The Ndoki Forest in Northern Congo Brazzaville is a vast area of virgin rainforest where thousands of forest elephants roam - many of them having spectacular tusks. Finding them is the difficult part of any foot safari to this region. Foot safaris lasting several weeks are necessary if one is serious about finding these grey ghosts of the wilderness. Encounters are often at very short distances because of the dense vegetation so one has to hope that one's sightings are in one of the many open clearings that dot this forest like islands. One thing is certain - to see a forest elephant in the wild is to have experienced the ultimate wilderness in Africa. To see a video of a foot safari in search of forest elephant, bongo and gorilla go HERE.. To read an article with photographs of a foot safari in the Ndoki go HERE.

*THE REFUGIA SERIES: We live in an era where every square kilometer of remaining wildlife habitat is now under threat. This new series of paintings is my homage to those special areas of Africa which, according to my own extensive experience, are going to be crucial for the survival of species and biodiversity. By definition 'Refugia' describes island-like tracts of land where circumstances have allowed species to survive after extinction in surrounding areas. Twenty thousand years ago, at the height of the last glaciation, the Congo basin was mostly dry savanna and the Namib desert dunes extended right up past the mouth of the Congo River. During that epoch two small rain forest 'refugia' patches remained. When the last glaciation ended twelve thousand years ago these two refugia expanded outwards to become the vast equatorial rain forest belt of today, stretching from West Africa to the Rwenzori Mountains in East Africa.
Present day refugia will be useful in the distant future when humankind has begun to reverse the environmental catastrophe we are now experiencing.

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