Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Congo Basin is the second largest rainforest on earth and the lungs of a continent - two million square kilometres of canopy through which the Congo River moves more water than any river except the Amazon. Kinshasa, on its southern bank, is Africa's third largest city, a place of extraordinary creative energy - the rumba, the sapeurs, a music scene that has been generating new genres since the 1950s. The country's size and its political complexity have made most of it effectively unreachable for independent travellers, but the east, carefully navigated, holds mountain gorillas, Virunga, and the kind of landscape that recalibrates everything.

Travel advisory Much of DRC outside the main cities involves significant logistical and security challenges. This guide will be specific about what is and is not currently feasible.

Our guide is being written from the ground up, with the time this place deserves.

We are still gathering the notes that make a guide worth keeping: Virunga gorilla routes, Kinshasa's music venues, river boat logistics and the Congolese table - one of the continent's most underwritten culinary traditions.