Ducret Expedition 1st:  OuéssoPN Lobeke, Congo Rep.; Cameroon

The Inaugural Ascent of the Sangha River


Ouésso Airport
Plane just landed at Ouésso airport
Family Smiles
Residents of Ouésso next to a small clothing business
Bucket Dredging
Men dredge sand from the bed of the Sangha River for platform pirogues.
Family Smiles
Ouesso natives at a local bar
The Mbirou Memorial
The Mbirou memorial, 15 km from Ouesso, down the Sangha River. It was erected in honor of victims of a clash between the Germans and the French in World War I.
Jungle Shapes
Leaves of a tropical tree in the forest of the Mbirou area
The Fallen of Mbirou
Names of victims of the clash between the French and Germans in Mbirou.
Sangha Village
Riverside village between Ouésso and Lobéké National Park
Azobes
Azobé trees stand out from the predominant green of the jungle on the banks of the Sangha River.
The Island Camp
Boat sails along an island that already belongs to Cameroon. Chosen by Ducret Expeditions as a stopover
Camping on Island II
Tents on the sand of the island on the Sangha River used by the Ducret Expedition for camping
Camping on the Island
Tents on the sand of the island in the Sangha River used by the Ducret Expedition as a camp
Bar Life
Customers at a bar in Ouésso, Republic of Congo
The Immense Sangha
Boat dwarfed by the immensity of the Sangha River.
Fishing Break
Fisherman on the Sangha River, north of Ouésso
Sunset of Ouésso
Beginning of sunset, west of Ouésso, Rep. of Congo
For an hour, we flew over the immense tropical expanse that separates the capital Brazzaville from the small riverside town of Ouésso. From its banks, we ascended the Sangha River to the Cameroonian national park of Lobéké, in a landscape still very much of “Heart of Darkness".

The plane takes to the runway, a mere line of asphalt with orange dirt edges.

To a large extent, it serves as the western boundary of the houses of Ouésso, as it does, to the east, the flow of the Sangha.

We landed in a tiny urbanized spot, lost in an ancient jungle that, not even at 8 or 9 km above sea level, could we see the end of.

We stepped out of the cabin into a nearly deserted airport.

Plane just landed at Ouésso airport

Plane just landed at Ouésso airport

In the middle of the afternoon, a light breeze mitigated a warm, sedative breath, much drier than what Brazzaville had accustomed us to.

Passports are checked, luggage is retrieved almost as quickly and we are transferred to the best hotel in town, a cluster of twin rooms around a swimming pool where young Congolese people are having fun.

Once settled in, intrigued as to what Ouésso would reveal to us, we set off on an exploratory tour.

Walk through Ouésso, in Search of the Great Sangha River

The direction we should take was already obvious: the bank of the Sangha adjacent to the city and the river port that serves it.

We stopped a few times along the way, attracted by moments and views of local life.

Residents of Ouésso next to a small clothing business

Residents of Ouésso next to a small clothing business

Further ahead, along a cliff that had widened and sunk during the dry season, a profusion of wooden boats and homemade pirogues dotted an immense river.

We get closer.

We walked around the panoramic summit.

Enough time for the sun to start setting and dictate the return to the starting point.

We returned the following afternoon, as part of a first navigation through the Sangha.

Offshore, workers, with water almost up to their necks, extract sand from the river into large pirogues adapted as platforms.

Men dredge sand from the bed of the Sangha River for platform pirogues.

Men dredge sand from the bed of the Sangha River for platform pirogues.

Others pass by nearby. Muscular Congolese men, who have spent their entire lives paddling, balance on them.

In a corner of the shore, fishermen, busy with their freshly caught fish, create a frenzy of discussion in the Lingala dialect by histrionic women with their fingers pointed, wearing dresses with African patterns of all colors.

We head towards La Corniche gardens and the city's large elevated concrete dock. Before that, we turn off onto a vertiginous wooden staircase that takes us to the riverside.

There, in another flurry of embarking and disembarking canoes, we climbed aboard one of the launches serving the Ducret expedition for the first time.

The Secular Memorial of the Battle of Mbirou

The helmsman sails down Sangha, towards the opposite bank, almost 15km to the southeast, of a small village subsumed in the jungle.

A duo of local residents and guides greet us and Arold and Shadrack, two of the guides who were part of the Ducret team.

Names of victims of the clash between the French and Germans in Mbirou.

Names of victims of the clash between the French and Germans in Mbirou.

They lead us to the monument that testifies to Mbirou's historical merit, a white complex formed by two graves and a memorial with names and dates inscribed on a bronze plaque.

It was inaugurated in 2014 by a minister of the Congolese presidency and the ambassadors of France and Germany to the Republic of Congo. On the occasion of the century that has passed since forces from both countries clashed there, with several casualties.

The confrontation took place in an African context and remote from the First World War in which, in 1911, Germany had advanced from its colony of Cameroon (to the north) and taken over a large part of the French territory of the Sangha basin and northern Gabon.

In August 1914, the French finally reacted. Their troops from the south and Belgians from the Belgian Congo defeated the Germans at Mbirou and around Ouésso.

They returned the region to French colonial rule, which would last until independence in August 1960.

Submitted in 1918 to the world conflict, the Germans saw the French take over the Ouésso region and the Allies took over all their African colonies.

We left the memorial.

The Mbirou memorial, 15 km from Ouesso, down the Sangha River. It was erected in honor of victims of a clash between the Germans and the French in World War I.

The Mbirou memorial, 15 km from Ouesso, down the Sangha River. It was erected in honor of victims of a clash between the Germans and the French in World War I.

Deep into the Congolese Jungle: The Absence of Animals Caused by Overhunting

We followed a hidden trail along a section of the riverbank flooded by a stream, deep into the jungle that, a hundred years earlier, had been the scene of the confrontation.

The walk was supposed to serve as a baptism for the Congolese fauna and flora irrigated by the Sangha.

The flora was on display in all its splendor, especially in the form of countless impressive and valuable trees, with coveted trunks and wide, dense canopies that blocked out most of the sunlight. The fauna consisted of a few tiny birds, amphibians and insects, none of which aroused our admiration.

As we came to see throughout the expedition, aggravated on the banks of the Sangha and near towns, the long-established habit of local populations hunting for their own consumption, to sell in markets such as Ouésso, always well stocked with wild animal parts, was affecting larger Congolese fauna.

A study published in 2008 revealed an estimate that in several years in the 90s, the more than 70 residents of the Ouésso region had consumed almost 8 kilograms of beef. wild animals per week

The most affected animals had been the small jungle goats.

With a much higher weight, also in the statistics, were, among others, monkeys, gorillas and even elephants.

We feel the effects of the scourge of bush meat in that initial foray led us to value each national park created in the basin of the great Congo River, from which radiates the second largest area of ​​tropical forest in the world, only behind the Amazonia.

At the same time, every wild specimen we came across.

Leaves of a tropical tree in the forest of the Mbirou area

Leaves of a tropical tree in the forest of the Mbirou area

The guides had planned a circular walk. After an hour, we came across the same flooded stream where we had started.

Changes in Climate and the Sangha River Affecting Navigation

We sailed again in the Sangha.

We pass under a low bridge, recently built, we are told by the Chinese, in order to make road connections between one side of the river and the other and between Ouésso and, further south, Pokola, viable.

The bridge was, however, built with insufficient height for the passage of larger vessels, which are rare in that northern stretch of the Sangha.

One of those affected was the “Princess Ngalessa” of the Ducret Expedition which, previously, at least during the rainy season, could sail up Sangha, down Sangha, as the natives do, in homemade pirogues.

Natives on a pirogue, on the Sangha River.

Natives on a pirogue, on the Sangha River.

Towards the end of December, with the last constant tropical rains having gone on for over a month, the flow of the Sangha dropped drastically.

It made it impossible for the first phase of the Ducret expedition to take place aboard the “Princess Ngalessa".

The next morning, very early, we set sail again from Ouésso.

Boat dwarfed by the immensity of the Sangha River.

Boat dwarfed by the immensity of the Sangha River.

Navigation to Upstream of the Sangha River

Against the current, and against a creeping mist that enveloped the Sangha and its forest of mystery worthy of Joseph Conrad's narrative, of Marlow in the footsteps of Kurtz.

We went in and out of the fog countless times.

Fisherman on the Sangha River, north of Ouésso

Fisherman on the Sangha River, north of Ouésso

We pass with the same ephemerality through the daily river life of the Congolese natives.

By fishermen casting nets into the river.

By others who crossed it, pointing to hamlets almost hanging from the banks from which the Sangha moved away.

Riverside village between Ouésso and Lobéké National Park

Riverside village between Ouésso and Lobéké National Park

A few large motorized pirogues, crammed with passengers and cargo.

Above the river and the towns, the misty jungle unfolded into an endless, grainy green.

From time to time, when the mist allowed it, trees appeared with hues that broke the chlorophyllin uniformity.

Azobes with scarlet crowns.

Azobé trees stand out from the predominant green of the jungle on the banks of the Sangha River.

Azobé trees stand out from the predominant green of the jungle on the banks of the Sangha River.

Kapok trees full of cotton. Oil palm trees that, even though green, stood out due to the exuberance of their fan-shaped crowns.

We meandered through meander after meander, often in a stream so shallow and sandy that it put the helmsman in trouble.

From just above Ouésso, the Sangha marked the border between the Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

For some reason unknown to us, it was adjusted in such a way that, in the first section, all the abundant river islands on the Congo side were left out. Further north, as a form of compensation, there was already part of Cameroon.

Arrival on the Island Camp at the Gates of Lobéké National Park and Cameroon

After three hours of sailing, we passed the riverside village of Moipembé and a certain island called Koussi.

Boat sails along the island used as a camp by the Ducret Expedition, Sangha River

Boat sails along the island used as a camp by the Ducret Expedition, Sangha River

To the left of this one, there is another one, twice as long and on the edge of a pronounced meander of the Sangha.

At its northern end, this elongated island is extended by a considerable sandbar. Nicolas Ducret and the Ducret Expedition team had set up a providential intermediate camp there.

A short distance from a checkpoint of the Cameroonian Lobéké National Park, the Congolese villages of Bomassa, Bon Coin and the local entrance to the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park.

In the middle of the Sangha River, in a Congolese jungle setting with a lot of surrealism.

We disembarked.

Tents on the sand of the island on the Sangha River used by the Ducret Expedition for camping

Tents on the sand of the island on the Sangha River used by the Ducret Expedition for camping

We admired the line of tents set against the edge of the island forest. We settled on one of the ones closest to the opposite stream of the Sangha, where it flowed swiftly but shallowly.

With the sun reaching its zenith and the heat getting intense, we plunge into the river. We let the flow of the Sangha massage us. We act out scenes from a war film with islets of vegetation that descend towards us.

In the afternoon, refreshed and recharged with energy, we embarked on a visit to the Lobéké National Park, which was as surreal as the island that would shelter us for two nights.

Beginning of sunset, west of Ouésso, Rep. of Congo

Beginning of sunset, west of Ouésso, Rep. of Congo

How to go:

Fly to Brazzaville with Air France or Royal Air Maroc from €1600.

Book your preferred Ducret Expedition program, Ducret Cruise: from 8 to 15 nights, through the website expeditions-ducret.com, by phone +33 1 84 80 72 21 and by email: [email protected]

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