A lush national park in the north of the Republic of the Congo, Odzala Kokoua National Park is one of the best places to spot western gorillas and forest elephants. Odzala is massive, covering a vast area with a mix of rainforest, marsh and savanna terrain. It’s near the border between Congo and Gabon, and one of the oldest national parks in Africa. Odzala, as it’s informally known, is home to the Western Lowland Gorilla. They are the lesser-known relatives of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda. But you can also see other primates (such as Guereza and black-and-white Colobus, gray-cheeked and agile mangabeys, De Brazza’s monkeys, Allen’s swamp monkeys, crowned monkeys and putty-nosed monkeys). The area is also home to central Africa’s highest density of chimpanzees – although these are very rarely seen by visitors.