África Park Aventure (Lac de Ma Vallée)

As of October 2016, Lac de Ma Vallée has transformed into an outdoor adventure park! This place is honestly amazing and pretty great for all ages. We arrived early, around 9am, which was perfect. We did not have to wait in line for any of the activities, which seem to form later in the day. It was just a blast. We raced each other in the treetops park (which is an obstacle course 20 feet up) as well as took turns on the Playclimb and zip line. It was very well-established, with the employees making sure we were following safety protocol each step of the way. The only drawback was that a sit down restaurant was the only option for food. It took forever to order and get the food, which prevented us from doing any other activities. I’d bring my own food next time, but could definitely envision going back many times. The activities available at this park are:

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A Day at the Beach, on the River Congo

    \  Wait, where is Kinshasa?

Spending the day on a sandbank may be one of my favourite escapes from Kinshasa. Buy some drinks and make some food (or not, maybe bring some raw meat and just grill it there), get on a boat, arrive at a sandbank a nice distance upriver from the city, have the tents, chairs, tables and BBQ set up for you, and just enjoy the rest of the day. What’s not to love?

There are the typical Congolese adventure-inducing things such as getting stuck on sandbanks (how many expats does it take to push a boat?), hand print sunburns, running out of gas before making it back to shore and only having one paddle to make it back, etc, but really, what is Congo without those?

The Pagoda and Satellite

A view from inside the pagoda complex.

As you leave Kinshasa on the road to Kikwit (or Bombo Lumene), you pass two bizarre remains of the Mobutu era, the large pagoda and even more imposing satellite dish.

Mbanza Ngungu

Train yard

While most people visit Mbanza Ngungu for the caves, the town itself is incredibly interesting to explore, with its colonial architecture and train station and repair yard.

The Marché Central

We never bring a camera with us to the marche, so Google Earth is the best you get.

Each trip to Kinshasa’s Marché Central promises a new adventure. Some days we’ve come away overjoyed with purchases of baby clothes, Halloween costumes, RDC track suits, seeds to plant, or soy beans, while others we’ve been followed by rowdy teenagers, or for one our friends, knocked over and had bones broken by similar groups.

Lac CEMKA

The lake

While Lac de ma Vallée is always packed on a Sunday afternoon, Lac CEMKA, which you pass along the way to Lac de ma Vallée, is almost always empty, and it’s a beautiful place to spend an afternoon.

When you turn off the paved road, you’ll experience a bit of up and down bumpy road before it flattens out and you circle around the lake to the restaurant area. The lake is in the midst of a pretty open valley punctuated by a big hill rising to a plateau with a Catholic church on top in the distance.

Chez Tatem and the Island

While not a great photo, the limos are definitely Chez Tatem’s claim to fame.

While Chez Tintin is undoubtedly the most popular place in Kinsuka to grab a beer and watch the raging rapids, Chez Tatem a little farther down the river has its own claim to fame. In the grassy parking area lie two rusty limousines that were purportedly brought to Kinshasa for George Foreman and Muhammad Ali to use while they were here for the Rumble in the Jungle.

Jardin Zoologique de Kinshasa

When we decided to go to the zoo on a national holiday, we got two different reactions: a. There’s a zoo in Kinshasa? and b. Why would you ever want to go to the zoo?

Symphonies Naturelles

A view of the valley Symphonies Naturelles is in.

Symphonies Naturelles may be about 20 minutes from Gombe, but it feels like you’ve left the hubbub of Kinshasa completely behind. According to their website, the forest is home to lots of animals including monkeys and pangolins, but we’ve never seen those. What we have seen is the beautiful forest and surrounding villages, terraced fish ponds, cows, and a freshwater spring coming out of a cliff.

Mont Ngaliema – National Museum, Park, Theatre, Cemetary

The literal downfall of Henry Morton Stanley.

Living at TASOK, the Mont Ngaliema complex was just a quick walk down the hill from our house, and I remember being told about Mobutu’s zoo my first day in Kinshasa, but there’s a lot more to the complex than the empty lion cages.