Lac Télé Community Reserve

Lac Télé sits in the middle of the Likouala swamps in northern Congo, a near-circular lake surrounded by flooded forest that stretches for a very long way in every direction, and the community reserve around it covers some four and a half thousand square kilometres of it. Gorillas, forest elephants and chimpanzees live in the swamp forest. The lake is also the setting for the Mokele-mbembe stories that drew a run of expeditions in the twentieth century.

History

The reserve was established on 10 May 2001, and in August 2010 an agreement between the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo provided for a cross-border protected area joining it with the Ngiri-Tumba-Maindombe area (Wikipedia, Lake Télé Community Reserve).

The landscape

• The swamp forest - flooded woodland running for a very long way in all directions.
• The lake - the near-circular water at the centre of the reserve.
• The gorillas and elephants - the populations living in the swamp forest.
• The Mokele-mbembe stories - the accounts that drew expeditions through the last century.

When to go

June to September is the drier season and the practical window. Water levels govern everything. The area is remote in any season.

What to expect

Reaching the lake takes days from Impfondo by river and on foot through swamp; this is an expedition, not a visit. There is no infrastructure. The Mokele-mbembe accounts have never produced evidence and should be taken as folklore.

Nearby

Impfondo is southeast, and the Oubangui is beyond it.

Key facts