Mbandaka

Mbandaka sits on the Congo river almost exactly on the equator, in the middle of the basin, and it is effectively an island in the forest: there is no usable road to Kinshasa and everything arrives by river or by air. Founded as Coquilhatville, it kept a colonial grid along the water, a cathedral, and the Eala botanical garden on its edge. A monument in the town marks the equator. The river here is enormous and braided, with island channels running for kilometres.

History

Henry Morton Stanley founded the town in 1883 as Équateurville and placed an "Equator Stone" by the river south of the town where he believed the equator crossed it, which still stands; the town hall is about 4 km north of the line. There were early plans to make it the capital of the Congo Free State, with a station, a cathedral, a governor's residence and a palace for the king, but they never left the drawing board. In 1886 it was renamed Coquilhatville after Camille-Aimé Coquilhat. Work on a bridge across the Congo to the French Congo began in 1938 but was abandoned, leaving only the foundations of its piers; the city hall, completed in 1947 and 39 m high, was the tallest building in the Belgian Congo until a fire destroyed it in 1963, and in 1966 the city took the name Mbandaka, after a prominent local leader (Wikipedia, Mbandaka).

Highlights

• The riverfront - the Congo at its widest, with barges, pirogues and the port.
• The equator monument - a marker in the town on the line itself.
• The colonial grid - avenues and buildings from the era when this was the Equateur capital.
• The market - river fish, cassava, forest produce and bushmeat, the last of which is worth noting rather than buying.

When to go

The drier windows, December to February and June to August, are marginally easier, but this is equatorial and rain falls in every month. River levels peak around November and May. Heat and humidity are constant.

Practical notes

Getting here means flying or committing to a river journey measured in weeks. Infrastructure has declined badly and power is intermittent. There is very little in the way of visitor facilities, and malaria risk is high year-round.

Nearby

The Eala botanical garden is on the edge of town, and Lake Tumba is south.

Key facts