Garamba National Park

Garamba national park is situated in the northeastern part of Congo covering 5,200 kilometers squared, the park was established in 1938 boating with over 138 species of mammals, 286 species of birds and the last rhinos in the park were seen in 2000.

Garamba national park was also designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1980, the park used to have the largest concentration of elephants numbering 20,000 in the early 60s and 70s by 2017 there were only 2000 elephants in the park. Garamba National Park is home to over 1000 species of trees. 5% of this is endemic to this area. The park is fed by three rivers; river Garamba, river Dungu and river Aka, it’s located near the border of Congo and Sudan.

Wildlife and Birds
Garamba national park is home to various animal species. Some of the wildlife you can spot while on a game drive are buffalos, elephants, hyenas, giraffes, hippos, giant forest hogs, duikers, bush pigs, golden cat, warthogs, waterbuck, mongoose, giant forest hogs and primates like vervet monkey, De Braza monkey and olive baboons amongst others.

Garamba national park is a birder paradise endowed with over 550 species of birds recorded, some of the examples of birds found within the park include; knob-billed ducks, water thick-knee, squacco heron, pied kingfisher, African fishing eagle, wattled plovers, long-tailed cormorants, pink and white-backed pelicans, spur-winged plover, black crake, and many others.

Fishing and Boat Cruise
Fishing at Garamba national park can be done at one of the rivers like river Garamba however, this should be done with the help of a ranger guide and at designated areas. Tourists interested in fishing should come along with their own fishing gears.

Boat cruises at one of the magnificent rivers is a great way to enjoy the parks flora and fauna. You can enjoy superb views as well as view wildlife at the river banks and lots of water birds to be seen while cruising.

Best time to visit
Garamba national park can be visited all year round but the ideal months are from June to December when the vegetation is short and not thick. During the rainy season, some of the roads leading to the park became impassable and vegetation is too thick making it hard to spot wildlife.

Where to sleep while at Garamba national park will depend on tourists choice and budget, some of the hotels at the park include Plaza hotel, hotel Kisangani, new cosmos hotel, flat hotel petit zoo and La Trumpette hotel among the rest.