Republic of Congo

One of the oldest national parks in Africa, the Parc National d’Odzala is Congo's calling card, a massive slice of the Guineo-Congolian rainforest that's also one of earth's last strongholds for lowland gorillas and forest elephants. Odzala also offers one of Congo's few luxurious travel experiences for those who can afford it, with three excellent camps currently operating within its vast expanse.

A Unesco World Heritage Site since 2012, Nouabalé-Ndoki is home to important populations of forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees and many other endangered mammals. The park also boasts over 300 bird species and is a rare example of an intact forest wilderness, completely uninhabited by human settlers. If wilderness is what you seek, Nouabalé-Ndoki is the place for you.

The newest of the three national parks in Congo, Conkouati-Douli was inaugurated in 1999 and is the most biodiverse of the country's national parks. The range of habitat – ranging from beaches and mangrove swamps, to savannah, to rainforest – makes this park home to a huge number of species, including gorillas, chimpanzees, forest elephants, mandrills and dolphins.

Founded by Italo-French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in 1880 on the Stanley Pool area of the Congo River, Brazza has always been the junior economic partner to Kinshasa (the DRC's capital) which faces it across the immense river. Brazzaville is by far the more laid-back – and safer – town, though it can also feel like a bit of a backwater by comparison.

However, with some attractive modernist architecture, a gorgeous riverside embankment perfect for taking in views of the Congo River and plenty of high-quality eating options, Brazzaville has a lot of charm and character, which makes it a surprisingly pleasant place to while away time between visiting Congo's national parks.

Congo's second-largest city may be rich in oil and SUVs, but otherwise Pointe-Noire is a sprawling and rather unattractive place (despite its seafront location). Here the shanty towns spread for miles, and in places almost abut the walled mansions of the city's petrochemical classes. Due to the large expat community there's a good choice of international eating options, glitzy hotels and lubricious nightclubs, but there's little reason to visit otherwise, though there are a few attractive beaches outside the city. Most travellers will only find themselves here as a stop off if they're heading north to Parc National Conkouati-Douli.

In a country like the Congo, getting off the beaten tourist track is not difficult. But for those who really want to immerse themselves in the deepest of jungle adventures, a journey to the perfect circular form of Lac Télé (Lake Télé), hidden away in the unimaginably remote northeast of Congo, is the kind of trip people write books about. It's not just that this lake is surrounded by swamp-forests that remain largely unexplored, nor that are there an estimated 100,000 lowland gorillas inhabiting the area, nor the pygmy groups living an almost completely traditional lifestyle: local lore has it that Lac Télé is also the home of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé, a large semi-aquatic creature that many believers describe as being similar to a Sauropod (a type of long-extinct dinosaur).

To get to Lac Télé you'll need firstly to take one of the twice-weekly flights from Brazzaville to the river town of Impfondo. Barges also float past Impfondo as they travel between Brazza and Bangui in CAR. From Impfondo a road of sorts runs to little Epéna, after which nothing but unexplored swamp forest stands between you and your goal.

If you're serious about visiting, contact the Wildlife Conservation Society in Brazzaville, which is working to establish a community reserve at Lac Télé, and be prepared to engage a travel agency with experience in the area to assist you with the daunting logistics of this epic expedition!