Salonga National Park

Salonga National Park, in the heart of the Congo Basin in central DRC, is the largest tropical rainforest national park in Africa and one of the largest strictly protected rainforest reserves on earth, covering roughly 33,000 square kilometres, an area larger than Belgium. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Salonga protects a vast, largely roadless wilderness accessible almost entirely by river, home to the bonobo, humankind’s closest living relative alongside the chimpanzee, found only in DRC and nowhere else on the planet.

Bonobos

Salonga is one of the most important protected habitats for the bonobo, a great ape known for its distinctive matriarchal, notably less aggressive social structure compared to chimpanzees. Because the park’s bonobo populations are not habituated for tourism in the way mountain gorilla families are elsewhere in the region, sightings during a visit are a matter of considerable luck rather than a guaranteed daily activity.

An Essentially Roadless Wilderness

Salonga has almost no road infrastructure, with the Congo, Salonga and Lopori rivers serving as the primary means of movement through the park. This makes Salonga fundamentally different in character from any other destination on this page, an expedition-style river journey through largely untouched rainforest rather than a vehicle-based safari.

Other Wildlife

Beyond bonobos, Salonga protects forest elephants, the endangered Congo peafowl, found nowhere outside this region, and a wide range of forest primates and birdlife across its enormous, largely unsurveyed interior.

A Genuine Expedition Destination

Given its size, remoteness and almost complete lack of tourism infrastructure, a visit to Salonga is not a standard bookable itinerary in the way our Virunga or Kahuzi-Biega trips are. We mention it here as one of DRC’s most significant protected areas and are glad to discuss a genuinely custom expedition itinerary for travellers specifically motivated to visit, though this requires considerably more advance planning, time and budget than our standard Congo trips.

Best Time to Visit

River levels, which govern access throughout the park, are generally most favourable during the drier months of June to September and December to February.