Recently, as part of a larger trip to East Africa, I spent just over a week in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC/Congo). The DRC is a famously difficult place to be a tourist in, even just getting an entry visa can feel impossible. My impression is that they make it difficult on purpose because they don’t want naïve people coming in without a proper understanding of what they’re getting into and getting in trouble, resulting in bad press and diplomatic headaches. Going into the DRC is not something anyone should take lightly, and it is important to be prepared in advance. Being prepared means knowing not only your destinations and itinerary, but also having transport arrangements in place in advance for each step.
In the Congo people assumed I was there working for some NGO and I received several incredulous responses when I explained that I was just a tourist. I’ve also received a few emails asking about travel in the Congo. Anyone looking into travelling to the Kivus in particular is bound to read the rather apocalyptic travel advisories from Western countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK. Although I agree that travel to the Kivus should be considered carefully, I also think that those travel advisories are excessively cautious. So, I’ve written up my own thoughts and experiences regarding travelling there.
Getting In
As I was entering the DRC, there were a lot of UN vehicles lined up to exit. A good sign or not?
The only relatively straightforward way to get a visa right now is through Kahuzi-Biega National Park, which is what I did. Kahuzi-Biega will provide visa letters for people who want to come to the park to track gorillas. I initially asked to go to the park just for bird watching, but I was told they would not provide a visa letter if I just wanted to do that. Once I agreed to track the gorillas, they emailed me a visa letter and I was good to enter.
I looked into other options for getting a tourist visa, but I couldn’t find any other viable options. Before COVID Virunga National Park was also able to arrange tourist visas, but that’s on hold for the moment. The process for getting a visa through the DRC Embassy in Kenya was excessively convoluted.
Upon arrival at the Rusizi border crossing between Rwanda and DRC the process went smoothly. I exited the Rwandan side as usual, walked across a bridge over the Rusizi River, showed my Yellow Fever Vaccination card at the health booth, and then lined up at the entry window for the DRC. When I arrived at the front of the line, I was pulled aside and accompanied a visa officer to his office. He took the print-out I had of my visa letter (it was very good that I had a print-out!) and matched it to the original invitation letter which he had in a folder on his desk. He then demanded the $100USD visa fee. Now, I had not been previously informed that there was a visa fee, but luckily I had a $100 bill handy to give him. I suspect this fee is “unofficial” because the visa officer took my money and immediately slid it into his desk rather than having me pay at the cashier’s window next door. He then took my passport, ushered me out of his office, left me standing awkwardly in a corridor for about 10 minutes, and then returned with my passport stamped with a 14 day visa. The only other oddity at the border was that at one point I was shown into a small room by a woman with no ID and dressed in street clothes. She asked that I open my bag, which I did. She looked at my overstuffed belongings, shrugged, and let me leave. I’m not sure if she was intending to hassle me for a bribe and gave up or what.
Throughout the crossing I was harangued by touts – young men (always young men) who wanted to carry my luggage and show me where to go. They are very, let’s say, enthusiastic, but they are not dangerous and will leave you alone if you ask them politely but firmly (and repeatedly). However, they provide excellent service if you do happen to want someone to show you the way and/or carry your luggage. They also come with the advantage of skipping the lines. Instead of you standing in line waiting for your turn to get your passport stamped, they’ll take your passport, go right to the front of the line, get it stamped, and bring it back to you while you wait. I think the standard price is around $10USD.
Money
When I first visited the DRC in 2008 people would say “cash is king in Congo”. At that time, there were no internationally-linked ATMs, no credit card facilities, and basically the only way to get cash in-country was at one of the few Western Union facilities. “Cash is king” meant that you’d better have all the money you need for your trip in cash when you enter the country, because you aren’t getting any more.
Now it is possible to get cash from ATMs. Visa and Mastercard-linked ATMs in Bukavu and Goma give out USD, which is the currency of preference in DRC. I didn’t try them; I still did it the old way of carrying in all the cash I needed. Therefore, I can’t vouch for the reliability of the ATMs and I would still recommend coming in with all your cash because I would say the chances of them working with your card are well under 100%. I would suggest carrying $100 and $20 bills and changing $100 bills into Congolese francs one or two at a time to use for tipping.
Tipping is ubiquitous and expected in DRC. I have to be very careful and organized about giving out tips because you can easily burn through an insane amount of money through tipping. Tipping is, of course, a very personal thing and the amount given is highly dependent on individual factors. For DRC in particular, I am very systematic in my tipping.
First, I do not tip anyone who sets their own prices. This mostly applies to taxi and motorcycle-taxi (“moto”) drivers. I check the cost of the service before hiring them, and then I pay them the agreed-upon price at the end of the service. I’ve never had anyone ask for a tip in this situation, so either it’s not expected or they’re too polite to ask. However, I also don’t usually haggle for these services, so maybe I’m overpaying the base price. Who knows.
Second, for general staff at a place where I’m staying, I tip at the end of all services. So if I’m staying somewhere for three days, I tip at the end of my stay, as I am leaving. I make sure it’s the last thing I do before getting in a taxi and driving off. The reason for this is that you’ll find as you’re heading off that everyone you encountered during your stay, every person who provided any sort of service, will be standing there to see you off. If you’ve tipped them before, you’re likely to feel obliged at this point to tip them again, even if it’s not really warranted. So I leave all my tipping to that time. I generally give $10USD per day. This includes for people like managers, cooks, night guards, room attendants, etc. It also usually applies to guides because each place you stay is likely to assign you one guide for your whole stay who will accompany you each day on your different activities. I do not give different tips based on things like “amount of service” or “quality of service” or “hierarchy in the organization”. I tip everyone the same.
Third, for people who provide a single, discrete service, I tip at the end of the service. This most commonly applies to the people who drive the national park vehicles, gorilla trackers, and park rangers (who usually act as guards on any activities in the national parks). For these people, I usually tip $2USD for someone who provides a quick service (like driving us 15 min down the road to the start of a hiking trail), $5 for someone who provides a longer service (like gorilla tracking, which takes 2-5 hours), and $10 for someone who provides an all-day service (like a ranger who provides security on an all-day hike). I give these tips in Congolese francs. American $1 bills and all coins are not convertible in DRC and are rejected as tips ($5 and $10 bills are accepted, I just don’t usually have them). As a side note, I have been able to use American $1 bills to pay for government services in DRC, however, so they aren’t completely useless.
These amounts may not seem like much, but they add up fast. For example, gorilla tracking in Kahuzi-Biega involved a driver, a guide and three trackers. The trek from Lwiro to the Tshibati waterfalls involved a driver, two local guides and two park rangers. Be prepared with lots of small bills.
Language
Most people speak French, and a few tourism-oriented people also speak English. However, even those that speak English are unlikely to have had a lot of practice at it (due to the lack of tourists) and so won’t be that fluent. If you don’t speak French you’re going to struggle, and I would recommend hiring and travelling with a guide who speaks English as well as French. Alternatively, you may be able to get away with using a text-to-speech translator on your phone.
The gorilla statue at the entrance to the Kahuzi-Biega park headquarters, Tshivanga. Behind it is a classic Australian tree, the bottlebrush.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park, N3 corridor
Kahuzi-Biega, named for two mountains in the park, is massive, but only a very small part of it is accessible. For starters, the huge lowland sector is totally off-limits, despite the tantalizing presence of highly desirable animals there such as Congo Peacock. When I first visited Kahuzi-Biega, in 2008, they were very open about the fact that the lowland sector was controlled by rebels and that was the reason it was inaccessible. In 2024 I was told the government has control of it and it's only a lack of infrastructure that prevents tourists from visiting. If this is true, I really hope they can get some infrastructure in place so I can go back and see it!
Me with the skulls of animals poached in Kahuzi-Biega NP. Fortunately all the skulls looked pretty old.
Within the much smaller highland sector, there are a few different points that are accessible. The most commonly visited is the N3 corridor, where a road called the N3 passes through the park. The park headquarters (called Tshivanga), where the visitor accommodation is located and the gorilla tracking starts, is located where the N3 enters the park. The second accessible location is the Tshibati Waterfall site, which consists of two waterfalls very close to each other and the park boundary, accessed via Lwiro. Finally, it is apparently possible to climb Mount Biega, which is well south of the N3 corridor. I’m not sure how that’s accessed or what the deal is there.
My first destination after entering DRC via the Rusizi crossing was Tshivanga, the headquarters. Through the park I had arranged for a taxi driver named Bienvenue (“welcome” in French) to meet me at the border and take me to the park. On the way, we stopped and I bought a SIM card (1000 Congolese francs) and some credit ($10USD for 15GB if I remember correctly). Bienvenue recommended the Orange network, so that’s what I went with. I also bought lots of bottled water and changed some USD for Congolese francs. For these sorts of things you just have to trust your guide or driver. Tell them what you want to do and let them take you to a person they know who provides the service. Because this is the way to get things done, it is essential to have arranged a trustworthy driver ahead of time and not just hire someone you don’t know at the border.
The drive from the border to Tshivanga is about 3 hours. It would be much quicker but for the state of the road. The part of the road that runs along the shore of Lake Kivu is actually quite good. This part would be picturesque as well if it weren’t for all the child labour on display in the form of young boys (some barely old enough to hold a hammer) smashing rocks into gravel along the shore. As soon as the road turns away from the lake, however, the pavement disappears and it turns into the worst road you’ve ever driven on. Nonetheless, it is possible to enter from Rwanda, drive up to Tshivanga, track gorillas, and then drive back to Rwanda all in a single day. I understand tourists regularly do this, though man would it be long and tiring.
A gorgeous accommodation bungalow in Kahuzi-Biega NP.
I also wouldn’t recommend doing that whole thing in a day because the accommodation in Kahuzi-Biega is very nice and very cheap. The bungalows they have are beautiful stone structures with large interiors. Mine had a great open fireplace, a seating area, a huge bed with a mosquito net, and a separate bathroom with both a shower and a bathtub. There is a hot water tank as well so the showers were nice a warm (I didn’t try the bath). Since it was the highlands, it did get rather cool at night and the fire was just perfect. At $120USD a night, I would highly recommend it. The accommodation options listed in the park also include camping with a provided tent ($80 USD) and camping with your own tent ($10USD). I did not see their tents so I can’t vouch for their quality. I also did not see a designated camping area.
The electicity in Tshivanga is on most of the time, but be prepared for short periods when it’s cut off. Somehow, the excellent wifi seemed to work even when the power was off. In contrast, cell phone reception was almost non-existent everywhere at the headquarters and along the N3 corridor more broadly.
Feeding myself in Kahuzi-Biega was interesting. I was told before I arrived that the price of the bungalow included breakfast but not lunch or dinner. I assumed, naively, that this meant I would have to pay for my lunch and dinner. What it actually meant is that they do not have any food. They do have a chef, and are happy to prepare meals, but they expect you to bring your food with you. I did not know this, and after some expressions of concern and confusion from the staff, the person in charge of the accommodation took $20USD from me, jumped on a motorcycle taxi and ran down to the nearest town (Miti) to buy food for my dinner. This was very kind of him. The next day he took another $40USD from me to buy more food for the rest of my stay. I was never charged anything more for the food or its preparation.
This also means there are absolutely no snacks available to buy at the park. If you want some snacks to carry while you’re hiking, bring them with you. Also, I always try to carry enough snacks so that I can give some to all the guides, trackers, and rangers who are hiking with me.
Bonnee Annee and I.
The gorilla tracking is well organized, it is evidently their bread-and-butter and is likely the only thing most tourists do in the park. The trackers are sent out first thing in the morning to find the gorillas and they radio back when they’ve found them. In the meantime, I ate breakfast and received an orientation on the gorilla family. The silverback is called Bonne Annee (Happy New Year in French, apparently because he was born on Jan 1), and is the son of Chimanuka, who I visited in 2008. Chimanuka is apparently still alive, incidentally, but lives alone as he has lost all his females to younger males. After breakfast a park vehicle drove us out a spot along the N3 close to where Bonnee Annee and his family were, and we hiked into the forest from there. Partway in we met three trackers. In the mean time, Bonnee Annee had moved quite a distance so we had to climb down the ridge we were on, across a valley, and up the adjoining ridge. This whole time we had the sound of Bonnee Annee roaring and beating his chest reverberating across the valley, which was spectacular. I was concerned that all the roaring and chest-beating was for our benefit, but once we caught up with him we saw that all his posturing had nothing to do with us. He was frustrated because the object of his affections, one of the lady gorillas, was rejecting him. It was incredible to spend the hour with him as he made various noises, beat his chest, and crashed through vegetation around this female who evidently just wanted to be left alone to eat leaves in peace.
Bonnee Annee
It's also interesting to note that while Bonnee Annee was completely oblivious to our presence, the rest of the gorillas were not. They were evidently nervous and would wander off into the bush whenever we came into view. They didn’t act alarmed at our presence, more annoyed, I would say. It all made for a much more wild experience than in Rwanda or Uganda, where the gorillas get visitors for one hour per day, every day of the year, and as a result are completely relaxed and unresponsive.
At the head of the Tshibinda Trail after tracking the gorillas. From left to right: Joseph Lionceau (birding guide from Rwanda), gorilla tracker #1, myself, gorilla tracker #2, Safari Chibikizi (local birding guide).
After we left Bonnee Annee we intersected with the Tshibinda Trail which lead us back to Tshivanga. As we were walking back along the Tshivanga Trail I was trying to do some birding, and indeed did see some interesting birds. However, weirdly our guides were getting more and more insistent that we keep moving. Eventually they insisted we had to get back “for lunch” and that we would head back out into the forest afterwards.
The turn off from the N3 to the road to the summit of Mount Bugulamiza
After lunch I was told flat out that we weren’t allowed to leave and that it was park policy that all activities had end by noon. This explained why our guides were getting more and more insistent that we stop birding on the walk back from the gorillas, but I was not at all pleased about being tricked into coming back. I ended up convincing them to drive us to the top of Mount Bugulamiza, a nearby small mountain / large hill from where you can see both the namesake peaks of the park, Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega. We had a great time at Mount Bugulamiza, and in addition to the amazing views I learned that it is a release site for grey parrots that have been confiscated from smugglers and rehabilitated. Although we didn’t see any, apparently some of the released parrots still return regularly to check in and get a snack. This policy of not allowing anyone to leave the park headquarters after noon is a significant issue, however, that I will address further down.
The main reason I visited Kahuzi-Biega was not the gorillas, but the birding. What I really wanted to do was walk the trails the park has in search of birds. There are apparently six trails in the Tshivanga area. Two start from the bungalows and lead away from Tshivanga. The Madaga trail goes to the checkpoint along the N3 at the part boundary; it is very short, I would estimate less than 1km. The Tshibinda trail goes, I believe, to Mount Bugulamiza, however I did not walk it to completion.
My guides Safari (left) and Joseph with me at the end of the Busasa Trail. The sign reads “Fin du sentier, merci” (End of trail, thank you).
There are a further two trails centered around Mount Bugulamiza. The Busasa Trail starts about halfway along road up to the summit of Mt Bugulamiza and goes in a loop around a crater for 4km before ending at the summit of Mount Bugulamiza. The Bugulamiza-Chai trail, which I did not do, goes from the summit of Bugulamiza to a tea plantation on the edge of the park, it is indicated as being 2.4km.
A trail called the Marsh Trail (“Sentier du Marais”) starts from the N3 a little ways past the road to Mount Bugulamiza. I recommend asking to stop at the ranger station on the way here, there is a gorgeous view of Mt Kahuzi from it. The trail itself starting from an old outhouse and leads south from the N3, going through some forest before entering a small marsh. It’s about 1km one-way.
The last trail I didn’t do or get much clear information about. It starts from Tshivanga, I think, but north of the N3 (that would make it the only trail that is north of the N3), and it wanders through the hills at the boundary of the park before looping back and ending, somehow, at a tea plantation.
The very unreliable trail map at the park headquarters.
Be warned, there is a trail map at the park headquarters. The distances it shows cannot possibly be accurate, and the trails do not seem to match what is actually present on the ground. The trail map shows a Bird Trail (“Sentier des Oiseaux”) that combines part of the Busasa Trail with part of the road up to the summit of Mt Bugulamiza, and indicates that this trail is 2.9km. However, the sign at the start of the Busasa Trail indicates that it is 4km and the tracker on my phone indicated that I had walked 4.7km. What the sign shows as the Forest Trail (“Sentier de Foret”) combines the Tshibinda Trail with the remainder of the road to Mt Bugulamiza. The Cultural Trail (“Sentier Culturel”) is shown as being outside the park and may or may not be the same as the trail I was told went along the boundary of the park north of the N3. Finally the Marsh Trail (“Sentier de Marais”) is shown as starting from Tshivanga and going north of the N3, whereas the trail I was taken on started the furthest from Tshivanga of all the trails and went south of the N3. So, uh, don’t trust the map.
An old solar panel now being used as a table
About 18km from Tshivanga, on the western slop of the mountain range, the N3 crosses the Musizi River at some kind of delta/huge marshy area. I was able to check this out quickly but didn’t see much of interest. It might be worth checking this area out first thing in the morning, though, as it is a much more extensive wetland than the one visited on the Marsh Trail. It would also be well worth checking out at night (if at all possible) for herps.
To arrange my trip I communicated directly with the tourism manager of the park, Juvenal, via WhatsApp. I made it clear that I was interested primarily in bird-watching and he said that the park was just starting to offer bird-watching as a new activity, which cost $50USD/day. That’s in addition to the three long-standing activities it offers, which are gorilla tracking ($400USD), mountain ascent ($80USD), and hiking ($35USD).
A ranger guard post along the N3 corridor with an excellent view of Mount Kahuzi
After I arrived it was evident that, to some extent, they were aware that I wanted to go bird-watching because they brought in a specialist bird guide, Safari, who was quite good. However, I don’t think the park administration really understood that birding is not just hiking. First, for birding you want to start right at dawn, and for some reason this just wasn’t possible in Kahuzi-Biega. I tried and tried and tried to convince them to let us go into the forest so we could be there at dawn, but they just would not let us. The earliest they would agree we could leave Tshivanga was 6am, a full hour after first light, and in practice that meant actually leaving by 6:30ish. By the time we were actually in the forest birding it was 7am or later and already starting to warm up. I did wander around Tshivanga from dawn until we were ready to leave, but I didn’t see much of interest other than spectacular sunrises, and one morning the sound of Bonnee Annee roaring and beating his chest from the hills very close to the accommodation, which was amazing.
The second thing they didn’t seem to understand about bird-watching is that it is much, much slower than hiking. The timeframes they gave us suggested that they were under the impression we would be walking at a normal hiking pace, not an ultra-slow birding pace. So we were never able to accomplish what we set out to do, and on some occasions we had to start rushing back because we had agreed to meet a vehicle at a certain time. I don’t know how it could be arranged, but I would certainly recommend trying to hire your own (4WD) vehicle in Bukavu if you want to maximize your birding time in the park. The issues I had might boil down to a shortage of vehicles, gasoline, and/or drivers at the park.
The third and final thing they didn’t seem to understand is that bird watchers are going to want to come and see the special, unique, and rare birds that live in Kahuzi-Biega. Knowing where those birds live, so that you can take visiting bird-watchers to those spots, requires people who know how to find and identify birds spending time and energy on the ground in the park getting to know the land and where the birds hang out. Safari was certainly a very good birder, however he isn’t a park employee, he’s a freelancer they call him up when they need a specialist guide. So he doesn’t spend any time in the park outside of when his guiding services are needed by visitors. The park really needs to invest in paying Safari, or someone of his skill level, to wander around searching for the special birds that live there and getting an idea of where their territories are.
In the absense of a guide who knows where the rare birds live, I would recommend against bird-watching on the trails around Tshivanga. I spent three days (really, three mornings) birding the area and didn’t come up with anything that can’t be more easily seen in Nyungwe National Park just over the border in Rwanda. If you want to find some different birds, I would recommend doing the mountain ascents. Both Mount Kahuzi and Mount Biega are on the western slope of the mountain range (Tshivanga is on the eastern slope), and are therefore more likely to have something different. I didn’t learn much about the Mount Biega ascent but the trail up Mount Kahuzi starts from the N3, so it is relatively accessible, and goes through a variety of habitats, including bamboo forest, primary rainforest, and high-elevation habitats, that aren’t accessible around Tshivanga. All these factors suggest to me that these would be good places to try for some Congolese bird specialties. Also, Kahuzi-Biega has the capacity to set up camps for overnight stays, so I think it would be well worth it, if you can drag yourself away from the comform of the Tshivanga bungalows, to camp out on the lower slopes of one of the mountains to look for night animals and to make sure to have a dawn in the forest.
I think part of the confusion around birding may have come from the fact that Juvenal, the manager of tourism for the park, was away until the last day of my visit. In his absence there was no mention of “birding” as a new activity the park was offering, and my birding activities were billed as “hiking” (and at the lower price of $35USD/day). I think maybe Juvenal has a better understanding of what bird-watchers expect from a birding tour and things may have gone a little smoother if he had been around.
Interestingly, they were surprisingly cool with us wandering around at night, and I would highly recommend it for mammal-watchers. There are rangers patrolling at night, and one of them would come with us while we spotlighted galagos and African wood owls in the forest around Tshivanga. I didn’t see a single herp at night, unfortunately, which is likely due to the temperature (cold) and the availability of water (there are no streams, creeks, ponds, or wetlands around Tshivanga as far as I could tell).
Lwiro & the Tshibati area of Kahuzi-Biega National Park
The entrance to the Lwiro campus
After my last morning of birding around Tshivanga, Bienvenue came to pick me up and take me to Lwiro. I’m not sure exactly how to describe Lwiro, it is an odd place. It was set up in colonial times by the Japanese as an expansive scientific research campus. There are very old brick-with-clay-roof colonial houses and mansions scattered over a vast area, interspersed with mud-with-palm-roof African houses. It’s an otherworldy place to visit. It’s quite close to Tshivanga but the drive takes around 2-3 hours due to the horrendous state of the road. It’s also a lot lower in elevation, so it’s hotter and more humid.
The main building of Lwiro is an expansive one-story building housing mostly offices and laboratories. The facilities would have been state-of-the-art around the middle of the twentieth century but have since fallen into disrepair. However, being there and seeing it is still impressive. There is a huge, ornate library (“La Grande Biblioteque”) with old, wooden shelves and spiraling staircases. Outside the grand library doors there are the remains of two of the largest elephant tusks I have ever seen. Down the marble corridors there are research labs devoted to herpetology, ornithology, mammology, geology, etc. One lab is called The Natural History Museum and it is particularly impressive, with piles and piles of (mostly mammalian) skins and skulls from species that I suspect would be quite rare in international museum collections.
La Grande Biblioteque (The Great Library)
There is also a small serpentarium in one of the courtyards of the building. The cages were rather ramshackle but I was impressed because the snakes themselves looked quite healthy, each cage had clean fresh water, and there was a breeding colony of guinea pigs for feeding them. They only had five snakes, two gaboon vipers, two rhinoceros vipers and a colubrid the species of which I can’t remember. Each cage was labelled with the collection date, and I was impressed to see the snakes had been collected over ten years ago! That is some good husbandry. A tour of the main Lwiro building and the serpentarium costs $30USD.
Behind the main building is the primate rehabilition centre (Centre de Rehabilitation des Primates de Lwiro, CPRL). The CPRL does some truely heroic work rehabilitating primates, as well as gray parrots and a few other animals, that have been confiscated by the Congolese government’s conservation ministry (the Institute Congolaise pour la Conservation de la Nature, ICCN) from poachers and people keeping them as pets. The CPRL is most known for its work with chimpanzees, and they have four huge electrified enclosures housing them. Each enclosure is its own little patch of tropical rainforest; in fact I think the birding inside the CPRL could be pretty good, though I didn’t have enough time to explore this possibility. Visiting the chimpanzees is dramatic; they recognize a stranger immediately and come over hooting and hollering to investigate. I visited the chimps twice, and I particularly recommend visiting them first thing in the morning if you can. Just after they wake up is when they are busy restablishing their social bonds and are at their most interactive. It’s also when they get fed, so you get the spectacle of everyone trying to get their fair share and chasing each other around.
The rules for visiting the CPRL
The enclosure of batchelor males was particularly impressive, with the huge males runnings alongside the fence, hair standing on end, screaming and shaking trees. They also throw things with shockingly good aim. One flung a chunk of dirt at me and hit me in the eye, even though I was standing about four meters back from the fence. Another hit his keeper square between the shoulder blades with a fresh poop.
One of the CPRL’s resident chimpanzees. Each one has a name, but I forget who this is.
Some of these chimps, and some of their keepers, were old friends of mine. I spent a month as a volunteer for the primate sanctuary in 2008, and I recognized some of the chimps, such as the huge, brooding males Sherif and Gentile, and Goma, who was then, and still is now, the dominant male of one of the groups. Claude, the head keeper, I recognized instantly. He was just starting when I was there in 2008. A tour of the CPRL costs another $30USD.
I believe this is Goma, the dominant chimpanzee of this group. I remember Goma from when I volunteered at CPRL in 2008. He’s much grayer now.
Lwiro is located just east of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park boundary, although well north of the N3. However, there is a trail, the Tshibati Trail, inside the park that is accessed from Lwiro and leads to two waterfalls. To get there from the CRPL it’s a rough, 4WD-only 4km drive to the end of the road, and then maybe another kilometer of walking to get to the edge of the forest. I joined in with some expats from Bukavu who had driven up for the day. Between the end of the road and the edge of the forest the walk is mostly through agricultural fields, but there is one spot where you go past a whole garrison of Congolese soldiers who have set up in a delapidated Lwiro mansion. We were strenuously warned not to photograph the soldiers or even have our cameras out around them, and I must admit they were pretty intimidating. We had to stop at their compound while our guide formally introduced us to them and explained that we were going to see the waterfalls, and I could not wait to get out of there.
The walk in the forest itself is very short, maybe only 1.5km from the edge of the forest to the furthest waterfall. The waterfalls were beautiful but the forest was earily silent. I struggled to find even a single bird, though we did see some blue monkeys. I wonder if it was because we were there around noon, at the heat of the day. I would have much preferred to be there early in the morning, the heat was oppressive and nobody had brought their swimming gear.
I spent two nights at Lwiro. A visit to the main building of Lwiro, the primate sanctuary, and the waterfalls can be done as a day trip from Tshivanga, organized by the Park, or from Bukavu. However, I chose to stay a couple nights at Lwiro so I could spend more time wandering along memory lane. The guest house is an old Lwiro home and costs $25/night. Meals cost $4USD for breakfast and $8USD each for lunch and dinner. There is no wifi and next-to-no cell phone signal, so prepare to be unreachable. Also, power outages are frequent and long.
The house itself is rather dark and dank so I chose to eat on the front porch, which had a nice view over some large trees from which I saw some decent birds. For birding, there is also a black-headed heron rookery at the nearby fish farm if you’re into that sort of thing.
Unfortunately looking for animals at night was a no-go at Lwiro. By sunset I had to be in the guest house with all the windows and doors locked and the blinds drawn. The area is not safe at night.
Tchegera Island, Virunga National Park
After two nights in Lwiro Bienvenue came to pick me up and bring me back to Bukavu. My final destination in DRC was Tchegera Island, the only part of Virunga National Park that was open at the time. Getting to Tchegera from Lwiro is a bit tricky. Even though Google Maps indicates there is a road that goes along the shore of Lake Kivu from Bukavu to Goma, that doesn’t mean the road actually exists in any useable form.
The fast boat between Goma and Bukavu.
There are two boats that go between Bukavu and Goma: the fast boat (“canoe-rapide”) and the slow boat. The slow boat is owned and run by the government (I’m not sure which government, exactly) and goes overnight. Apparently the cheapest tickets are $5USD, and a private room with a bed on the upper deck costs $35USD. I, however, opted for the fast boat, which takes three hours (officially) or around 3.5-4 hours (in reality) and costs $40USD. Also, it goes during the day, which I felt better about.
Although I couldn’t find the boat’s schedule ahead of time, I was assured that it left Bukavu at 10am. Unfortunately this was not the case, it didn’t leave until 2pm and so I had to wait at the rather unpleasant ferry terminal. In the hopes that others might be able to avoid such a fate, I’m posting the schedule online.
The schedule for the fast boat (“canoe-rapide”) between Goma and Bukavu as of June 2024.
The boat finally docked in Goma at almost 6pm, when the sun was starting to set and I was getting nervous. I didn’t want to be driving the streets of Goma in the dark. I would recommend anyone taking this boat to make sure to take it on a day where it actually leaves at 10am. Also, I would have much preferred spending those daylight hours on beautiful Tchegera Island rather than the dusty boat terminal in Bukavu.
Crossing Lake Kivu
Luckily someone from Virunga National Park was there to pick me up with the Virunga Vehicle (their name, not mine) and they took me straight to the location of the boat launch to Tchegera Island. From there it was a beautiful 20min sunset boatride to the island.
A wide-angle shot to show the crescent shape of Tchegera Island, with the central lagoon.
Tchegera is a small, crescent shaped island. It would take about 30 min to wallk from one end of it to the other at a decent walking pace, or 2-3 hours at a birding pace. The island is thoroughly transected by walking trails and just about every part of it is accessible, including some beautiful vantage points for looking out over Goma and Lake Kivu.
A spectacular view of Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano, from Tchegera Island.
The island is a luxury tented camp, with accomodation and amenities to rival any jungle lodge I’ve stayed in anywhere in the world. The safari tents are large and luxurious, with full bathrooms (including hot water). The wifi was good enough that I had a remote job interview while staying on the island, and there were no power outages. It’s the food, however that really put the place over the top. The food was just amazing, I cannot say enough good things about it.
The food on Tchegera Island was spectacular. Apparently the park grows a lot of its own food, including chia seeds, pineapples, and chocolate.
Tchegera was, unfortunately, clear-cut during Congo’s last civil war, and is still recovering. The birds are coming back, though. Both mornings I went birding with Augustin Kambale, who knows the island and its birds like the back of his hand. He was able to take me around – starting at 5:30am – and we spotted virtually every species present on the island.
One of the most spectacular bottlebrush trees I’ve ever seen was growing next to my safari tent on Tchegera Island
After two glorious days spent birding, eating and relaxing on Tchegera Island, I had to check out. Wonderfully, they accept credit cards and bank transfers for payment so I wasn’t worried about having enough cash while on the island. I took their boat back to the mainland, and the Virunga Vehicle was waiting to take me to the border, where I crossed from Goma back into Rwanda and hopped on a bus to Kigali.
Unfortunately the rest of Virunga National Park, which I would very much like to visit, is currently closed. The southern sector (aka the gorilla sector) is currently controlled by the M23 militia and the middle and northern sectors don’t yet have the infrastructure to welcome toursits (though apparently the middle, aka savannah, sector is on the verge of opening).
Safety
One last note on this topic. If you want to know whether DRC, and in particular the Kivus, are safe, the answer is they are not. If you want to know whether you can travel there safely, my answer is yes. However, the key question to ask yourself is what your personal risk tolerance is.
The cities, Goma and Bukavu, are the riskiest places to be. Goma, being the economic hub of the region and with M23 controlling territory so close by, is probably the more dangerous of the two. At one point I asked if I could visit the parts of Goma that were partially destroyed by lava flows from the eruptions of Mount Nyirogongo. I was told that those areas are controlled by (nominally government-aligned) militia groups and it would not be safe for me to go there. That being said, plenty of foreigners, mostly working for NGOs and consulates, live and work in Goma and Bukavu.
The parts of the national parks that are open to tourists are controlled by the government and heavily patrolled. In Kahuzi-Biega in particular they repeatedly insisted there were absolutely no security concerns (which was odd, because that is just about the only reason I can think of for requiring visitors to be out of the park between noon and 6am).
At Lwiro things seemed a little less secure. I had to be in the guesthouse with the doors locked and blinds drawn between dusk and dawn. Separate to that, there is also a goverment-mandated curfew. At one point someone told me that the reason for this is that “security” forces patrol at night and if they catch you they will relieve you of any cash and valuables you possess and that foreigners could even be at risk of kidnapping by these forces.
Contacts
The key to safe tourism in the Kivu region is having local people you can trust. It’s the locals who are going to know where in Goma and Bukavu you can safely get out of the car to use an ATM or buy some groceries, for example. Below is a list of people that I would get in touch with if you’re interested in planning a visit to the area. Everyone I’ve listed here speaks English.
Safari and I trying to figure out what kind of bird we just saw.
Safari Jules Chibikizi WhatsApp: +243 998 789 293
Safari is a tourism operator and birding guide specializing in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. He was my guide for the the three days I was in Kahuzi-Biega and he is excellent. He says he can organize everything for a visit to Kahuzi-Biega, including the border crossing from Rwanda and transport to the park, although I did not use him for this.
Juvenal Munganga WhatsApp: +243 974 051 800
Head of tourism for Kahuzi-Biega National Park. It was Juvenal who told me that they are starting to offer bird-watching as a new activity in the park. He arranged the invitation letter that allowed me to get an entry visa at the Rusizi border crossing with Rwanda. He also put me in touch with Bienvenue, the taxi driver who drove me everywhere I needed to go in South Kivu.
Prince WhatsApp: +243 974 360 539
Prince is in charge of coordinating visits to Lwiro. Contact him to organize a tour of Lwiro or the primate sanctuary, and/or to stay in their guest house.
Virunga Visitors coordinators Kevin Siri and Vianney Karakandi Email: visit@virunga.org
The customer service from Kevin and Vianney, provided entirely through email, was phenomenal. They answered all my emails promptly and in detail, and everything went smoothly for me in Goma because of them.
Victor Prigogine Email: vic.prigogine@gmail.com
An independent tourist guide based in Goma, Vic was recommended to me by Kevin Siri from Virunga National Park as a knowledgeble birding guide. Unfortunately he was out of town when I was there, but he provided me with excellent advice over email before my trip.
David Nenwa WhatsApp: +250 783 440 607
An indepedent tourist guide whom Victor Prigogine highly recommended since Vic was going to be out of town. David is apparently not a birder but extremely good at coordinating complex trips in the DRC for tourists. I did not end up contacting him since Virunga National Park handled everything for me in Goma.
Joseph at the entrance to Kahuzi-Biega National Park
Joseph Lionceau WhatsApp: +250 783 772 300
Joseph is a birding guide – one of the best I’ve ever encountered – based in Musanze, Rwanda. Because he was so good in Rwanda I offered to take him to Kahuzi-Biega with me and he enthusiastically agreed. Though it was his first trip to the Congo, he was invaluable for birding and also for advocating for me with the Park Administration. I think he would be a major asset for anyone looking at birding in DRC.
Animals Seen
This is already very, very long. I think I will compile a list of what animals I saw in a future post. In the mean time, I’ve made an eBird Trip Report which shows everywhere I went in DRC and what birds I saw.
