Virunga National Park

Listen first. A thin wind moves through bamboo, and somewhere below, a bird calls into the mist. The ground under your boots is dark and soft, made of old volcanic soil and fallen leaves. The air smells green and wet, with a faint mineral edge from the mountains. This is Virunga National Park, in the far east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Before we talk about history, take a breath. Notice how cool the air feels here, close to the equator.

Virunga has a claim few places in the world can match. It was created in 1925 under the Belgian colonial administration, and it was first called Albert National Park, after King Albert the First of Belgium. That makes it the oldest national park on the African continent. Think about that for a moment. Long before safari brochures and wildlife documentaries, someone decided that these mountains and forests should be protected. The reasons were partly scientific and partly political, but the result is the land around you now.

The park covers a long, narrow strip of country along the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. It runs for a great distance from south to north, and that length gives it a remarkable range of landscapes. In one park you can find active volcanoes, lowland rainforest, open savanna, a large lake, and glaciated peaks. Very few protected areas hold so many different worlds side by side. This is one reason the park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, recognised for its value to all of humanity.

Here is the first surprise for many visitors. Virunga sits inside the Albertine Rift, a branch of the great East African Rift. This is where the Earth's crust is slowly pulling apart. The volcanoes, the deep lakes, and the steep escarpments all come from that same slow movement. When you look across the land, you are looking at a continent in the process of splitting. The process is far too slow to see, but the mountains are the evidence, standing in plain view.

The most famous of those mountains is Nyiragongo. It is one of the most active volcanoes in Africa, and for long periods its crater has held a lake of molten lava. Hikers who make the overnight climb describe a glow that lights the clouds from below and a deep, rolling sound from the crater. Nyiragongo is not a gentle neighbour. It erupted in 2002 and again in 2021, and lava flowed towards the city of Goma. The mountain is beautiful, and it is also dangerous.

Further into the southern forests live the animals that bring many travellers here — mountain gorillas. They live on the slopes of the Virunga volcanoes, a range shared by Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Mountain gorillas exist only in this region and in one other forest area nearby, in Uganda. Their numbers fell to a very low level in the twentieth century. Careful protection across all three countries has helped the population recover. Even so, these gorillas remain endangered, and every individual animal matters to the future of the species.

Meeting a gorilla family is a quiet experience. Trackers follow fresh signs through the forest — broken stems, nests of flattened leaves, and droppings. When you arrive, the gorillas are often feeding, pulling wild celery and stripping leaves with careful hands. A large silverback, the adult male who leads the group, may glance at you and then turn away. Visitors usually describe the same moment. It is the eyes. They look calm, alert, and very familiar. Many people find that moment hard to put into words.

Now the second surprise. Some of the park's most important guardians are not people but a small sanctuary. At Rumangabo, near the park headquarters, the Senkwekwe Center cares for orphaned mountain gorillas. It is named after a silverback killed in 2007. One of its residents, a female called Ndakasi, became known around the world after a photo of her standing upright beside a ranger spread online. Ndakasi died in 2021, resting in the arms of the caretaker who had looked after her since infancy.

That story leads us to the hardest truth about Virunga. The park lies in a region that has suffered decades of armed conflict. Rebel groups, illegal charcoal production, and poaching have all put pressure on its forests and animals. Park rangers protect this land at great personal risk. More than two hundred rangers have been killed in the line of duty over the years. When you see a ranger here, in uniform with boots caked in red mud, remember that their job is among the most dangerous in conservation.

The north of the park feels completely different. Here the forest opens to grassland around Lake Edward. Elephants, buffalo, and antelope move across the plains. The lake once supported one of the largest hippo populations in Africa. Poaching during the years of conflict reduced those numbers sharply, and recovery has been slow. Fishing villages still sit along the shore. Their boats and nets show how closely local life depends on the water and the health of the park.

Further north again, the land rises towards the Rwenzori Mountains. People sometimes call them the Mountains of the Moon. Their highest peaks carry snow and ice, even though they stand close to the equator. The slopes pass through unusual plant zones, with giant groundsels and lobelias that look like plants from another planet. Few visitors ever reach this part of the park. But it is worth knowing it is there, holding glaciers above the same forests where the gorillas feed.

Virunga's future depends on the people who live around it. Millions of people live in the region, and many of them rely on the land for food and fuel. In recent years the park's management has supported small hydroelectric plants, so that local towns can have electricity without cutting forest for charcoal. The idea is simple. If the park brings jobs, power, and income to its neighbours, then protecting it becomes a shared interest. This is a slow project, and it is still unfolding.

A practical word before you go further. Conditions in this region can change quickly. Tourism here has been suspended at different times for safety reasons. Always travel with the park's official guides and rangers, and follow their instructions closely. Keep the distance they ask for near gorillas, and wear a mask if they request it. Human illnesses can pass easily to great apes, and a simple cold can be serious for them. Your care on the trail is part of their protection.

Now come back to where you are standing. Look at the colour of the soil, at the moss on the trees, at the way the clouds rest on the volcano tops. Listen for the wind again, and for the birds. This land has been protected for a century, through war, eruption, and loss. It is still here because people chose, again and again, to defend it. As you walk on, notice each small sound around you. Each one is part of what survived.