8/3/2019 garamba 2010

1/6

take the best seat on the savannah

with a birds eye view of garamba

national parks bountiful wildlifewords and photography by stephen cunliffe

Lions down below! Luiss voice crackled

inside my headset. Why dont we take a closer

look? he suggested. Beore I could answer, themicrolight aircrat was thrown into a steep dive.

Only seconds later, we were skimming along,

barely 10 metres above the ground, while my

stomach elt as i it was still at 500 eet. As I

ought to rein in my thumping heart and pull

mysel together, the regal heads o two handsome

male lions rose out o the grass and xed our

little aircrat with a bold stare. Their burning

olive eyes and hypnotic gaze demanded we

return to appreciate them once more. As we

banked sharply over the Dungu River, preparing

right: the green savannahs

provide a perfect home to

magnificent elephant herds

8/3/2019 garamba 2010

2/6

[ i n t o t h e w i l d ]

8/3/2019 garamba 2010

3/6

66 SEPTEMBER 2010 indwe

to come around or another pass, I estimated

in excess o 150 hippos in a massive pod.

The huge rat o hippos provided a great

analogy or the national park itsel: in Garamba,

everything is big. From the huge grassy plains

and wide-open spaces to the massive herds o

bualo and elephant that roam its savannah

landscapes, nothing comes in small sizes.

Garamba, located in the north-east o the

Democratic Republic o Congo, is the countrys

only savannah-type park that still contains

sizeable wildlie populations. It is the last

reuge o the endangered Congolese girae,

as well as being a stronghold or elephant,

bualo, Lelwel hartebeest, Ugandan kob and

deassa waterbuck and i the lions down

below and whooping hyenas o the previousnight were anything to go by, then carnivores

werent in short supply here either.

I was in seventh heaven and revelling in the

privilege o exploring one o Aricas oldest and

most mystical parks rom the air. Declared a

national park way back in the 1930s during the

Belgian colonial era, Garamba was or decades

synonymous with the elephant-training centre

located at Gangala-na-Bodio on the reserves

southern boundary. Many years later, ater the

Congo gained independence and the centre had

ceased its domestication activities, the parks

unique natural value was nally recognised

when it was assigned world heritage sitestatus in 1980. Luis Arranz, my pilot, and park

manager or Garamba, explained, To have

orest and savannah landscapes within the

same park is extremely rare. The combination

top: endangered

congolese giraffe

middle: pride

of the lion

right: carmine

bee-eaters

8/3/2019 garamba 2010

4/6

indwe SEPTEMBER 2010

o well-watered grasslands and orests mean

that, in addition to being a wildlie-rich

savannah reserve supporting magnicentherds o bualo and elephant, the park is also

home to chimps and bongo antelope in the

wooded areas. Ultimately, Garamba oers a

stunning diversity o wildlie species within a

highly unusual savannah-orest ecosystem.

Ater the exhilarating low-level fying

display, which had enabled us to get up

close and personal with the lions, we once

again climbed to a more respectable cruising

altitude and swung the microlight north,

heading deeper into the reserve. Herds o

bualo and elephant whizzed by below as we

approached the Garamba River and the heart

o the 4,900km2 national park. Huge tracts

o rich green savannah, sprinkled with iconic

sausage trees and carved by meandering rivers,

dominated the vast Garamba landscape. This

chunk o Arican wilderness was, however,

cut by more than just watercourses. Newly

graded roads were clearly visible, orging

routes deep into the wildlie sanctuary an

exciting development proclaiming that a

truly wild and remote national park was onceagain accessible to adventurous tourists.

Until this year, access to the park was all

but orbidden. A succession o rebel groups,

guerrilla armies, commercial poaching gangs

and destitute reugees had plundered the park

or decades. The most recent perpetrators o

instability were the Lords Resistance Army,

a notoriously violent guerrilla group rom

northern Uganda. They retreated into Garamba

in October 2005 and set up their headquarters

in the Azande West Hunting Reserve on the

periphery o the national park. From their

Garamba base, they waged a typically brutal

campaign against the surrounding villages and

local Congolese people until a joint

military oensive o Ugandan,

south Sudanese and Congolese

orces nally ousted them rom

the area in 2009. With the demise

o the LRA, the volatile security

situation in northeastern DRC

has nally stabilised, Garambas

poaching pandemic has been reined in and

the park is once again under the control o the

highly respected Arican Parks Network.In September 2005, APN arrived in Garamba

at the invitation o LInstitut Congolais pour

la Conservation de la Nature and assumed

total responsibility or the rehabilitation and

long-term management o the entire 12,427km2

Garamba complex. As a not-or-prot company,

Arican Parks enters into public-private

partnerships with Arican governments to

manage valuable protected areas on their behal

when they lack the resources to do so themselves.

With generous donor unding rom the

rebel groups, guerrillaarmies, poachers and refugeesplundered the park

there are now an

estimated 3,500

elephants living in the

garamba national park

the combination

of grasslands

and forest

supports a

diverse wildlife

community

8/3/2019 garamba 2010

5/6

indwe SEPTEMBER 2010

European Union and the Spanish government,

APN has been able to make impressive headway

with the monumental challenges o eectively

managing and developing Garamba. The

ongoing recruitment and training o rangers has

placed emphasis on securing the reserve and

improving the poaching situation. The parks

derelict road network and neglected tourism

inrastructure are also in the process o being

upgraded. The most exciting development or

prospective visitors, however, was the recent

unveiling o a new luxury camp, Garamba Lodge,

which boasts quite possibly the most lavish and

attractive tourist acilities in all o central Arica.

Back onboard the microlight, we were low on

uel and Luis signalled it was time to head or the

park headquarters at Nagero. As we few over the

picturesque wilderness bathed in sot evening

light, the park manager opened up and shared

some thoughts on his regrets and plans or the

park. Garamba was the last wild reuge o the

critically endangered northern white rhino,

but, sadly, the last o these prehistoric-looking

herbivores disappeared rom our savannahs as

recently as 2007. I could tell that the loss o the

rhinos had been a huge blow to the Arican Parks

project, but the Garamba situation was certainly

not all doom and gloom. There are still viable

populations o all the other large herbivores,

including an estimated 3,500 elephants

in the park. In act, Garambas nutritious

grasslands combined with an abundance

o water throughout the reserve, means the

place could actually support 10 times the

garamba was the last wild refugefor the white rhino sadly the

last disappeared in 2007

poaching has devastated

the white rhino and

elephant populations

operationlightningthunder

o 14 december2008, theUgaaPepledeeceFrce tartebmbg LrRetaceArmy rebelcamp rth-eater Cga part a jt peratth the uthsuaee aCgleerce. Thebjectve a

t crpple therebel grupce a r all.

Hever, eveth ubtatallgtcala acalupprt rmthe Us ArcaCmma athe Un m the Cg,the peratha ly lmteucce. Thetru rebelleaer JephKy ecape,a th theremat h guerrllaarmy carreut vcurepral attack Cgleecvla bereretreatg tthe CetralArcaRepublc.

8/3/2019 garamba 2010

6/6

70 SEPTEMBER 2010 indwe

current elephant population. His comments

backed up what I heard rom an ecologist

when researching the park. In the 1950s,

Garamba was home to 40,000 to 60,000

elephants and in excess o 1,000 rhinos.

Luiss inal comments were spoken with adetermination that the APN project should

succeed. Now is the crucial moment to save

this park. I we put systems in place and oer

eective protection, the wildlie populations

will rebound to numbers not witnessed

in 50 years. We cannot aord to ail.

The stutter o the engine snapped me rom

my reverie. I checked the uel gauges and saw

both were empty. The whine o the engine was

suddenly replaced by a deaening silence. As

a eeling o impending doom washed over me,

I glanced at Luis and was surprised to see that

he was calmly enjoying the serene beauty o

the Arican sunset and unconcerned by our

imminent appointment with death. He turned

to me with a smile and said, Its so much

more peaceul without an engine! You readyto have some un? Once again my stomach

was let behind, as we spiralled rapidly down

towards the airstrip and the talented pilot

made a perect landing using just the faps.

Garamba, a true Arican wilderness,

is not or the aint-hearted!

from the sky, the vast

roaming herds of

wildebeest whizz by

_information

sA Expre fe rm Jhaeburg t Lubumbah x

ay a eek a betee Lubumbah a Khaa eve

ay a eek. see pp134-136 r the fght cheule.

fast factsWhere to stayThe luxuruGaramba Lgeverlkg thedugu Rver curretly thely pt. itct Us$150per per perght a ull-bar ba. Tmake a bkg,ctact nuraortega aturgaramba@gmal.cm.

Best timeto visitdecember tearly May.

ActivitiesGame rve,alkg aara campg.

Furtherinformation.arca-park.rg

i checked the fuel gauges and sawboth were empty. a feeling of

impending doom washed over me