rainforest on dirt roads and it is a difficult few days. But at least the boat ride is only two hours after reaching the river. Along the way, one encounters many corrupt police and border officials looking to make some cash at numerous checkpoints.
It is not much easier from within the Central African Republic itself either. It is a
super bumpy two-day ride from the capital, Bangui. But the road is considered quite unsafe and is discouraged, even though the war has ended. Some daredevil travelers have always tried, though, so it isn't impossible. The roads, though, are so bad that flat tires and car breakdowns are common.
The final option is a small flight. WWF runs some chartered flights for its staff with no fixed schedule and will sell any extra seats. There are also two private companies that rent out their planes for use. All of these are 9-11-seater planes that are more like a minibus than a plane!
As I had joined a group of intrepid travelers, the plane was our easiest way in. Except, what a plane it was. A 9-seater, barely the size of a pickup truck, where the pilot's cockpit is right in front of us! The luggage is stored under the seats and behind us in the main compartment. Both the passenger and their luggage are weighed as there is a maximum limit! And off we went for a noisy hour and ten minutes!
Despite the remarkable flight, what was waiting for us was even more special. We were landing at Bayanga Airport as per Google Maps. Bayanga village has slowly swelled from 2000 people to over 30,000 in the past 30 years, as the relative safety compared to the rest of the country has brought people there. But there was no airport! It was a dirt strip in the middle of the forest with a two-room house for "official work". We had been warned that flying back may not work as easily as heavy rain is predicted, which means the track would become impassable for planes!
However, beyond the small plane and the wild landing, this was a stunning little place to see from above. The moniker "Last Place on Earth" really made sense when one looked at the density of the forest. The canopy was so thick that barely any light penetrated through to the ground. At one point, we were over an area that was the tri-border of Cameroon, Congo and the Central African Republic — except it was just pure forest for miles and miles!
And that is exactly why I was here. I wanted to visit the Last Place on Earth! And it lived up to and well beyond the hype.
