MONT HOYO

Although officially located in Ituri Province, the Mont Hoyo Integral Reserve (6,000 ha) used to be accessed from the border town of Beni by taking the road to Kisangani (113 km) and then a short 13 km stretch of road heading east through the forest. The site has not been accessible to the public since it was closed. The Institut Congolais de la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) is working to rehabilitate the site, following the destruction of the visitor infrastructure, and to improve the access track. The Mont Hoyo site should therefore be operational and open to visitors again, but when? It's a small rocky massif made up of different variants of sandstone, dolomite and schist, with a large number of caves, which the Walese natives refer to as "homa". Hence the name Mount Homa. The first caves were discovered and studied in 1943 by the geological engineer Ruscart. To date, 26 main caves have been uncovered, but a number remain unexplored. This is a major site with the potential to become a major tourist attraction. As is the nearby forest, home to some remarkable specimen trees and numerous deep-set streams whose courses are interspersed with impressive waterfalls (the famous Escalier de Venus) and underground passages. The star animal species is the okapi, whose survival in this ecosystem is under threat.