Congo - Brazzaville · CG

Lesio-Louna Wildlife Reserve

About 150 km north of Brazzaville, on the grassy edge of the Batéké Plateau, the Lésio-Louna Wildlife Reserve is one of Central Africa's most quietly remarkable conservation sites. Officially the Réserve Naturelle des Gorilles de Lésio Louna, it exists above all to bring critically endangered western lowland gorillas back to a landscape where they had been hunted out. Orphaned gorillas, raised and later released through a partnership between the Congolese government and the UK charity The Aspinall Foundation, now roam free and even breed in the wild here—the first reintroduced groups in the world to do so. Beyond the gorillas, the reserve rewards the travelling naturalist and the road-tripper looking for something off the beaten tourist map. Open savannahs, sheer escarpments, gallery forest and a legend-haunted lake called Lac Bleu pack a surprising variety of scenery into an area only a couple of hours from the capital, where hippos wallow at dawn and rare birds drift through on migration.